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.
