DeSantis Reveals He Would Eliminate 3 Cabinet Departments - Plus the IRS
Hell hath no fury like a swamp creature in D.C. being told that its bit of the swamp is being taken away. And now, plenty of liberals are howling at the potential that, if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wins the presidency, he’s going to be draining four major parts of the Beltway marsh.
During an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Wednesday, she asked him, “Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies?”
The Republican presidential candidate said he would work to abolish the departments of Commerce, Education and Energy, as well as the Internal Revenue Service.
“We would do Education, we would do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we would do IRS,” DeSantis responded when asked if he would reduce the size of government.
“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” he said.
“But what I’m also going to do, Martha, is be prepared, 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.”
Fox News’ Martha MacCallum: “Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies?”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL): “We would do Education, we would do Commerce, we’d do Energy, and we would do IRS.” pic.twitter.com/oxo2nfAoVn
— The Recount (@therecount) June 28, 2023
NBC News reported that “DeSantis’ campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for further details about his remarks.”
However, we can at least report that he managed to stick the landing, unlike certain Republican presidential candidates who wanted to see departments on the chopping block:
“Oops”: Rick Perry once forgot the name of the agency he’s been nominated to lead https://t.co/PhGGEK5m5P pic.twitter.com/zwLyVG6gXP
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 13, 2016
Not only did DeSantis one-up former Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 pledge to do away with three federal agencies if elected president, he actually remembered them.
Naturally, this occasioned the kind of mild paroxysms and furrowed-brow tsk-tsking that happens in the media any time a Republican candidate suggests seriously reducing the size of government.
NBC News went with the usual DeSantis-goes-hard-right angle.
“DeSantis has sought to distinguish himself from Republican front-runner Donald Trump, in part by moving further to the right of the former president on a variety of issues,” the outlet reported. “On Tuesday, he issued an unexpected veto, rejecting a criminal justice reform bill that had received substantial bipartisan support in the Republican-led state Legislature.”
The U.K.’s Independent, not exactly getting it right with its headline, put it this way: “DeSantis says if elected he would abolish education, energy and IRS departments to fight ‘woke ideology.’” I guess the Independent’s Abe Asher heard the departments DeSantis wanted to eliminate, heard the words “woke ideology,” and decided that was the reason DeSantis wanted to reduce the scope of the federal government. It helps to listen to the words in-between sometimes, but oh well.
And then there’s The Daily Beast, where the headline wasn’t wrong but it was still 100-percent Daily Beast-tastic: “DeSantis Outlines Truly Wild Plan to Eliminate Federal Agencies.”
Not that Twitter is a body of policy experts, but neither is The Daily Beast, and many social media users didn’t quite seem to think it was so “truly wild”:
Why in the Alligator Tears is the IRS at the bottom of this list??????
— James Logan (@JamesOnasLogan) June 28, 2023
— VETTER Days (@vetter_days) June 28, 2023
That’s a good start, but he’s missing the FBI, ATF, CIA, NSA, and most of the EPA too.
— The Balkaniser 🐊 (@TheBalkanist) June 28, 2023
Abolish the ATF.
— Salty Sea 🇺🇸🖤🪸 (@SaltySeaFl) June 29, 2023
And even when the responses were negative, it helps to have the right sort of enemies:
Such an unserious person.
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 28, 2023
Ah, the Lincoln Project, a group of so-called Republicans that was supposed to only be opposed to Donald Trump’s presidency. Apparently, they’re still around — and tearing down Trump’s main opponent for the GOP nomination, which should tell you a great deal about just how serious they are about their conservatism or their original mission. Nice work.
But beyond that, America managed to survive until the Carter administration without two of these departments, Education and Energy. Neither education nor energy has gotten better in the United States in the intervening years, which should tell you a lot about how the swamp works.
As for the IRS, America might indeed declare a national holiday should the agency be abolished. Hunter Biden would be the grand marshal of the first parade.
Either way, in a country with a $30 trillion-plus debt, some cuts need to be made. Those are four good places to start.
“Truly wild” plan? I agree, albeit not in the same way The Daily Beast — or NBC News, or the Lincoln Project — does.
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