According to a new AMAC survey, the best way to re-allocate the savings being racked up by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would be to pour that money into reducing the national debt, which now stands at more than $36 trillion.
“President Trump is reportedly considering returning a portion of the savings generated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to American taxpayers as a refund check,” the AMAC poll reads. “Which of the following options best matches your thoughts on this idea?”
Respondents had four answers to choose from. Notably, more than two-thirds (68 percent) said that they would forego a refund check if DOGE savings were allocated toward other important causes. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents said that they “would like to see every penny saved by DOGE go to reducing our national debt,” while 21 percent said they would like to see “critical programs like Social Security and Medicare… made solvent with the savings identified by DOGE.”
About 13 percent of respondents said they would prefer a refund check “as repayment for all the government waste, fraud, and abuse,” while 17 percent said they would “support receiving a one-time $5,000 refund plus an equivalent tax reduction for every taxpayer in perpetuity.”
With nearly 40,000 respondents, AMAC’s poll provides one of the earliest data points on what Americans think about President Trump’s proposal to return DOGE savings to taxpayers. The results make clear that AMAC members overwhelmingly prefer paying off our national debt and shoring up Social Security and Medicare over receiving a one-time rebate check.
The results underscore that the American people – and AMAC members in particular – understand the dire economic straits that the country finds itself in and just how important DOGE’s work is.
The national debt and federal deficit exploded under Biden, leading to record inflation and years of economic turmoil. The federal debt-to-GDP ratio, long regarded as a measure of a country’s debt situation, is now over 123 percent – meaning that the United States’ debt is 23 percent higher than its economic output. In 2000, that figure was just 59 percent. For Fiscal Year 2025, servicing the interest on the debt was 16 percent of total federal spending.
According to the latest figures from DOGE, headed up by Elon Musk, the office estimates it has saved more than $65 billion. While cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and shocking details about potential Social Security fraud have garnered the most headlines, DOGE has identified waste and abuse across nearly two dozen departments and agencies.
Prior to the 2024 election, Musk had floated estimates as high as $2 trillion for the total amount of waste that DOGE could trim from the federal budget. While that target still looks very ambitious, DOGE has nonetheless accomplished far more in just a few weeks than many observers initially thought possible.
As the question now turns to how to leverage those savings into more wins for American taxpayers, AMAC will continue to take the temperature of its members and advocate for their preferred policies in Washington and at the state and local level.
While I would LOVE to get a direct check, I agree that the best use is to pay down the debt. Doing this will hopefully result in lower taxes for everyone—especially me!
jail the perpetraitors
Pay off debt.
If they sent checks out that would not be helping reduce the annual deficit. We are spending $2 trillion more than we take in. So if we save a trillion we still have 1 trillion of borrowed money. So if he sends out checks for $5,000 to 213030 million households or whatever it is that is not going to amount to saving a trillion dollars. That will be a deficit of another couple hundred billion on top of the 1 trillion that’s left. There is no surplus to give us money back.
I totally agree with the majority, pay down the national debt and stop spending tax payers money on BS causes.
The only way we actually start to pay down the national debt would be to reduce the deficit by the complete 2 trillion and then a few hundred billion past that. So we take in more than we spend and then the extra can be used to pay down some of the debt. In my previous comment, even if they save a trillion dollars this year, we’re still adding a trillion dollars to the debt. This smoke and mirrors garbage is just that, no matter who says it.
There is no real money, it’s money that will be saved going forward. The savings need to go towards the debt, reduce taxes, and fix social security.
MOST OF THIS IS SMOKE AND MIRRORS!! THE RECENT BUDGET PROPOSAL WAS 4.5 TRILLION!! WITH A PROMISE TO DO A 1.5 TRILLION REDUCTION IN SPENDING OVER 10 YEARS!! OUT RIGHT STUPID!!! THIS EQUATES TO 150 BILLION PER YEAR WHILE THEY INCREASE THE BUDGET EACH YEAR BY TRILLIONS, BS, BS, BS!! IF ANYTHING IF THEY WANT TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT, IT NEEDS TO BE 1.5+ TRILLION EACH YEAR!!! ANYTHING LESS IS SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!!
If I remember correctly your survey NEVER indicated that Trump’s plan to give the taxpayers a $5K dividend check reflected only 20% of DOGE savings. Nothing was said concerning the remaining 80%. I believe knowing that fact would have shifted the outcome of this poll considerably.
Pay down the debt.
