What are DOGE stimulus checks, and will Wisconsin residents receive them?
As mass firings of federal workers continue, President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have both floated sending Americans stimulus checks with money slashed from the federal budget by the Department of Government Efficiency.
In recent weeks, DOGE, led by Musk, has spearheaded the firings of tens of thousands of federal workers, including about 10 employees at a VA medical center in Milwaukee, at least three of whom were veterans. DOGE's federal spending cuts could also jeopardize state programs ranging from cancer research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to the upcoming tourism season at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
The hypothetical DOGE stimulus checks, first proposed by a CEO on social media, would rely on additional mass cuts to the federal workforce and government spending.
So will Wisconsinites receive a $5,000 check from DOGE? It's unlikely, and here's why:
DOGE is far from reaching its total savings goal to make the checks feasible and, even if it reaches the goal, several lawmakers in Congress have signaled they would not support the effort. Any form of stimulus payment issued by the U.S. government, such as the pandemic stimulus checks, must be approved by Congress.
When it was first introduced, DOGE said it was aiming to cut as much as $2 trillion a year in federal spending. But even Musk said last month that goal was a "best-case outcome."
As of Feb. 26, the DOGE website claims to have cut $65 billion in federal spending, but these numbers are unverified. In fact, an itemized list of DOGE cuts on the website actually totaled closer to $16 billion, according to USA TODAY — and that's including an $8 million contract that DOGE falsely reported as $8 billion, meaning the total is even lower.
Agencies that have seen cuts include the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and United States Agency for International Development.
The idea of DOGE stimulus checks was first suggested by James Fishback, CEO and co-founder of Azoria Partners, who also recently launched an "anti-woke" investment fund.
"President Trump and @ElonMusk should announce a 'DOGE Dividend'—a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE," Fishback wrote on X on Feb. 18. He also proposed the checks should total $5,000 per recipient.
Musk responded to Fishback's post, saying, "Will check with the President."
Just days after the idea surfaced on social media, Trump voiced his support for the DOGE stimulus checks, according to USA TODAY.
At the Saudi-sponsored FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami Beach last week, the president said, "We're considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt."
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said over the weekend that he would prefer to pay down the federal debt instead of issuing stimulus checks.
"Politically, that would be great for us, you know, because everybody gets a check," Johnson said at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference. "But if you think about our core principles, right, fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives. That's our brand and we have a $36 trillion federal debt."
A stimulus payment that is currently being issued to Americans is a check of up to $1,400 from the Internal Revenue Service.
The payments are going out to one million Americans who were eligible for — but didn't claim — a Recovery Rebate Credit during the pandemic. Though the IRS has already issued most of these payments, eligible taxpayers who did not file a 2021 tax return can still receive a payment if they file their return and claim the Recovery Rebate Credit by April 15, according to the IRS.
Find more information about the IRS stimulus payments here.
Mike Snider of USA TODAY contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Will Wisconsin residents get $5,000 DOGE stimulus checks?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Education Secretary Schooled in Reading and Math by Senators
Education Secretary Linda McMahon would have received a failing grade for her answers to questions posed on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The cringeworthy moments came while she was being questioned by senators about the GOP spending bill. Close Trump ally Senator Markwayne Mullin asked McMahon about previous U.S. reading and math rankings. 'What was we ranked in reading and math in 1979?' the senator asked. 'I'm sorry what?' McMahon responded. 'What was we ranked national in math and reading in 1979?' he repeated. 'We were very very low on the totem pole,' the education secretary declared. 'We were number one in 1979,' Mullin corrected her. 'Oh, 1979, I'm sorry,' McMahon said, trying to recover, despite having had the question repeated twice. 'In 1979 we were ranked number one around the world. Today in reading, we're ranked 36 and mathematics we're ranked 28,' the senator told her. 'It's not working. What we're doing is not working.' The top Trump official was put on the spot while testifying about the president's budget request for the department. While Trump and his allies have called for closing the Education Department, his budget request for the fiscal year is just over $66 billion. It includes a 15 percent reduction in spending, or a $12 billion cut, from the previous year. While Mullin's question was a flunking moment for the education secretary, he was actually using the information to thank her for pushing changes. His argument was that the current situation was not working and throwing money at the problem hasn't fixed it. 'We deserve better. Our kids deserve better. Our taxpayers deserve better, and we have to make changes,' Mullin said. The exchange came as Democrats largely blasted McMahon for the Trump administration's education budget on Tuesday and raised concerns over cutting staff without analysis of the impact and other school resources, such as counselors in schools. Another awkward moment in the hearing came when Democratic Senator Jack Reed also schooled McMahon on some math when it came to education spending. The education secretary was discussing the TRIO grant program to help people with low income and underprivileged backgrounds, and other programs, when she made a substantial math error. 'We spend $1.58 billion a year on TRIO?' Senator John Kennedy asked. McMahon confirmed it. 'How long have we been spending one thousand five hundred and eighty million dollars a year on this program?' he followed up. McMahon said she was not sure of the length of the program but confirmed spending for more than ten years. 'So that's over $1 trillion we spent on this program,' Kennedy said. That number was repeated multiple times as they went back and forth over how the money was used to help poor kids go to college. However, when it then became Reed's turn to grill McMahon, he took issue with the math. 'I'm not a great mathematician, but I think you were talking about $1 trillion? I believe $1.5 billion times ten is $15 billion. That's a little bit off from $1 trillion.' 'I think the budget cut's $1.2 billion for TRIO,' the education secretary responded. 'Well, 1.2 that would be $12 billion, not $1 trillion,' Reed pointed out. 'Ok,' McMahon responded.
