Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for President in 2024, has pledged to reduce federal employment by one million if he is elected.
It’s not bad for a first attempt.
Ramaswamy stated in interviews with Axios, Semafor, and others that he would like to see drastic cuts made to the federal government. Ramaswamy listed the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Department of Education, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, IRS, Commerce Department, and USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services among the potential targets for cuts.
Axios reported that the tech entrepreneur wants to reduce federal civil employees, who number 2.2 million, by 75 percent after four years. He also said he wanted to see a reduction of 50 percent by the end of his first year.
Ramaswamy stated that 30% of these employees will be eligible to retire in the next five years. It’s a lot — there is no doubt — but not as outrageous as it seems.
It’s not as insane as it seems. The only thing that’s questionable is that it doesn’t go far enough.
The federal government has lost all control. As a country, we are under almost 33 trillion dollars in national debt. Here are the figures for this morning from the US National Debt Clock.
We have enough money to send billions of dollars to Ukraine. Congress in general doesn’t appear to take the issue seriously.
It is impossible to recover from this situation without cutting expenditures. It’s not about reducing spending or reducing its rate (which Democrats call “draconian cuts”). It is necessary to have someone who is willing to use a meat-axe to eliminate all extra-constitutional government agencies.
The candidate Ramaswamy makes the right noises
Ramaswamy’s campaign website states that he wants to “dismantle management bureaucracy”. This includes shutting down “toxic” government agencies, eliminating federal employee unions, relocating more than 75% of federal employees from Washington, D.C., as well as “cutting wasteful expenditures.”
Another good idea is to decentralize the federal administration. It is not only financially sensible but also strategically wise. When Washington D.C. became the nation’s capital, the United States was much smaller, and foreign powers had less influence than they do today. Our vast nation has the advantage of making it hard to attack the federal government at once.
Ramaswamy’s not the only one who has said things like this:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that if he were elected to the White House in the year 2024, he would reduce the “footprints” of all federal agencies located in Washington D.C. by half. DeSantis also proposed eliminating several federal agencies including the IRS.
It may not be only desirable but also necessary to eliminate federal agencies if we are ever going to recover from the mountain of debt. It’s inevitable. Better to make the cuts now rather than in an emergency to avoid a default.
If any of these candidates were to move to the White House, it remains to be seen if they would be able to make this happen. It’s impossible to compete with Santa Claus. There is too much money to be made by having the ability to allocate the seemingly unlimited flow of Uncle Sam’s money.
The next two or three election cycles could determine the future of the fiscal health of the nation. While on the campaign trail, candidates always make big promises. Vivek Ramaswamy does not differ. He does, however, have an interesting advantage: like Donald Trump he is an outsider. He doesn’t owe any favors to Swamp yet. He would still need to deal with Congress. That’s the crux of it, people.
