Neither rivals nor moderators challenged his imprecise response. And no one challenged former Vice President Mike Pence in the second debate when he proposed sending the states all programs “rightfully theirs under the 10th Amendment,” citing “all Obamacare funding, all housing funding, all HHS funding” and the Department of Education.
Every campaign brings a spate of unrealistic proposals. In 2020, progressive Democrats’ promises to expand the Supreme Court or enact Medicare for all sparked lively debates among the candidates.
But the general agreement among Republican rivals about slashing the federal government has meant little propensity to challenge their sometimes-unworkable promises.
Ramaswamy, Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump seem determined to outdo one another in promising to dismantle the federal behemoth.
Unsurprisingly, Ramaswamy — the sole aspirant without governmental experience — has made the most sweeping promises.
Besides the Department of Education, he told Fox News Digital, he would target “the FBI, the ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the IRS, the Department of Commerce.”
“Many of these should not exist,” he said, before adding “the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).”
“I’m going to be the president of government shutdown,” he promised.
DeSantis is also thinking big. He told Fox News he would shut three Cabinet departments and the Internal Revenue Service.
“We would do Education, we would do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we would do IRS,” he said. Unlike Ramaswamy, he recognized a congressional role in deciding such changes — and listed a Plan B.
“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” he said. “If Congress won’t go that far, I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism that we see creeping into all institutions of American life.”
But most changes that GOP candidates are proposing would face difficulty in winning congressional approval, barring an unexpected Republican landslide.
As president, Trump proposed shutting 18 smaller sub-Cabinet agencies, including the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Congress ignored him.
Many past candidates proposed grandiose governmental changes they failed to achieve. Jimmy Carter advocated reducing its 1,900 agencies to no more than 200 but never came close.
However, armed with congressional authority, he consolidated several existing agencies into a Department of Energy; separated the Department of Education from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and revamped the civil service.
In these highly partisan times, it’s unlikely Congress would grant such authority to any president. But GOP candidates clearly hope sweeping promises will confirm their bona fides as big-government foes.
