Ramaswamy says he wants to lay off 1 million civilian federal employees | ET REALITY

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to eliminate 1 million civilian federal employees from the government if he is elected to the White House next year.

In interviews with Axios and Semafor, Ramaswamy said he wanted to make drastic cuts to the federal government. It listed the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Education, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the IRS, the Department of Commerce and the USDA Food and Nutrition Services as possible subjects of the cuts.

The tech entrepreneur told Axios that he wants to reduce the federal civilian workforce, which comprises 2.2 million people, by 75 percent after four years. He added that he wants to see a 50 percent reduction by the end of his first year.

“It should be noted that 30 per cent of these employees are eligible to retire in the next five-year period,” Ramaswamy said. “So it’s substantial, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s not as crazy as it sounds.”

He told Semafor that he would reveal more details of his plan during a speech Wednesday at the America First Policy Institute.

According to your campaign websiteRamaswamy aims to “dismantle management bureaucracy” by closing “toxic government agencies,” eliminating federal employee unions, moving more than 75 percent of federal employees out of Washington, DC, and “cutting unnecessary spending.”

Ramaswamy is not the only Republican pushing to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would cut the “footprint” of all D.C. federal agencies in half if elected to the White House in 2024. DeSantis has also suggested eliminating several federal agencies, including the IRS.