“AMAC members overwhelmingly prefer paying off our national debt and shoring up Social Security and Medicare over receiving a one-time rebate check.”
The fact this is even a question is both embarrassing and indicative of what we think of our GOOBERMENT today. (Yes, I spelled it that way on purpose – a bunch of goobers.)
Government’s purpose is NOT to care for us! It is so far past the 13 Enumerated Powers and had violated the 10th Amendment for so long I don’t think most people understand the design goal of government.
And yet we are expected to not only pay for handouts to those in our nation, both legally and ILLEGALLY, but to the WORLD! I missed the part of taking care of the World in the Constitution, would someone please direct me to those paragraphs?
PAY DOWN THE DEBT first!
Yes, Pay off DEBT.
The check would be nice, however, if they don’t stop spending money that we don’t have, what is the point of the check? Keep the check and apply it to the deficit only. Stop printing & spending that we don’t have. Also, every Member of Congress, Past & Present should write their own personal check to pay down the debt that they created during their time in Congress, especially the Dems and RINO’s who spend our tax dollars like drunken sailors, no disrespect to the sailors.
While I do agree that paying down the debt is essential and a great use for this money, I also think that some of it should be used as an educational tool for the populace. If we could send a check of some type to the taxpayer, along with a letter saying, to wit: “This is but a small example of what YOUR government has been wasting each and every year for a long time. More of this saved money is being used to reduce YOUR portion of the National Debt. You get what you vote for at elections. Vote wisely.”
This fraud, excess and waste says that we are overtaxed and underrepresented. Some people need to go to jail- We waste money giving it away to countries that hate us..while we whine about Social Security- FIX it.Veterans on the streets and suffering PTSD – FIX IT National Debt- HORRENDOUS- FIX IT! How? 1- stop electing Democrats.or Socialists/Communist- Leftists -whatever you call them. Seriously- We do not need to elect another Democrat- ever. The GOP has plenty of them within the Party! RINO’s pop up every time the GOP gets CONSERVATIVE. Bi-Partisan is political speak for compromise. Why do we need to compromise over what is right just so some wrong can be done to make a politician happy?
Most definitely pay down the debt.
PAY DOWN THE DEBT, DEFINITELY!
CONGRESS IS SUPPOSED TO VOTE ON EVERY CENT SPENT. THE CROOKS IN CONGRESS (LAWYERS?) FOUND AN EASY WAY TO SPEND OUR MONEY AND TO NOT BE ACCOUNTABLE – THAT’S WHY WE HAVE A $37 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT. EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS, BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED/DEFEATED WHO WERE INVOLVED IN THIS THEFT OF OUR MONEY NEEDS TO BE PROSECUTED AND FACE MANY YEARS IN JAIL FOR WHAT THEY DID TO WE TAXPAYERS AND AMERICA!
If they do not do away with the “base line budgeting” it will never matter. Gov’t growing by 8% every year is not feasible in any situation. A onetime savings by DOGE must be accompanied by Congress doing their job and passing a balanced budget, with sustained cuts to the bureaucracy. Accountability must extend to Govt and employees. The corruption must be prosecuted, otherwise we are giving a tacit OK to that type of theft by politicians and their families. Foreign AID has become a money laundering scheme for politician families and crooked politicians. Stop the insanity.
Why is the recent budget so high if we are saving all of this money? Shouldn’t the budget reflect the recent saving found by the DOGE and be lower than then last year not higher?
Yes. Pay off the national debt. If my math is correct if we paid of $1 billion of the national debt every day it would take 100 years to get it all paid – that is not taking into account accruing interest and assuming no more raising the debt ceiling. $65 billion thus far sounds impressive, but it is paltry – barely over two months payments at one billion per day. The next time Congress is asked to raise the debt ceiling, I much prefer closing down the government.
I agree, pay down the debt first.
it would be ludicrous to save money just to spend it again.
Use it to pay down the debt!
Yes, pay off the debt but FIRST secure a balanced budget with an amendment that has some teeth in it.
A one time check doesn’t solve the inflation. Balancing the budget or reducing the debt has benefits for years to come. The dems make fun of DOGE. Until they see the benefits they receive from it themselves. The politicians are the ones screaming the loudest. Not the average American voter. Because the politicians are going to be found corrupt of abuse over the largesse they have received from the federal treasury. We hear the grumbling already. Trumps economic package is stealing from the poor and middle class to pay the rich. The dems can’t stand it that Trump is looking out for the American people. Not for a select group like the dems. They were supporting Trans and castles in the sky programs all over the world but helped not one poor or sick person.
