Vivek Ramaswamy, former Republican presidential candidate, speaks during Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump's campaign rally at Riverfront Sports in Scranton, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2024.
Posted on 11/18/2024 9:28:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on Sunday that some federal agencies will be “deleted outright” and that contractors may see “massive cuts” in what they can charge when the incoming administration takes office next year.
Vivek Ramaswamy, former Republican presidential candidate, speaks during Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump's campaign rally at Riverfront Sports in Scranton, Pa., on Oct. 9, 2024.
Last week, Trump named former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead the presidential advisory commission, DOGE. Their work must be completed no later than July 4, 2026, Trump said in his statement.
Ramaswamy told Fox Business on Sunday that “there is massive waste, fraud, and abuse right now.”
“Federal contractors are really exploiting the federal government,” he said.
When Fox host Maria Bartiromo asked him whether entire government agencies will be closed, he responded in the affirmative.
“We expect mass reductions. We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright,“ Ramaswamy said. ”We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts of all federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above.”
Will entire agencies be deleted? Answer: yes. pic.twitter.com/QPe5VNGDhr — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 17, 2024
As a presidential candidate, Ramaswamy had called for totally eliminating or restructuring of several agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Elaborating on Fox, Ramaswamy said that “failures of the executive branch need to be addressed.”
“Unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state that was created through executive action” are running the government, he said, which needs to be fixed by the executive branch.
“This is about restoring self-governance and accountability in America as well. Elected leaders, if they make the wrong decisions, voters have a great choice. You can vote them out and remove them,” Ramaswamy said.
“Most of the people making these decisions from health care to the Department of Defense are failing on effectiveness because they have no accountability. Historically, it’s been the view of many scholars to say that those people could not even be fired. Now, we take a different view with the environment the Supreme Court has given us in recent years, and we’re going to use that in a pretty extensive way to move quickly.”
DOGE will not be an official government agency, meaning that both Ramaswamy and Musk are not considered Cabinet members in the incoming Trump administration and therefore not subject to the Senate confirmation.
Both Ramaswamy and Musk, as well as Tulsi Gabbard, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined the president-elect at a UFC event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Gabbard is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, while Trump nominated Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
On Thursday, DOGE’s account on social platform X, which is owned by Musk, posted a job listing announcement that is calling for individuals to work 80 or more hours per week ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.
Musk and Ramaswamy both threw their support behind Trump this year.
You can start with the NEA.....and although not an agency, quit funding the damned NPR!
As they should be. No gov't needs 489 agencies, especially when each one of them is trying to think up new regulations to justify their existence.
He's not wrong there, but it's a little of both. Agencies don't have people who are competent or qualified to do some tasks so they hire contractors to do it for them. So the agencies exploit the contractors and in some cases the contractors hugely exploit the agencies.
When you have to shoot, SHOOT; don’t talk. -Tuco
I wonder what the annual budget is for this operation?
https://diversity.defense.gov/
Anyone with any sense should be bailing out. I don’t think DOGE will be able to get to it, Hegseth will delete it Day One.
I want to get rid of Grant money for crap projects. The “ketchup flow” study p****** me off years ago.
“Federal contractors are really exploiting the federal government,” he said.
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True but the feds also use contractors to do a lot of work they should be doing.
Contractors are hired to perform specific tasks within stipulated periods of time but those tasks have a tendency to morph into more generalized forms of support. The contractors soon become an adjunct to the federal staffs. In some cases, contractors become so vital to an organization they effectively become managers.
Its not supposed to work that way, but it often does which begs the question “who is exploiting who?”. So what it is is basically a symbiotic relationship.
I didn’t see your post when I posted my #8.
Strikingly similar comments.
>MAGA=RECOVERY OF OUR FREE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC!!
GO TRUMP, GO VIVEK, GO AMERICA!!!
I would like more attention to the Veteran Centers. They deserve the very best. If you have to replace an old one with two new ones...in better locations...so be it. People shouldn’t half to drive 100 miles to a center. Or change the system..let a local doctor do the job.
Also defund PPH.
“quit funding the damned NPR!”
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Should be at the top of DOGE’s list.
If they’re not congress approved, they’re fair game.
Excellent post. Unless you know someone who is a contractor it isn’t clear where the problem is. It starts with the people who hire the contractors. Then one has to look at the mission the agencies have to accomplish and see if they have the ability to handle the mission with in house personnel. If they don’t, then that’s where the scandals start.
Good point.
To be sure, some government functions (generally the ones that are understaffed) are doing useful work and actually deserve more fundings. I hope DOGE can make recommendations to divert some of the cost savings to places where its truly needed.
Addendum: Check the hiring policies and practices of agencies who do a lot of contracting, and see if they discourage the hiring of white people. If so, management needs to go.
I agree, there is so much low hanging fruit it's ridiculous. I'd like to see the $2T target as a floor, not a ceiling, in their goal-setting.
The feds love contractors. Unlike their own colleagues, they will do whatever you tell them to do. No whining, no excuses, no resentment. Its like rubbing the lamp that releases the genie.
Most contracts should have a “phase out” period in them that requires the contractor to downsize their presence. Unfortunately, it usually works the opposite way; the contractor gets embedded into the fabric of the office and becomes indispensable.
we can only hope!
give me back my incandescent bulbs!
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