On the surface, who doesn't want a $5,000 check?
But will it mean greater future inflation -- like the Covid checks? https://t.co/0s2QEnm8EN
Video Transcript AI Summary
We're discussing a proposal where Trump and Musk would send US taxpayers $5,000 checks, funded by savings from government efficiency. The idea is to save $2 trillion and return a portion to households.
While it sounds good to give money back to the people, I think it's gimmicky. Cutting taxes would be a better approach. Savings from cutting back on spending should reduce the budget, interest rates, and debt.
Perhaps Musk is trying to create a sense of ownership in the cutting process. During COVID, stimulus checks ended up costing more through inflation. Printing more money for these checks invites further inflation, negating any benefit. People are upset because they aren't getting honest answers about debt and the Fed's role in monetizing it.
Speaker 0: This is, Zero Heads wrote it up. Trump and Musk to discuss sending US taxpayers $5,000 checks using DOGE savings. Billionaire Elon Musk said on February 18 that he will discuss with president Donald Trump a proposal to send US taxpayers rebate checks representing a portion of the money saved by the Department of Government Efficiency. You know, the idea is that they will save a bunch of money, and they will take a portion of that money that they've saved. Now the idea is we'll save $2,000,000,000,000.
We'll take a portion of that and give it back to each household taxpayer household, and that dividend should be around $5,000 per household. That's the idea.
Speaker 1: I'm I in a way, disappointed. It's it's too much gimmickry in this. I I don't understand it. So, the the proposal is that Trump and Mao says that we're saving so much money, we ought to give it back to the people, which sounds very good. So just just cut taxes, you know, and let them keep it.
But, no, they want, issued the checks and, taxpayers, you know, $5,000 of checks. And because they're gonna save so much more, they're not even gonna use up all the saving. But to count the savings that they might get from, cutting back, you know, by by firing a few people, It it's not it's not an iron stone, you know, the how many how many court arguments are gonna be? How many court cases will there be? So there's a lot to be heard, but I I don't see this as enhancing what have been already contributed to us, and that is exposure, audit, how horrible this is.
And the people are really upset about this, and it it represents a system of a bankruptcy. But I don't see this emphasizing, you know, that particular point. And actually, if you're gonna save umpteen billions of dollars on spending, the the budget well, the spending has to go down. The interest rates have to go down payment. And then the debt has the deficit and and the debt that exists has to go down.
And that's that's a a big undertaking. I don't see how this will add to it, but there's the the two guys working on this are a lot richer than we are. So maybe they know something we don't know.
Speaker 0: But, you know, I mean, I don't think that I don't wanna speak for you, but I don't think that we are absolutely thinking it's the worst idea in the world, you know, this whole this whole idea. It it's this seems, as you said, gimmicky. Maybe what Musk is trying to do is to create a sense of being stakeholders in the cutting process. And I think you sort of alluded to that when you started out by saying this, that we all feel like some sort of ownership in this process of cutting government. So if that's a psychological, you know, benefit of doing it, maybe it's not a terrible idea to do to give us all sort of, okay.
Well, we're cutting government, and you're you're benefiting from it in a way. You know? I I don't I don't know. If you remember back during COVID when we had the stimulus checks that they were sending out now Thomas Massey, good friend of ours, board member of our Ron Paul Institute, he made and I don't have it in front of me. I wish I had I had cut it, but I didn't.
But he made a great calculation about how this, quote, unquote, stimulus money that you're gonna get is actually gonna cost you more than you'll have in your pocket to spend through inflation, through special interest getting more than you're getting in all these number of things. So and and it actually played out exactly like he said, and I don't have it in front of me, but he made that good point. My guess is that he will be similarly skeptical about this money.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a that's that's a good point because let's say they get their way and next week they're gonna start it. They don't have money in the bank. So if they're gonna say if they're gonna live up to their promises and and they have to start sending these checks out, they have to print the money
Speaker 0: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Which invites more inflation. Yeah. And the prices go up and people well, I'm not any better off.
Speaker 0: Yeah. You'll you'll get your 5,000, but then eggs will quadruple. And you'll
Speaker 1: like Yeah. And and that's why people are really upset and they're not getting the honest answers about why it comes about. It's debt and the Fed monetizing that debt.
