Washington, DC [US], September 14 : Indian-American entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy said that he would fire over 75 per cent of the federal work force and shutter several major agencies if he is elected the US President, New York Times reported.
Among the government organizations that Ramaswamy vowed to disband are the Department of Education, the FBI, the Food and Nutrition Service, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it reported.
Ramaswamy (38) also claimed he could make the changes unilaterally if he were to be elected president, putting forward a sweeping theory that the executive wields the power to restructure the federal government on his own and does not need to submit such proposals to Congress for approval.
About 2.25 million people work for the federal government in civilian roles. Cutting more than 75 per cent of that work force would result in more than 1.6 million people being fired, saving billions of dollars in the federal budget but also shutting down critical functions of the government, according to New York Times.
In an interview with Axios, the tech entrepreneur said that he wants to cut the federal civil workforce, by 75 percent after four years. He added he wants to see a 50 per cent reduction by the end of his first year.
“Keep in mind that 30 per cent of these employees are eligible for retirement in the next five-year period,” Ramaswamy said.
“So it is substantial — no doubt about it — but it’s not as crazy as it sounds,” The Hill quoted him as saying.
According to Ramaswamy’s campaign website, he aims to “dismantle managerial bureaucracy” by shutting down “toxic government agencies,” eliminating federal employee unions, moving more than 75 per cent of federal employees out of Washington, DC, and “cut wasteful expenditures,” The Hill reported.
Notably, his pitch was very similar to that of former President Donald Trump — whom Ramaswamy has been supporting lately and even dubbed as the best President of the 21st century — who sought to expand political control over the federal work force near the end of his term, as per the New York Times.
Also like Trump, Ramaswamy has also attacked parts of the federal government as a “deep state.”
“We will use executive authority to shut down the deep state,” Ramaswamy said on Wednesday at the America First Policy Institute in Washington, DC.
Ramaswamy flipped through posters displaying government organizational charts as well as what he claimed were common “myths” about the limitations of presidential authority.
Meanwhile, Florida Governor and Ramaswamy’s rival in the presidential race, Ron DeSantis had also stated that he would cut the “footprint” of all DC federal agencies in half if he is elected to the White House in 2024, NYT reported.
DeSantis has also suggested eliminating several federal agencies, including the IRS.
While Ramaswamy named several agencies he said he would abolish, he added that he would move many of their functions to other organizations — suggesting that many of the same jobs would still exist elsewhere.
He also said he would abolish the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which became a frequent target of “Trump-style Republicans” after it investigated ties between Russia and the former President’s 2016 campaign, NYT reported.
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