‘Pay the Credit Card Before the Vacation’: Conservatives Prefer Debt Payoff to DOGE Checks

Some House Republicans say they would rather use Department of Government Efficiency savings to pay off the national debt than to hand out the funds to taxpayers.

President Donald Trump floated giving $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpaying households in February, saying: “We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens, and 20% down to pay back debt.”

Investment CEO James Fishback first proposed the idea of a one-time payment of $5,000 for eligible taxpayers. The checks were to be funded with 20% of the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts Elon Musk said could be achieved, meaning around $400 billion split between 79 million taxpaying households.

Fishback “continue[s] to advise the effort from the outside and will fight to ensure that a chunk of identified savings are sent back to hard-working American,” he told The Daily Signal in an email.

But fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives would rather see DOGE savings entirely go toward paying off the debt, some tell The Daily Signal.

Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., said he is not a fan of using the DOGE cuts as a rebate.

“We kind of got in the situation that we’re in by just sending checks to people, and we got a $36 trillion debt headed toward 37 rapidly,” Harris told The Daily Signal. “It’s going to make far more sense for any savings that we find to make sure that we get that debt under control, bend that curve, and make sure that we get our country on a really fiscally sound financial footing.”

“What is going to help us get there is what I’m interested in, which is why I’m a big fan of doing this reconciliation package and the rescission package that’s going to be coming our way,” Harris continued.

At this time, the Trump administration is focused on passing the “big beautiful bill,” which cuts taxes to make sure Americans have more money in their pockets, a White House official told The Daily Signal. The White House has no plans to pursue DOGE stimulus checks at this time, the official said.

Harris said taxpayers are better served by cutting away at the debt and improving the economy, than by getting a check in the mail.

“When we’ve got this huge debt, and we found this wasted spending, why would we not take that and pay it off?” Harris asked. “It’s kind of like paying your credit card off before you start buying the vacation home. The American people overall, most of them recognize the benefit that we have from from really getting our nation on a more stable financial footing.”

The North Carolina congressman speculated that Elon Musk himself would likely oppose DOGE stimulus checks.

“He’s pretty sound now in the idea that we’ve got to control our spending, and the idea of spending more money just to send out checks to the taxpayer, is maybe something that would be more concerning to him,” Harris said.

Musk has called Trump’s “big beautiful bill” a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” and “a disgusting abomination,” arguing it doesn’t lower the national debt.

Harris’ Republican colleagues are more concerned with solidifying DOGE cuts than with authorizing stimulus checks, Harris said.

“We all ran on the issue of doing government differently,” Harris said. “We all ran on moving the president’s agenda forward. We all ran on getting our fiscal house in order. And I think that that’s what people are most interested in, at least here on the hill, is making some wise decisions to do what we need to do.”

Historically speaking, to authorize the checks, Congress would have to pass a tax credit, similar to the process of distributing funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided Economic Impact Payments of up to $1,400 for eligible individuals or $2,800 for married couples filing jointly.

The “big beautiful bill” will be stimulative on its own, Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., told The Daily Signal.

“It doesn’t need an additional cash infusion to folks, which could potentially be inflationary,” Huizenga said.

“To me, with $36 trillion in debt, the most responsible thing that we can do is is apply that,” he continued, “and start trying to tackle our massive debt.”

For Rep. Mike Cloud, R-Texas, the priority is decreasing the debt so it’s not passed on to the next generation. Checks aren’t the best way to stimulate the economy, he said.

“What we can do, and President Trump’s great at this, is find creative ways to grow the economy and and grow our way out of this, while we get a hold of in Congress our federal spending, that’s way out of hand, to get rid of our spending addiction,” Cloud said. “That’s the only way that we’re going to correct course, and the only way that we’re going to pass on the assumptions of prosperity and the liberties that we’ve inherited to our kids and our grandkids.”

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, agreed that the “big beautiful bill” is the best way to deliver on promises to voters.

“DOGE savings coupled with tax cuts will ensure Iowans and Americans can keep more of their hard earned money in their pockets while also restoring fiscal sanity and addressing deficit spending,” inson told The Daily Signal.

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