Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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The sweeping promises that most Republican presidential candidates are making might convince their audiences that a 2024 GOP victory will produce massive changes in the federal government.
But whoever gets elected will quickly encounter reality — just as conservative House Republicans did when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy tossed aside their proposals for deep federal cuts.
The issue arose only briefly in the first two GOP debates. In the first, moderator Bret Baier, listing the federal agencies that Vivek Ramaswamy has promised to close, asked him how he would deal with the education crisis if he shut the Department of Education.
“Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of parents across this country,” he replied.
Neither rivals nor moderators challenged his imprecise response. And no one challenged former Vice President Mike Pence in the second debate when he proposed sending the states all programs “rightfully theirs under the 10th Amendment,” citing “ all Obamacare funding, all housing funding, all HHS funding” and the Department of Education.
Every campaign brings a spate of unrealistic proposals. In 2020, progressive Democrats’ promises to expand the Supreme Court or enact Medicare for all sparked lively debates among the candidates.
But the general agreement among Republican rivals about slashing the federal government has meant little propensity to challenge their sometimes unworkable promises.
Ramaswamy, Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump seem determined to outdo one another in promising to dismantle the federal behemoth.
Unsurprisingly, Ramaswamy, the sole aspirant without governmental experience, has made the most sweeping promises.
Besides the Department of Education, he told Fox News Digital he would target “the FBI, the ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the IRS, the Department of Commerce.
“Many of these should not exist,” he said, before adding “the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).”
“I’m going to be the president of government shut down,” he promised, adding he’d redistribute FBI funds to the Secret Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
DeSantis is also thinking big. He told Fox News he would shut three Cabinet departments and the Internal Revenue Service.
“We would do Education, we would do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we would do IRS,” he said. Unlike Ramaswamy, he recognized a congressional role in deciding such changes — and listed a Plan B.
“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” he said. “If Congress won’t go that far, I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism that we see creeping into all institutions of American life.”
Pence has more modest plans, perhaps reflecting his experience from two decades as a congressman, governor and vice president.
Besides the Education Department, he would scrap the Environmental Protection Administration, President Joe Biden’s climate change initiatives and support for passenger and freight rail transportation, mostly Amtrak.
Most GOP candidates have targeted the FBI, reflecting the party’s evolution from stressing “law and order” to reflecting Trump’s priorities and circumstances.
The former president, who once assailed Democrats seeking to defund the police, called for defunding the Justice Department and the FBI “until they come to their senses.”
“The FBI has lost complete credibility when it comes to this and they have a lot of fixing to do to get the trust back of the American people,” agreed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Fox News.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina called for firing the FBI’s entire “political” leadership, including director Chris Wray, a Trump appointee. FBI directors serve a 10-year term but can be removed by the president.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney, proposed a more modest FBI reorganization, including transferring its drug enforcement responsibilities to the Drug Enforcement Administration
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, also a former U.S. attorney, defended the FBI but promised radical changes to the education and homeland security departments.
Trump vows to bring independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates business practices, and the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the broadcast industry, under direct presidential control.
At present, the president can only nominate their members, subject to Senate confirmation, and designate their chairmen.
Trump plans to try again to transfer thousands of non-political permanent government employees just below policy-making levels to a new civil service category, subject to dismissal if they oppose presidential policies.
He could do that by executive order, though it would likely face a court challenge.
But most changes GOP candidates are proposing would face difficulty in winning congressional approval, barring an unexpected Republican landslide.
As president, Trump proposed shutting 18 smaller sub-Cabinet agencies, including the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Congress ignored him.
Many past candidates proposed grandiose governmental changes they failed to achieve. Jimmy Carter advocated reducing its 1,900 agencies to no more than 200, but never came close.
However, armed with congressional authority, he consolidated several existing agencies into a Department of Energy; separated the Department of Education from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and revamped the civil service.
In these highly partisan times, it’s unlikely Congress would grant such authority to any president. But GOP candidates clearly hope sweeping promises will confirm their bona fides as big government foes.
Carl Leubsdorf is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News.
