Did the Department of Government Efficiency deliver on its promise to cut government spending?
President Donald Trump’s DOGE has disbanded, but not before it cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs in record time. But while the number of positions cut is one for the record books, Cato Institute Senior Vice President for Policy Alex Nowrasteh said that when it comes to government spending, it really didn’t make a difference.
In the first 10 months after Trump took office, DOGE reduced federal employment by about 271,000 jobs, which is about 9% of all federal workers.
“This is a faster and steeper decline in federal employment at any time since the demobilization of the U.S. military and economy at the end of World War II and at the Korean War,” Nowrasteh said. “It’s the biggest in peacetime, ever decline in federal workers over a 10-month period.”
DOGE brought down federal employment to late 2014 levels over that time period, but with almost 60% of the decline in October, according to the analysis.
“DOGE reduced federal employment enormously. It did not cut spending, and it couldn’t possibly cut spending just by firing people,” he said. “It just doesn’t show up when you take a look at the budget figures. So, for instance, spending went up in 2025 compared to 2024 and went up by about $250 billion.”
Nowrasteh said the only likelihood to close the deficit “is by cutting the biggest programs. The biggest programs are Medicare and Social Security, Medicaid and the military.”
The report put together by Cato, a D.C.-based libertarian think tank, did not focus on budget authority.
When it comes to the portion of the budget that goes to federal employment, Nowrasteh said it’s only about 10%.
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