The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Asian shares shoot higher as US stocks inch toward their records
Shares advanced Wednesday in Asia after U.S. stocks drifted closer to their records, while U.S. futures edged lower. South Korea's Kospi led gains in the region, jumping 2.4% to 2,763.32 after the liberal opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung was elected president. Lee's victory caps months of political turmoil triggered by the stunning but brief imposition of martial law by the now-ousted conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol. Top priorities will include government spending and trade negotiations with the United States. 'Regardless of his political roots, boosting growth will be a key challenge. Even before President Trump's tariffs hit exports, the economy contracted by 0.2% quarter on quarter, seasonally adjusted, in the first three months of the year. The figures highlighted fragile business activity and private consumption,' Min Joo Kang of ING Economics said in a report. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index surged 1% on gains for technology and pharmaceutical companies. Toyota Motor Corp.'s shares rose 2% after it announced it was buying Toyota Industries Corp., a maker of auto parts and lift trucks, for $33 billion and taking it private. Toyota Industries' shares tumbled 12.5%. Chinese shares were modestly higher. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.6% to 23,650.12, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 3,372.85. Taiwan's Taiex climbed 2.1%. Investors were watching for updates on President Donald Trump's tariffs, including the imposition of 50% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum due to take effect Wednesday. With industries lobbying for him to expand that protection to products made from those materials, analysts say prices of many basic items will likely rise. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% and was less than 3% away from its all-time high set earlier this year, at 5,970.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5% to 42,519.64. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.8% to 19,398.96. Dollar General jumped 15.8% for one of the market's bigger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the start of the year than analysts expected. Many companies have cut or withdrawn their financial forecasts for the upcoming year because of the uncertainty caused by Trump's on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday that it's forecasting 1.6% growth for the U.S. economy this year, down from 2.8% last year. A report on Tuesday morning showed U.S. employers were advertising more job openings at the end of April than economists expected, the latest signal that the labor market remains resilient. It set the stage for a more important report coming on Friday, which will show how much hiring and firing U.S. employers did in May. On the trade front, hopes are still high on Wall Street that Trump will reach trade deals with other countries that will ultimately lower tariffs, particularly with the world's second-largest economy. The U.S. side said President Donald Trump was expecting to speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that they had no information on that. Tech stocks helped lead the way again as Nvidia rose 2.9%, and Broadcom climbed 3.3%. The chip companies have recovered their sharp losses from earlier this year borne amid worries their stock prices had shot too high. Treasury yields held relatively steady following the encouraging report on the U.S. job market. It's a cooldown from a sharp rise for yields over the last two months. Yields had been climbing in part on worries about how the U.S. government may be set to add trillions of dollars to its debt through tax cuts. Higher Treasury yields make it more expensive for U.S. households and businesses to borrow money and can discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments. In other dealings early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 19 cents to $63.22 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 16 cents to $65.47 per barrel. The U.S. dollar fell to 143.86 Japanese yen from 144.00 yen. The euro rose to $1.1383 from $1.1370. ___ AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump official who shut down counter-disinformation agency has Kremlin ties, Telegraph reports
A Trump official who dismantled a counter-disinformation office in the United States government has links to the Kremlin, the Telegraph reported on June 3. Darren Beattie, who was appointed to the State Department in February 2025 as under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, has come under scrutiny for his pro-Russian views. According to the Telegraph, Beattie is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin. His wife – Yulia Kirillova – is the niece of Sergei Chernikov, a former Russian official who reportedly helped Russian President Vladimir Putin in the election campaign which first brought him to power in 2000. Beattie notably played a role in dismantling the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, or R/FIMI, which was previously tasked with tracking and countering disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran. R/FIMI was officially shut down in April 2025, according to a press statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who claimed that the office "spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving." According to sources cited by the Telegraph, Beattie relentlessly pursued R/FIMI after his appointment to the State Department. Secretary Rubio confirmed that Beattie played a significant role in dismantling the agency. Beattie also showed a keen interest in classified materials related to Russia, raising concerns about granting him access to sensitive information. The sources also expressed concerns about whether he had been adequately vetted – a process that can take anywhere from a couple of months to over a year to complete. Beattie previously served in the first Trump administration but was ousted after allegedly attending a white nationalist conference in 2018. Since then, he reinvented himself as an "alt-right media" figure and founded the news outlet Revolver. Through Revolver, Beattie has long criticized R/FIMI and promoted narratives aligned with Kremlin disinformation. He has argued that the U.S. orchestrates "color revolutions" around the world, including in Ukraine – a common narrative used in Kremlin propaganda to delegitimize pro-democracy movements as Western-backed coups. Beattie has also written social media posts suggesting that Western institutions should be "infiltrated" by the Kremlin, and has attacked the so-called "globalist American empire." Two months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Beattie wrote on X: "Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin 'invades' Ukraine... love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!" The Trump administration has repeatedly come under fire for its perceived sympathies toward Russia. It has also been criticized for shuttering R/FIMI, particularly amidst a global "information war." According to the National Endowment for Democracy, Russia spends an estimated $1.5 billion annually on disinformation and foreign influence campaigns. In Europe alone, the Kremlin is believed to be behind 80% of disinformation operations. Read also: US House Speaker Johnson backs Senate bill to toughen sanctions on Russia We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
