(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has made reducing the size of federal bureaucracy a central focal point of his campaign, vowing to totally eliminate five federal agencies if elected president.
Ramaswamy said that he has his sights set on the FBI, the Department of Education, the IRS and the Department of Commerce, according to Axios. The 2024 presidential hopeful also wants to target the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In a speech given at the American First Policy Institute on Wednesday, September 13, Ramaswamy echoed popular conservative sentiment of a unitary executive, insisting that the leader of the executive branch can indeed decide how many employees and agencies are part of that branch.
Ramaswamy also insisted that mass-layoffs are necessary to reign in the D.C. bureaucracy, and also said that it is “well within the law.”
Disbanding six federal agencies would mean reducing the federal government’s workforce by 75% over the course of four years from the current 2.2 million civilians currently employed. Other Republicans, most notably former President Donald Trump, have also discussed the need to severely reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy.
The federal bureaucracy in question is commonly referred to as the “administrative state” by conservatives, and perhaps the most commonly referred to as the “Deep State” by Trump. The accusation levied by conservatives is that government bureaucracy has become too powerful, allowing the unelected agencies in the executive branch to effectively make key policy decisions that Congress should be making. According to many conservatives, the U.S. is effectively governed by unelected federal bureaucrats, as opposed to elected representatives.
Ramaswamy also said that he would implement a key litmus test for cabinet appointees if he is elected. He said the heads of federal departments must be willing to carry out mass-layoffs as directed by him to ensure that the president does not lose control over the executive branch due to rebellious cabinet secretaries.
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