Vivek Ramaswamy wants to “shut down” the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Education Department and other government agencies.
He opposes efforts to fight climate change, wants to burn more coal and says fossil fuels are essential for “human flourishing.”
And at a time when the Republican Party is struggling to attract younger voters, Ramaswamy is proposing a new citizenship test coupled with raising the voting age to 25 — aiming to strip the franchise from tens of millions of Americans in what could be one of the greatest reductions of the U.S. electorate in the nation’s history, according to voting experts.
“We live in a dark moment, and we have to confront the fact that we’re in an internal sort of cold cultural civil war,” Ramaswamy, 38, said during the GOP’s first presidential primary debate, hosted by Fox News on Wednesday night. “Do you want incremental reform — that’s what you’re hearing about — or do you want revolution?”
Though the youngest and least experienced candidate onstage, Ramaswamy emerged from last night’s debate as one of the candidates most likely to compete with former president Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Bolstered by his approach of blanketing the media with interviews, the billionaire biotech entrepreneur has surged in polling in recent weeks and may be in a position to overtake Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ®, who had been widely seen as the biggest threat to Trump’s nomination.
Ramaswamy’s policy positions overlap in many respects with those of both his debate sparring partners and the former president. He shares the other GOP candidates’ proposals to radically cut the size of the federal government, use the U.S. military to strike drug cartels inside Mexico and rescind federal funding for major U.S. cities that support undocumented immigrants. But Ramaswamy faces criticism for adopting numerous outside-the-box policy proposals — such as eliminating 75 percent of the federal workforce and tying the U.S. dollar to gold — that even conservative experts say are unrealistic and would prove highly damaging if ever implemented.
“He does not seem to have done his homework on any policy issue — he comes up with these half-baked ideas that sound great to a conservative audience but show no thought, research or feasibility behind them,” said Brian Riedl, a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, and a former aide to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). “That’s him.”
Here are seven of Ramaswamy’s policy proposals — and how they would change the United States.
Raise the voting age to 25, with a new citizenship test
Perhaps Ramaswamy’s most distinctive idea is to raise the voting age from 18 to 25 through an amendment to the Constitution. He would allow people in this age group to vote, however, if they serve in the military, work in “first response services” (for instance, as a police officer or fighter) or pass the civics test that is required of citizens seeking naturalization.
Ramaswamy characterizes this drastic proposal as essential to reverse what he characterizes as a lack of civic pride among young people in the United States.
…
Stop U.S. aid for Ukraine
Asked at the debate Wednesday night whether he would support more U.S. aid to Ukraine, Ramaswamy responded simply: No. Then he insulted GOP politicians who backed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Fossil fuels are essential in the long term
Many Republican lawmakers have been skeptical of President Biden’s efforts to rapidly decarbonize the U.S. economy to fight climate change, arguing that Democrats want to wean the country off fossil fuels more quickly than is realistic.
…
Eliminate 75 percent of the federal workforce
Ramaswamy is also proposing a 75 percent reduction in the number of federal employees, including a 50 percent reduction in his first year in office. This would amount to laying off more than 1 million workers.
As part of his restructuring of the federal bureaucracy, Ramaswamy’s website also vows to “shut down” several federal agencies, while instituting a new eight-year term limit for federal workers that would lead to enormous brain drain of the civilian workforce.
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Peg the U.S. dollar to gold, gut the central bank
Ramaswamy has also called for transforming U.S. monetary policy with two radical actions: pegging the U.S. dollar to gold and other commodities, while also gutting the Federal Reserve.
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Deploy troops in Mexico
Ramaswamy has vowed to “use our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels.” This position is similar to those of most of the other GOP presidential candidates, including Trump and DeSantis.
…
Reduce marriage penalties
On the debate stage Wednesday night, Ramaswamy said the United States “pays single women more not to have a man in the house than to have a man in the house, contributing to an epidemic of fatherlessness.”
This guy is dangerous. Hopefully his brown skin will prevent his racist party from voting for him.
“…the climate change agenda is a hoax” That’s what he said about that topic. That comment is disgraceful and so are the media for not calling him out on it.
Compare with what he said five months ago:
https://twitter.com/dream_YiLIN/status/1694532675456110939
He’s full of shit.
He’s a rich troll looking for power in the same lines as Elon. When he said he wasn’t bought and paid for before saying climate change is a hoax totally indicated to me he is bought and paid for.
These guys are smart enough to read a room to tell people what they want to hear so they can manipulate them to get what they want.
He’s right wing version of Pete buttigieg. He’ll say anything to win votes, even if he contradicts himself.
My diehard republican father was all-in on Vivek based solely on my uncle telling him how “smart and forward thinking” he was. After the debate, my father said, “that Indian guy is one slimey, weasely asshole. He’s nuts.” So even some trumper-level folks can see what he really is.
He’s not really that nuts and that’s honestly even worse. He’s such a snake that he’s willing to exploit that craziness for power.
And that is Ramaswamy to the Republicans, not an American but instead, “that Indian guy.”
Sadly, there is no Constitutional bar against people with massive head injuries running for office.
Republicans won’t elect him lol. He’s not Christian, too young, and last but not least he’s not white.
Doesn’t have to be Christian, just has to pay lip service to Christians; like Trump.
Definitely Christian?
