At least five of the major candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, have endorsed doing away with the Department of Education, a favorite target at August’s GOP debate.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy has gone a lot further. The list of departments he wants to abolish includes not only the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Nuclear Regulatory Commission but also the Internal Revenue Service – and even the FBI.
ABC News spoke with half a dozen experts about how eliminating departments would work. They described such pledges as political talking points easier said than done, with some calling the proposals either impractical or unfeasible.
“Some of the implications are either dangerous in terms of the ability of the federal government to fulfill its mission or downright impossible, that is making promises candidates are not going to be able to keep,” said Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland and former dean of its school of public policy.
“It’s a long shot,” said Kevin Kosari, a senior fellow at the center-right think tank American Enterprise Institute. “Government agencies have a habit of sticking around.”
The idea of dismantling these agencies isn’t novel. Republicans have long run on the idea that the federal government is too big and needs to be streamlined. Abolishing the Department of Education, in particular, has been a Republican Party goal since the agency was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
They want to commit major crimes and need those honest Federal employees out of the way.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
That sounds super important and necessary for like safety of entire cities/states and a really bad idea to get rid of.
When we sell the nuclear secrets to two bit dictators and pocket the billions of dollars through our good-for-nothing son in law, we don’t want any unnecessary regulations. Do we now?
I listen here, my GOD DAMN RIGHTS are being infringed if I can’t keep my unregulated nuclear devices… for protection.
“Sir! The Sphere-o-boom is not for sale.”
INB4 this kid becomes their mascot.
‘It infringes on my child prodigy’s personal expression!’ says the person who’s homeschooling their kids to think the earth is flat and that Noah brought dinosaurs on an ark.
They’re 70% pandering to trump’s supporters and 30% hoping they can commit similar crimes themselves. 0% for the reasons they’re claiming.
MAGA will happily swallow their excuses, though, and crusade for them.
What a bunch of assholes.
This isn’t new. Rick Perry’s campaign ended when he couldn’t remember which ones he wanted to dismantle.
Then, no kidding, he was put in charge of the one he couldn’t remember.
Except he came to realize the value of that agency. He didn’t do the Republican thing where you get in charge of an agency, ruin it, and then claim Democrats are responsible for ineffective governance. He actually advanced its mission.
Someone needs to press them on WHY they want to eliminate them.
“Job killing regulations!”
“Which regulations, and how are they ‘job killing’?”
Reporters have been failing to press this key follow up question for DECADES now.
They want to have a Disunited States of America.
That’s not even a joke. A unified country is harder to dismantle so you can sell off the parts to the highest bidder.
Someone should run on the platform to abolish the Republican Party.
He wanted to get rid of the department of energy. Then Trump made him the head of the DOE and Perry actually found out about all the super important shit they do.
You replied to the wrong comment, but yeah.
Doh!
How 'bout we just abolish the GOP instead? Problem solved.
This is America. It’s not a longshot idea because this country is lame when it comes to anything other than raping lives for money and power.
Republicans have wanted this for as long as I’ve been alive. I remember my parents talking about it in the early 90’s.
