Staff Reports
President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE, for short — promised to rip out waste, slash red tape, and save taxpayers trillions. That loud promise mostly fizzled. But a new City Journal piece by Judge Glock makes a pointed case: DOGE did one thing very well. It shrank the federal civil service by roughly 12 percent, or about 270,000 jobs, largely through a government‑wide Deferred Resignation Program. That outcome deserves credit, scrutiny, and a plan to lock in real reform.
What Judge Glock is pointing to: big federal workforce reductions
Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, argues DOGE’s most important result was shrinking the civil service fast. His City Journal piece and social posts say the federal workforce fell by about 270,000 people from its modern peak. Glock says most of the cuts hit middle managers and were not simply replaced by contractors. If true, that’s a real change to how the federal machine runs — and a lot harder to reverse than a paper memo about “efficiency.”
What GAO confirms: the Deferred Resignation Program and extra costs
The Government Accountability Office backs up the basic story that unusual personnel moves drove the drop. GAO found agencies used a government‑wide Deferred Resignation Program and other voluntary measures that led to a surge in separations and a spike in paid administrative‑leave costs. In plain English: many employees agreed to leave while still getting paid for a time, which reduced headcount quickly but cost taxpayers billions in short‑term payroll. That’s not magic — it’s a tradeoff.
Why the workforce shrinkage matters — and what it doesn’t
Shrinking the workforce matters because it showed you can change the size and shape of government without collapsing services. Many agencies kept functioning even as staff numbers fell. That undercuts the predictable media panic that any cuts mean doom. But it doesn’t erase the fact that DOGE failed to deliver anywhere near the trillion‑dollar spending cuts once promised. The administration saved some money, yes, but not the headline numbers, and the short‑term paid‑leave bill is a cautionary tale about clever accounting.
Where conservatives should go from here
Conservatives should celebrate this victory without selling it as the whole war won. The workforce decline is real and politically valuable — it shows the federal payroll can be trimmed. Now push for lasting reforms: codify sensible hiring limits, lock in reductions where mission analysis proves it, reform contracting rules so agencies don’t refill gaps with outside vendors, and go after entitlements that keep the federal tide rising. Also demand transparency — the Supreme Court fight over DOGE records is exactly the kind of accountability fight taxpayers should win. If Republicans want government to stay smaller, they need to turn temporary programs into durable policy, not just temporary headlines.
