Banana Republicans

This is going to happen because the United States of America is currently run by a political cult led by a complete idiot:

An idea first proposed on social media has bubbled up to the White House and received President Donald Trump’s enthusiastic endorsement: Take some of the savings from billionaire Elon Musk’s drive to cut government spending and return it to taxpayers.

“I love it,” Trump said late Wednesday on Air Force One, when asked about the proposal.

If Musk’s target of $2 trillion in spending cuts is achieved by next year, supporters of the idea say that about one-fifth of those funds could be distributed to taxpaying households in checks of about $5,000.

But before you start planning for a windfall, budget experts say such huge savings — nearly one-third of the federal government’s annual spending — are highly unlikely. And sending out a round of checks — similar to the stimulus payments distributed by Trump and then President Joe Biden during the pandemic — could fuel inflation, economists warn, though White House officials dismiss that concern.

With the annual budget deficit at $1.8 trillion last year and Trump proposing extensive tax cuts, there will also be significant pressure to use all the savings to reduce that deficit, rather than pass on part of it.

Here’s what to know about the proposal:

James Fishback, founder of investment firm Azoria Partners which he launched at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, promoted the idea Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter, prompting Musk to respond that he would “check with the president.” Fishback said there have also been “behind the scenes” conversations about the issue with White House officials.

Musk has estimated that his Department of Government Efficiency has cut $55 billion so far — a tiny fraction of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. But DOGE’s public statements so far haven’t verified the presumed savings, and its claims that tens of millions of dead people are fraudulently receiving Social Security have been disproven.

Fishback supports having the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determine how much DOGE saved. If DOGE cuts $500 billion by July 2026, he said, then the checks would be $1,250, rather than $5,000.

“We uncovered enormous waste, fraud and abuse,” Fishback said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And we are going to make good and pay restitution and then rewrite the social contract between the taxpayer and the federal government.”

First, the $55 billion figure is totally fictitious, as it’s based on things like saying that getting rid of an $800 million program that has already spent two thirds of that figure still saves $800 million, and that there are hundreds of billions of dollars to be saved from completely imaginary Social Security “fraud.”

Second, even DOGE’s made-up out of thin air figures constitute 3% of the necessary savings, but a key to so much plutocracy and demagoguery is that nobody can do math (million/billion/trillion it’s all just a bunch of big numbers).

Third, $5,000 government checks would be wildly inflationary, although Trump’s Top Budget Men are explaining that it wouldn’t be because only government spending is inflationary and this wouldn’t be government spending, just government distribution of savings.

A friend who manages a bunch of sales reps for a big company writes:

At work happy hour yesterday one of the reps kept talking about how awesome DOGE is and the 5K refund check. She hopes it is bigger especially after 2 billion in gold bars sent to Stacy Abrams was uncovered.

She may be budgeting on the future windfall she is expecting from DOGE. Also assuming a huge tax cut. Go MAGA.

These are the people who elected Trump.