Shore up Social Security & Medicare along with paying down the debt! Keep just enough money out to go after and prosecute the fraudsters, wasters & abusers. Make sure that any of those pardoned by Sleepy Joe that are part of the elaborate schemes receive one more payment (post Jan. 20, 2025). Then prosecute them for that offense to fullest extent of the law, since the pardons were only good until Jan. 20th!
Pay down the debt! If I got a check it would only go to my grandkids’ career funds (not necessarily for communist college indoctrination)!
Giving people money for which most will spend it on goods made in China or other countries is not going to help.
It is not savings if you spent it!!!
Can you honestly tell me that with this huge debt, no one in congress over the past 50 years knew this waste, fraud and corruption was taking place? It seems to me that Congress needs to be investigated for allowing this to happen and at the least, be impeached! Why do we have a Congress since most stuff is accomplished through Executive Order anyway and they are so incompetent? Think of the money we could save there!!
Pay down our huge Debt!
There is no money we are operating on credit, shut her down.
Pay down our debt.
I would gladly forego any checks to see Social Security and Medicare cleaned up and made whole again. Every time there’s been a surplus in those accounts, the government has pilfered the funds for their own pockets and BS pet projects. After this, the money should go to bringing down the national debt.
I would love for DOGE to be able to track our taxes directly to the pockets of these crooked SOBs who’ve screwed us over for decades. Make them pay back every dime they’ve stolen. I’ve never understood how these Congressmen and women have come out of government as multi-millionaires. Look at the obamas. Remember how they looked when they first came into the White Hous? Take that picture and compare it to how they looked when they left. He didn’t get that much in a salary. The guy has 3 mansions for crying out loud. One of them is in Hawaii and another in Martha’s Vineyard. Neither is an inexpensive place to be.
Pay the debt down. That’s the most important thing.
I think a check for the lowest income taxpayers would be good as some are struggling due to Biden’s inflation. As we find more waste and questionable expenditures that money should go to the treasury even if it is a drop in the bucket.
use the proceeds to sue donald j trump
The government distributed COVID money resulting in so much fraud, what makes anyone think it can do it with DOGE money. Pay the deficit down.
Yes, right on, reduce debt.
If they Actually going to do a refund check, I think they would have to verify that you are not a Democrat. If you are a Democrat or vote Democrat you don’t qualified, cuz you caused the problem
I want the money so I can pay bill, with the insane inflation I have fallen behind, send a check to the legal Americans
If they do decide to send taxpayers a check, I would hope the only people who would get one would be the people who filed federal income tax the previous year. Giving money to people who are all ready getting monthly government would be foolish.
The savings should provide the opportunity to make a drastic improvement to our economy and stability–replacing the income tax with the Fair Tax, a much better, fairer and efficient sales tax.
I would definitely want what’s coming to me in the form of a check. The politicians have been stealing our money for decades so if there is a slim chance to get just a small percentage back I will take the $ in a heartbeat. If you want to pay down the debt seize all of the I’ll gotten assets from the thieves who stole it from us.
I would like a refund check.
A good use of the money would be send it to all the taxpayers. Even the poor and middle class who had to live on credit cards to survive during the high inflation of the Biden administration. The money would be earmarked to pay off credit cards or other loans. That should ease their fears the rebate would increase inflation.
I think the best way to utilize the savings is to help pay down the debt. We simply have to get our debt and spending under control. But to be honest I have a second reason for feeling this way. I don’t think that the people who voted for Kameltoe and hate Trump and DOGE, and are doing everything to stop them, should also be rewarded by getting a check from the government for something they oppose. The money should only be given to the people who back this idea, but it won’t work that way, everyone will get it, and I don’t think they deserve it.
While my husband and I don’t personally need a check our two sons and their families do. They would use it to pay off the personal debt they incurred while enduring the financial hardships caused by the Biden administration. Our one son has credit cards but normally would not use them except for emergencies but was forced to use them at times to provide for his wife and three children. And dealing with the finance charges that would have once been called usury he just can’t seem to pay them off like he would like to. There are many out there in the same boat and a check would help them get back on their feet.
I support a $50,000 tax refund. It is doable and would fire up the economy hugely. Paying off the debt? Who caused the debt? Congress. Ignoring this important factor is financial incompetence. Paying off the debt would be like giving the Mafia monthly protection crew an extra $10,000 so somehow thinking they won’t show up next month to collect because of your kindness.