To get a better idea of what Ramaswamy stands for I went straight to the source. His campaign web site:
https://www.vivek2024.com/
I was most definitely not impressed. It little more than a disorganized jumble of what are mostly completely unserious memes. And for someone who claims to support the Constitution it is curious that so many of his ideas are blatantly unconstitutional. The sum total of his policy ideas are grouped into 5 categories of 5 proposals each.
https://www.vivek2024.com/america-first-2-0/
1. Revive American National Identity
2. Unleash the American Economy: Achieve >5% GDP growth
3. Declare Independence from Communist China
4. Dismantle Managerial Bureaucracy
3. End Weaponization of Government & Financial Markets
That's it. Nothing on health care, the environment, education, criminal justice, taxes, crime, addiction, gun violence, immigration, etc. etc.
And if you take a peek inside these proposals for specifics you find little more than trite nonsense. For example, under "Unleash the American Economy his biggest proposal is
"Put Americans back to work: dismantle Lyndon Johnson's failed "Great Society"
OK, the current unemployment rate is 3.8% which is about as low as it has been in 50 years. I'm not sure how much lower it can go without unleashing more inflation. The Fed is actually pushing in the opposite direction. But what about the Great Society? This suggests he doesn't have any idea what he is talking about. What were some of the key programs in Johnson's Great Society?
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Civil Rights Act
- Voting Rights Act
- Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
We really going to roll back the clock that far? And in any event, that would have to start with Congress anyway not the President who has no authority to repeal any Great Society program on his own.
Here's another:
Move >75% of federal employees out of Washington D.C. & end pro-lazy “remote work” option
Um... maybe someone should tell Vivek that 93% of civilian federal employees ALREADY work outside of Washington DC? California has more federal employees than Washington DC, as does Texas. And if you count the military (which I did not) the percentages that work outside DC are even higher. Add in the Post Office and the percentages are even higher.
Here's another good one:
Cut wasteful expenditures: White House, not individual agencies, will submit budget requests to Congress
Newsflash Vivek. That is actually what happens. For the past 100 years, by law White House has submitted its budget requests to Congress not individual agencies. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires it. For example, here is the White House's fiscal year 2023 budget request:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u ... fy2023.pdf which was submitted exactly 100 years after the very first White House budget request submitted to Congress by President Harding in 1923.
Of course Congress often just ignores the White House budget request and does its own thing. But it is most definitely the White House that makes the request. Individual agencies don't go to Congress hat in hand.
It just goes on and on with endless similar nonsense. My daughter's HS government class could have come up with something better and more intelligent in a weekend.