Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an event in July 2022.Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty
Speaking withFox News' Martha MacCallum, the Republican presidential candidate said that his administration would seek to abolish the Department of Education, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy and the IRS.
“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” DeSantis 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.”
“We need to fundamentally re-constitutionalize the government,” DeSantis also asserted. “We talked about draining the swamp in 2016; that didn’t happen. I think the better analogy is breaking the swamp.”
“I would be welcoming to take this tax system, chuck it out the window and do something that’s more favorable to the average folks,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Nov. 2022.Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via AP
As NBC News noted — citinggovernment spending data— the current fiscal year budgets for the Commerce, Energy and Education departments were $109 billion, $160 billion and $194 billion, respectively. The IRS has cutclose to 20% of its staffsince 2010, the outlet also notes.
As previously reported, DeSantis officially entered the2024 presidential raceback in May, confirming longtime rumors that was priming himself to earn the Republican Party’s nomination as a chief rival to former presidentDonald Trump.
DeSantis and Trump have built similar bases throughout their political careers, and a source close to Trump told PEOPLE in May that their rift has caused political turmoil.
“Donald thinks DeSantis owes his political career to him, and this has caused political friction,” Trump’s longtime New York business friend told PEOPLE. “Plus, they were never close friends. They never mixed well.”
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DeSantis has also dominated headlines in recent times,restricting voting rights,enacting Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law,politicizing the concept of critical race theory,pushing to ban gender-affirming medical care,refusing to order COVID vaccines for young children, andscolding students wearing masks.
As NBC News also notes, while he hasn’t claimed he’d abolish the Education Department entirely, Trump has proposed eliminating federal funding for “any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto our children.”
source: people.com
