Jody Serrano
Editor in chiefEditor in Chief at Xataka On. Before joining Webedia, I was a tech reporter at Gizmodo and The Messenger. While I've covered all sorts of things related to technology, I'm specialized in writing about social media, Internet culture, Twitch, and streamers.
Talk about a “DOGE stimulus” has been rampant on the Internet this week, causing many to wonder if they will be eligible for $5,000 to $8,000 checks from the government. The short answer is "no" because this “DOGE stimulus” doesn’t exist. It was an idea proposed by users on social media that took on a life of its own.
The DOGE stimulus checks. The idea started making the rounds on TikTok and X. In one case, the TikTok creator byhistruth claimed that the idea of sending out stimulus checks was already on the table, though there have been no reports to suggest this is case. As of publication, byhistruth’s video had been viewed more than 5 million times.
Over on X, James Fishback, the CEO of Invest Azoria, pitched the idea of sending out DOGE stimulus checks directly to Elon Musk. Fishback called on President Donald Trump and Musk to work with Congress to send out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers and pay for them with the savings found by Musk’s DOGE commission.
In Fishback’s view, this stimulus would “right the wrong done to the taxpayer” by the federal government’s wasteful and unnecessary spending.
Musk responds. Musk replied to Fishback and said he “will check with the President.” The billionaire’s response appears to have given credibility to the idea. Interest in the term “DOGE stimulus” and “8000 stimulus check” spiked in the hours after Musk responded to Fishback, according to Google Trends.
Click on the image to view the post on X.
There are no DOGE stimulus checks. Despite all the ruckus, there are currently no approved “DOGE stimulus checks” or any kind of stimulus check. Trump has become known for the stimulus checks—which bore his signature, representing a break in federal precedent—he sent out in his first term during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speculation and claims that Trump will send out another stimulus check have been circulating since he won reelection in November. However, although many people are struggling, the economy is nowhere near the situation it was in 2020.
"Stimulus checks typically only happen when the economy is in really bad shape and consumers need a push to start spending money again," LendingTree senior economist Jacob Channel told CBS in November. "That's not really the case in the present."
DOGE savings fall short. Even if there were stimulus checks on the table, the idea that savings from DOGE would pay for it is far-fetched right now. Musk has claimed that his goal is to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. Based on the firings in recent days and the dismantling of USAID, it would seem that he’s making progress, but looks can be deceiving. While DOGE claims it has saved $55 billion, a Bloomberg report found that it’s actually much less: $8.6 billion.
Image | Giorgio Trovato
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