Ever since Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy stepped into the spotlight with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, people have been scrambling to figure out if it’s a total revolution or just a bunch of noise. Honestly, the headlines are a mess. One day it’s a $2 trillion savings plan, the next it’s a series of X posts about $144,000 grants for Mexican landscapes.
It's a lot to track.
If you're looking for the doge list of cuts so far, you've probably realized that "efficiency" is a lot messier in practice than it sounds on a campaign stage. By early 2026, we have a clearer picture of what’s been slashed, what’s been frozen, and what’s just been moved around. It’s not just about one big check; it’s a thousand small cuts across contracts, staff, and office space.
The Big Picture: How Much Has Been Cut?
Let’s get the numbers out of the way first. Musk originally floated a $2 trillion target. That’s a third of the entire federal budget. Experts almost immediately called that impossible unless you gut Social Security and Medicare, which the administration said they wouldn’t touch.
By late 2025, the internal goals reportedly shifted toward a more "realistic" $150 billion to $500 billion range. According to recent reports from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and DOGE’s own "receipts," the actual realized savings so far are debated. DOGE claims they’ve identified over $200 billion in contract and grant cancellations. Independent analysts, like those at the Cato Institute, argue that while the workforce has shrunk, overall spending actually rose in 2025 due to interest rates and "autopilot" entitlement spending.
Breaking Down the Doge List of Cuts So Far
DOGE doesn't just cut programs; they target "layers." They’ve been focusing on four main buckets: workforce, contracts, "wasteful" grants, and real estate.
1. The Federal Workforce "Chainsaw"
This is where the most visible impact has happened. We’re talking about the largest peacetime workforce reduction in U.S. history.
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- Total Jobs Gone: Roughly 271,000 federal employees have been offboarded as of late 2025.
- The 10% Rule: Most agencies saw a roughly 9% to 10% reduction in headcount.
- How they did it: It wasn't just mass firings. They used a "buyout" strategy in October 2025 that saw 150,000 people take a check to leave. They also implemented a "return to office" mandate that forced thousands of remote workers to quit because they lived too far from D.C.
2. Contract Cancellations (The "Receipts")
If you follow the DOGE account on X, you’ve seen the "receipts." They’ve been targeting what they call "advisory and assistance" services. Basically, consultants.
- USAID: This agency took a massive hit, with over $6.5 billion in contracts terminated. High-profile cuts included a $850,000 "resilience advisor" in Somalia and various "sustainable landscape" consultants in Mexico.
- Department of Defense: The Pentagon is notoriously hard to audit, but DOGE claims to have found $11 billion in "efficiencies." This includes $5.5 billion slashed from advisory contracts and FFRDCs (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers).
- The $1 Limit: In a move that created total chaos, the administration placed a $1 limit on many government credit cards used for travel and supplies. It definitely stopped spending, but it also meant some federal agents couldn't buy gas for their service vehicles.
3. "Woke" and DEI Programs
Vivek Ramaswamy has been very vocal about "deleting" agencies or programs tied to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
- Personnel Purge: DOGE recommended removing any employee deemed "DEI-adjacent."
- Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA): This has been a primary target for total liquidation.
- Grant Freezes: Thousands of grants for social science research or environmental justice initiatives have been frozen or canceled entirely.
4. Real Estate and "Zombie" Offices
The government owns a lot of empty buildings. DOGE has been hunting for these "zombie" offices.
- The SBA Audit: The Small Business Administration reportedly saved $2.8 million just by deactivating 96% of their unused landlines and cutting mobile phone plans.
- NASA & NSF: They’ve deleted dozens of "obsolete" websites, saving about $1.3 million combined. Small change in the grand scheme, but it's part of the "list."
Which Agencies Got Hit the Hardest?
It's not an even split. Some agencies are basically in survival mode right now.
The Department of Education is a constant target. While it hasn't been "deleted" (that requires Congress), DOGE has stripped hundreds of millions from its administrative budget. The EPA and NOAA have also seen significant cuts to their environmental review and climate monitoring divisions.
On the flip side, the Department of Defense is a weird case. Trump said he wouldn't cut "10 cents" from the military, yet DOGE has been hacking away at the civilian side of the Pentagon. Over 61,000 civilian DoD employees were cut. The "savings" there are usually just moved into weapons procurement rather than actually reducing the deficit.
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The Chaos Factor: Is It Actually Saving Money?
Here’s the thing: cutting a contract doesn't always save money immediately.
If you cancel a contract for a bridge that’s half-built, you might end up paying more in legal fees and "termination for convenience" penalties than you would have spent just finishing it.
There's also the "Russian login" controversy. Critics point out that while DOGE was busy cutting IT staff, federal databases became more vulnerable. The Social Security Administration and OPM (Office of Personnel Management) have both reported significant "bottlenecks" in processing benefits because there just aren't enough people left to answer the phones.
Why the $2 Trillion Goal is Still a Pipe Dream
If you look at the doge list of cuts so far, it’s a lot of millions, maybe some billions. But $2 trillion? That’s 2,000 billions.
To get there, you have to touch "mandatory spending." That means Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt. Since DOGE is technically an "advisory" body and not a real government department, they can't change the laws that govern those programs. Only Congress can.
Right now, Congress is locked in a battle over the 2026 appropriations. While the House has passed "minibus" bills that include some DOGE-style cuts, the Senate has been a lot more cautious. They’ve agreed to some "targeted cuts" (like a few billion here and there), but they aren't ready to burn the whole house down.
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What This Means for You
Whether you love the idea of "draining the swamp" or you’re terrified of losing public services, the DOGE era is a massive experiment in "move fast and break things" applied to the federal government.
If you’re a federal employee: You’ve likely already seen the impact of the hiring freezes or the buyout offers. The "fork in the road" emails are real.
If you’re a contractor: The "easy money" for consulting and advisory services is gone. Agencies are being forced to prove a 1:1 ROI for every dollar spent on outside help.
If you’re a citizen: You might notice longer wait times for passports, tax refunds, or disaster assistance. FEMA, for example, saw significant funding delays that impacted relief for older disasters while the new administration "reviewed" the books.
Actionable Steps to Track the Cuts
Since the situation changes every week, don't just rely on viral tweets. Here is how to keep an eye on the actual data:
- Check the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS): This is where every contract over $3,000 is logged. If a cut is real, it shows up here eventually.
- Monitor the Treasury’s Monthly Statement: This is the only way to see if spending is actually going down, regardless of how many people get fired.
- Watch the "Minibus" Bills: The real power lies in the 12 annual appropriations bills. Watch for language that mentions "Executive Order 14222"—that’s usually the code for a DOGE-initiated cut.
The list of cuts is growing, but the "efficiency" part is still up for debate. We’re seeing a smaller government, for sure. Whether it’s a better government is something we’ll only know once the dust settles on the 2026 fiscal year.
Track the specific dollar amounts for each agency: You can look up the "Agency Efficiency Leaderboard" on the official DOGE website to see which departments are leading in contract terminations.
Review the 2026 Budget Overview: Look for the "Workforce Optimization" sections in the latest Pentagon and Treasury budget documents to see the specific headcount targets for the coming months.
Stay updated on legislative shifts: Follow the House Oversight Committee’s hearings on "Administrative State Reform" to see which DOGE recommendations are being turned into actual law.