What do you call one million fewer Pfederal employees? Better yet, how about cutting 75% of Pfederal public employees? I’m sure you’ll agree with Harris Rigby from Not the Bee when he says, “It’s a good start.”
Rigby is responding to recent remarks by Vivek Ramaswamy, who might just be throwing you-know-what at the wall to see what sticks with Republican primary voters. It might also be in response to Trump announcing last week that he’d make it a priority to end the US Department of Education and send all that money back to states and towns. The Left will cry and whine, but these are the same people demanding more money for teachers and students. Guess what? The entire Department of Education Budget could actually do some good if we spent it someplace else.
This is true of much of what the government does with the dollars it steals or prints (stealing it from someone who has not yet been born). So Ramaswamy is onto something, and he knows the base loves the idea. He’s not draining the swamp he’s plowing it under.
If someone works for you & you can’t fire them, they don’t work for you. You work for them. I refuse to be a puppet in the White House who plays that game: if I can’t work for the federal government as President for more than 8 years, neither will any of the federal bureaucrats… pic.twitter.com/i4qs9jwAlj
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 13, 2023
Populist rhetoric?
Sure, he can’t do this without getting through what will likely be a contentious Congress that relies on that bureaucratic wall of separation between them and their constituents to preserve their incumbency. If the bureaucracy isn’t available to make and enforce rules, Congress will have to do that, and they don’t want to take the heat for the policies they pass.
He was never going to win DC, so that’s not a problem. This is: Ramaswamy is 60 points behind Trump in Michigan, 43 back in South Carolina, 42 points back in Iowa, and 49 points back nationally (plus or minus 5). He’s in the top 5 in most polls, but he hasn’t been able to get past his initial rise from nothing to 5%, give or take.
If he’s running for a shot at VP or an inside-the-beltway gig, promising to fire 75% of the people with whom you may have to work might make for a contentious work environment.
Bold.
There is, of course, the question of whether he’s serious, which you are welcome to debate at your leisure.
