Don't Take The $5000 Bribe

Don’t take the $5000 bribe. Now, what I call a bribe, the White House calls a ‘dividend’. According to Forbes, “Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, hinted at the possibility of issuing $5,000 checks to American taxpayers—a concept dubbed the ‘DOGE Dividend.’ This proposal, originating from investment firm CEO and DOGE adviser James Fishback, suggests allocating 20% of DOGE’s projected savings and distributing it to taxpaying households.” When I issue the warning — don’t take the $5000 bribe! — what am I trying to say to you? Well, read on.

The Two-Bump Pickpocket

Have you ever been pick-pocketed on a crowded city sidewalk? You get bumped twice. First, the decoy bumps you on your left shoulder. You turn immediately to the left. The decoy on the left grabs your attention by apologizing for the bump. While you’re conversing with the decoy, the second pickpocket removes the wallet from the right rear side of your pants. When you depart and walk on, you do not even realize you have been robbed.

Right now the Whitehouse is pickpocketing you, me, our nation, and the next two generations to come. How? The decoy is bumping us. The decory is drawing us to watch news about outrageous happenings in Washington such as the fireing of civil servants. Why are government workers losing their jobs? Because they are allegedly “lunatics,” “criminals,” and “vampires” who waste government money. On February 19, 2025, the current president announced that “We live in a corrupt country.” His country is corrupt, he says. This alleged corruption justifies eliminating jobs and plunging public discourse into confusion, chaos, and concealment. As you watch and listen, you are being secretly robbed.

There is a second decoy. The U.S. President has just announced that Ukraine’s president, Volodimer Zelenskyy, is a “dictator.” Furthermore, Zelenskyy is responsible for the war against Russia. This justifies a new alignment that unites Russia with America and both against not only Ukraine but also Europe. Are you outraged? If anything would draw your and my attention away from the theft of our wallet, this would.

There is a third decoy. This is the most important decoy. Washington Republicans announce that with the help of DOGE they plan to balance the budget. The smokescreen of draconian cost-cutting is the principal decoy. How does this work? Even at the maximun, DOGE success could account for only a fraction of deficit spending with no repayment. Even the most optimistic expectation of cost-cutting would come as close to balancing the budget as a maple tree comes close to winning a spelling bee.

To make matters even more sinister, the White House is letting a near demonic temptation loose on the public, namely, the prospect that every income tax payer might receive a $5000 dividend from this fictitious cost-cutting. When you and I turn our heads to look toward a balanced budget and celebrate a net personal profit of $5000, we will not notice how our pocket is being picked. In fact, we’ll even take the bribe gladly so as to approve the gargantuan theft.

People are marching in cities across America. Protestors hold up signs that emphatically reject White House cost-cutting. So, in order to regain public support, the White House is dangling the $5000 in front of us.

Don’t Take the $5000 Bribe

To take the $5000 bribe would amount to the first bump in a series. What’s the second bump? The second bump is the immediate theft of $4 trillion in national debt. While depositing your $5000 White House bribe, you might not notice that the national budget has not been balanced. You might not notice how the money that might have gone for services to your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have been stolen by today’s Washington oligarchy. If you do notice, you’ll think of yourself as a beneficiary of the robbery. As complicit. As a co-conspiritor.

I admonish you: do not believe the lie that the White House intends to balance the budget. What is the truth? The truth is that the Republicans plan to cut the tax rate to 15% on the billionairs who paid to put the 47th president in the White House. This amounts to a revenue loss of $4.5 trillion. Even if DOGE could save as much as $1.5 trillion, we must ask: who will pay the remaining $3 trillion? The answer: the national debt increase. Your and my progeny in the future will pay for the greed and luxury of today’s oligarchy.

The House GOP budget plan is awash in red ink. It includes increasing the national debt at a rate that will lead to a deficit of $150 trillion by midcentury.

By accepting the $5000 bribe today, you would become complicit in the largest corruption caper in America’s history. Because of the bribe, you would not want to vote against the briber. You might even approve a proposal to grant to the 47th president the Oval Office for life. You might be motivated by the vain hope that you’ll someday receive another $5000 bribe.

Conclusion

Don’t take the $5000 bribe! For that matter, don’t watch the daily news that covers outrage after outrage. Each day’s outrage is a decoy, a diversion, a smokescreen. If you and I become fixated on the first bump, we will either not notice the second bump or we might approve of it with a gesture of gratitude for the bribe we have already taken.