Idk, last I checked he’s Hindu. But who knows, maybe tomorrow he’ll say he’s Christian. And the following week he’ll say he’s Catholic. Then Jewish.
He just wants power.
Just want to clarify that Catholicism is a branch of Christianity.
Certain types of Christian do not believe that. And some types of Christian believe that only the members of their little cult branch are going to go to heaven.
Ik, but I see it referred to as separate so often that I instinctively keep them separated when naming religions.
He keeps talking like he’s implying he’s christian but he’s not
Dude wants to turn America into Nazi Germany, and:
Though the youngest and least experienced candidate onstage, Ramaswamy emerged from last night’s debate as one of the candidates most likely to compete with former president Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
This is all you need to know about how fucked in the head these anti-American conservatives are.
What I think is funny is that a 12 year old who went to public school - even shitty public school like Northern Florida - woul probably be able to pass the civics test that green card holders must take to become a citizen.
I’ve taken it. It’s stuff Americans learn very early on. They give you 3 questions or 5 questions from a list of 100 or so. Questions like
“Who was George Washington?”
“What are the 3 branches of government?”
“What is the Supreme law of the land?”
“How many Supreme Court justices are there?”
“Who is the current president?”
“Name a senator from your state.”
If we’re gonna have 18 year olds taking this test to prove they are knowledgeable enough to vote, why stop there? A 12 year old who pays attention in social studies will pass just as well. Why not have them vote too?
“Who is the current president?”
Depending on which state you live in, this answer may change and disqualify you to vote.
USCIS is a federal institution. It falls under the Department of Homeland Security and is under the leadership of the Secretary of Homeland Security who reports directly to the president.
Your application process for naturalization typically gets handled outside of your state in one of the regional offices of USCIS although the interview happens at a local branch office close to your house. Typically within an hour drive if you live in an urban environment although could be further if you live in the boons. Sometimes you even drive to a different state to complete your interview.
Sure, that’s for citizenship. But it doesn’t mean they’re going to be the ones passing out the “are you eligible to vote” tests. Plus, we’re talking about someone who’s vowing to shut down multiple high level federal institutions because it conflicts with their power grab. What’s one more?
Yeah I don’t understand what the end game is. You shut down the IRS and now you have no more income tax revenue. What now? You shut down USCIS and the millions of people that go through the US with green cards / naturalization requests have no place to process it. What now? We just leave them in a perpetual limbo?
It makes no sense. I think he’s just saying it to be provocative, honestly. USCIS is an example of a necessary organization. You need to be able to process these people. Every single legal immigrant that comes in this country does so through USCIS.
Ramasmarmy is nothing but a bullshit artist. And damn, he has such a punchable face!
He’s got the same type of whiny punchable face as Ashit Pai.
Ugh I haven’t thought about him, his stupid face, and his stupid oversized mug in so long. Why did you have to remind me?
What an absolutely horrifying list of policies and opinions. I’m also genuinely morbidly curious how he’s going to do among voters in the party that is #1 among Racists.
With all those awful policies, I’m shocked he’s not the GOP’s front runner!
Remember folks, when you take away all the corruption and treason and incompetence of dethroned Republicans like Trump, the rest of the GOP is still a party of awful ideas.
What is the name of this film…?
Starship Troopers
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“We live in a dark moment, and we have to confront the fact that we’re in an internal sort of cold cultural civil war,” Ramaswamy, 38, said during the GOP’s first presidential primary debate, hosted by Fox News on Wednesday night.
But Ramaswamy faces criticism for adopting numerous outside-the-box policy proposals — such as eliminating 75 percent of the federal workforce and tying the U.S. dollar to gold — that even conservative experts say are unrealistic and would prove highly damaging if ever implemented.
He would allow people in this age group to vote, however, if they serve in the military, work in “first response services” (for instance, as a police officer or fighter) or pass the civics test that is required of citizens seeking naturalization.
The scientific consensus is that failure to reduce carbon emissions will lead to devastating impacts for communities across the globe, including virulent disease outbreaks, widespread food and water shortages, and increasingly deadly and destructive weather extremes.
But many economists say tying the value of the dollar to gold would deprive the United States of one of its best tools to fight economic downturns and tame inflation — the ability of the central bank to raise or lower interest rates.
There remain some programs that penalize marriage for some lower-wage workers, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, said Joshua McCabe, director of social policy at the Niskanen Center, a center-right think tank.
The original article contains 1,983 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 88%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This nonsense might have a small chance if it was Reagan proposing it in 1980. But it’s a different world.
The longer he sticks around the worse the GOP looks to anyone with a brain.
The first time I saw a video of this guy talking and started reading up on him, he struck me as somebody chosen by focus groups to try and draw in demographics where the GOP is typically weak. Might not be enough to win the nomination and overall election but if he can build momentum and then endorse somebody else, he’d have served his purpose. Not white enough for the Confederacy-in-remission states though he’s saying all the right things for them to not feel too threatened by his presence so they’ll take him seriously as long as they have to.
He would transform the US, alright – into an even worse disaster. Shutting down the FBI would be great, though.
I’d give you a pass if you said the NSA… but we clearly need something like the FBI. Who would stop child exploitation? Human trafficking?
Q is taking care of all that /s
Nah he’s just judging humanity. But mostly, he’s trying to get into Picard’s pants.
FBI isn’t doing that most of the time. Either way, we can create a separate agency to handle things like that.
