Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has called for reducing the federal workforce by 75 percent through the use of eight-year term limits.
He made the remarks while speaking Saturday at the California GOP Convention in Anaheim, Calif., according to both the Daily Mail and Spectrum News.
“Today, the people who we elect to run the government, they are no longer the ones who actually run the government. It is the deep state in the shadow government of those three-letter agencies that wield power today. And that is why I have said that as your next president, I will do what the U.S. president, the leader of the executive branch, can actually do,” he said.
“We will shut down the unconstitutional federal administrative state. That is the head of the snake. We’re not going to tinker around the edges. We’re going to gut it. If I can’t work for you all as your next president for more than eight years, which I think is a good thing, then neither should any of those federal bureaucrats reporting to me either. Eight-year term limits for the bureaucracy, instead of these civil service protections. We’re done with them,” he added.
If somebody works for you—and you can’t fire them—they don’t work for you. You work for them. Welcome to federal bureaucracy. End it. I will replace civil service protections with 8-year term limits. https://t.co/P8seHzJN0a
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 1, 2023
As president, he continued, he’ll eliminate the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Internal Revenue Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; the Centers for Disease Control; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and the Department of Education.
“We are not going to incrementally reform them. We will get in there and shut them down. That is how you revive the integrity of a constitutional republic,” he said.
Ramaswamy also addressed the then-impending government shutdown, arguing that it wasn’t close to being America’s number one threat.
“Today the real threat to us is not even from Congress on the eve of whatever artificial shutdown debate they’re having on a given hour today. That’s not the real threat we face,” he said.
“‘The real threat we face in the United States is the rise of that managerial class from our universities, to corporate America, to the ultimate mother of the managerial class in the administrative state in the federal government itself,” he added.
Later in the speech, he moved on to addressing China, which he described somewhat as a veritable fourth branch of the U.S. government.
“Today, we depend on our enemy, communist China, for the shoes on your feet to the phones in our pockets. If that were a Russian spy balloon flying over half the country, you want to know what we would’ve done? We would’ve shot it down in an instant and ratcheted up sanctions, but we didn’t do it for China. Why? Because we’re scared. Why are we scared? Because we depend on it,” he said.
Ted Cruz says Biden didn’t have ‘guts’ to down CCP spy balloon if not seen by public and Xi ‘damn well’ knows it https://t.co/rxE99Qz70a pic.twitter.com/PAnBuVZEHA
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) February 6, 2023
Ramaswamy went on to compare China to fentanyl addiction.
“We’re addicted to the digital fentanyl they put in our kids’ hands in the form of modern social media. We’re addicted to the financial fentanyl in the form of our national debt that they will continue to fund,” he said.
He further reportedly pledged to “cut the cord” with China and fill the voice by bringing jobs back to the United States and also establishing better relationships with South Korea, Japan, India, and Australia.
“Who is willing to speak the truth, not just when it is easy but when it is hard? That is what this campaign is all about. Speak the truth. Speak it with a spine, and stand up for it,” he said.
At one point in his speech, he said America is currently in the middle of a “cold cultural civil war.”
Listen:
We’re in the middle of a cold cultural civil war in the United States – between 80% of us who love America & a fringe minority who hate this country but now have the Democrat Party in a chokehold. We need a Commander-in-Chief who understands where we are & how we got here: you… pic.twitter.com/WgXtj9TqiC
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 30, 2023
According to Spectrum News, he wrapped up his speech by stating a number of otherwise obvious truths that have become distorted in the modern age.
“God is real. There are two genders. Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is not a border. Parents determine the education of their children. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. Capitalism lifts us up. There are three branches of the government, not four. And the U.S. Constitution is the strongest and greatest in human history,” he said.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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