Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back Thursday against an idea floated by President Donald Trump to reward U.S. taxpayers with DOGE stimulus checks. The time isn’t right, the speaker argued, to send savings from Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts back to Americans in the form of dividend checks.
The plan would see up to $5,000 sent to taxpayers if Elon Musk's DOGE reaches its goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.
Elon Musk drove another wedge through a conservative consensus on a budget resolution as House Speaker Mike Johnson struggled to hold his “big, beautiful bill” together. Johnson was caught between swing district doves wary of cuts to Medicaid and fiscal hawks insisting the $2 trillion spending cuts didn’t go far enough.
“That sounds bad,” Elon Musk replied, reinforcing the MAGA wing’s opposition to Johnson’s version of the budget, which notably does not include the deep cuts to crucial programs that have huge standard-of-living effects, such as Medicaid—and leaving the budget in a precarious, vote-lacking position.
House Republican leadership is working to pass a budget resolution on Tuesday to pave the way for President Trump's agenda, but opposition has emerged from all sides of the conference.
President Donald Trump had said earlier this week his administration was weighing sending 20% of savings by DOGE to taxpayers.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said stimulus checks tied to DOGE actions would make the Republican party look good, but added he preferred to pay off national debt.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says the lower chamber is very close to having enough votes to pass the budget plan that President Trump endorsed. CBS News' Taurean Small has more.
On the eve of their first major vote to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, key House Republicans are warning Speaker Mike Johnson that they won’t simply rubber-stamp steep cuts across the federal government.
Trump and Musk keep talking up the idea of sending checks to Americans. But GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, keep batting it down. Politics 2025-02-21T16:52:37Z Elon Musk's ...