In an interview this week, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida and a presidential candidate, revealed his support to eliminate several federal agencies should he win the general election. Among the entities he mentioned were the U.S. departments of Education, Commerce and Energy, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
If Elected, DeSantis Administration Would Abolish the Departments of Commerce and Energy, Education, and the IRS
During an interview with Fox News television host Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida and a candidate in the 2024 U.S. presidential race, shared his idea to streamline the federal government by eliminating certain agencies. DeSantis expressed his firm support for reducing the overall size of government and expressed his intention to dismantle a select few departments if elected president.
“We would do Education, we would do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we would do IRS,” DeSantis told MacCallum. “If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government.” The Republican presidential candidate added:
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.
DeSantis is not alone in his pledge to dismantle specific federal departments as a presidential candidate. A similar stance was taken by former Republican presidential contender Ron Paul during his 2012 campaign. Paul made a bold promise to abolish five cabinet-level agencies should he win the election. The agencies he specifically targeted were Education, Interior, Commerce, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development.
“In order to get back to growth again you have to get rid of all the mistakes, all of the malinvestments, all of the debt,” Paul said at the time. “You can’t keep dumping the debt onto people.”
This also isn’t the first instance where DeSantis has expressed his views on revamping or dismantling the IRS. In a conversation with Dana Loesch in late May, he voiced his support for a single-rate tax proposal or a flat tax system. “I’ve endorsed all of the single-rate proposals,” DeSantis emphasized during his discussion with Loesch. “I truly believe they would bring significant improvements compared to the existing system.”
Building on his stance, DeSantis didn’t mince words when he asserted that he perceives the IRS as a “corrupt” entity, highlighting that this cabinet-level agency is far from being an ally to the ordinary citizen or taxpayer. During his conversation with MacCallum on Wednesday, he voiced his belief in the necessity of a profound reconstitution of the government. Reflecting on the unfulfilled promise of draining the swamp back in 2016, DeSantis offered a more potent metaphor, suggesting the urgent need to shatter the very foundations of the swamp itself.
He emphasized, “We need to fundamentally re-constitutionalize the government. We talked about draining the swamp in 2016; that didn’t happen. I think the better analogy is breaking the swamp.”
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