The Americans continue to wonder with keen interest about the possibility of DOGE stimulus checks as the newly formed governmental organization, unofficially led by billionaire business mogul Elon Musk, continues unabated in its efforts to reduce government costs through conducting across-the-board terminations of federal employees and other cost-saving measures.
The $5,000 dividend payments would be from the alleged savings that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), accumulates on its path to its savings goal of $2 trillion, President Donald Trump revealed in February.
Congress would finally determine if American taxpayers are going to receive the $5,000 stimulus checks. Below is how the idea of checks came about and where things stand now.
According to Fishback’s proposal, the refund checks would be issued once the DOGE lapsed in July 2026.
What have lawmakers stated about DOGE stimulus checks? House Republicans express debt, inflation concerns
There are lawmakers who have criticized the stimulus checks, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. The Louisiana Republican was surprised when the stimulus checks proposal was met with applause by the audience during the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
“Politically, that would be great for us, you know, because everyone receives a check,” Johnson said to the crowd. “But if you think about our core values, right, fiscal responsibility is what we conservatives do. That’s our brand and we run a $36 trillion federal debt. We have a large deficit that we’re battling.
Other members of Congress, such as Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-UT, also sign doubts on stimulus payments
To me, I believe that it is more logical to use whatever we put away toward the deficit, but it is something worth discussing,” Maloy said, as reported by NOTUS. “My fear is when we give out stimulus checks, it drives up inflation, which we are working to decrease. If we save, we actually should be saving.”
Public opinion about a stimulus check
Washington, D.C.-based researcher J.L. Partners discovered through a “DOGE Dividend poll” that it polled a nationally representative sample of 1,001 registered voters if they favored or opposed the Feb. 24-25 stimulus checks.
Over half of the survey participants expressed approval of a DOGE check. Across the full sample, 46% of the respondents strongly supported the single $5,000 checks and 21% somewhat supported the proposal. Only 7% of the survey participants strongly disapproved of them, the poll discovered.
Republican voters (60%) favored the checks more than Democrat (39%) and Independent (39%) voters, according to the survey. Republicans aged 18-49 and working Americans were the most likely to favor the DOGE dividend, according to the survey.
Where are things now with the DOGE stimulus checks?
Whether the stimulus checks are a reality is uncertain, as cold shoulders from House Republicans seem to have cooled the idea’s momentum.
To place this into context, with Trump occupying the White House and Republican majorities in Congress, Republicans usually face less resistance to pass GOP-preferred bills in the current legislative landscape. Nevertheless, it is doubtful how a stimulus check would progress in Congress, or if at all.
Stimulus checks were disbursed while Trump was in his last term, though after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Congress passed – and President Trump signed – a bipartisan $2 trillion stimulus package to mitigate the economic plight precipitated by the pandemic.
The package also included $1,200 checks to eligible individuals and $2,400 to the majority of married couples who filed jointly, with a further $500 for each qualified child aged under 17. The stimulus payments were made to U.S. taxpayers who had filed their return within the previous two years or who received Social Security or veterans’ benefits. Small business loans and grants, and additional weekly unemployment insurance benefits, were also part of this initiative.
