“We expect massive cuts, we expect the outright elimination of certain agencies.” Ramaswamy said on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “We expect massive cuts to be implemented in areas of the federal government that are overburdened. We expect massive reductions in the number of federal contractors and others who overcharge the federal government.

Ramaswamy, a member of the new “Department of Government Effectiveness” or DOGE, speak in the past to eliminate the Department of Education, the IRS, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

He said a Supreme Court ruling last summer could strengthen the president-elect’s power. Donald TrumpPlans to reduce federal bureaucracy.

“I think people will be surprised at how quickly we’re able to make some of these changes, given the legal context that the Supreme Court has given us,” he said.

This legal context is that of last summer Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, which overturned a 1984 precedent that gave federal agencies broad freedom of interpretation on ambiguous laws, known as Chevron doctrine. Reversal Chevron was a long-standing conservative cause, and Ramaswamy sees it open the doors to the goals of the GOP.

But not all lawyers or Democrats agree.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) rejected Ramaswamy’s claims in an article on X, saying he lacked basic knowledge of how government works.

“Government 101: No federal agency will be ‘deleted’ without an act of Congress,” he wrote. “The president cannot overdo by executive order what Congress has done by statute. Congress, not the President, has the final say on the fate of federal agencies.

Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, acknowledged that the situation is not as simple as Ramaswamy envisions, although he said much can be done without deleting.

“If you’re talking about agencies approved by Congress, then the executive branch doesn’t have unilateral authority to eliminate agencies without involving Congress,” he said. “But whether agencies overstep their statutory authority is another question.”

Chenoweth said Loper Luminous can help Trump cut regulations and possibly reduce agencies to their core missions, although he can’t eliminate them outright without involving Congress.

That may not stop Trump from trying, and it certainly won’t stop Republican Party leaders from talking about defunding federal agencies.

The elimination of various government ministries has long been a concern favorite promise Republican presidential candidates. The main target is usually the Department of Education, which was only created in 1978 and is seen on the right as a favor given to teachers unions by Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

Promises to cut services have even given rise to famous political blunders. In 2012, Rick Perry, then governor of Texas, listed three agencies he wanted to eliminate – or try to eliminate. After dismantling the Commerce and Education ministries, he struggled to find the third, which was later revealed to be the Energy Ministry.

“Oops,” he said, effectively ending his 2012 run.

But the dream lives on.

Trump attempted to eliminate 19 independent federal agencies during his first term, without success. He appointed Perry to head the Department of Energy, the same one whose name he couldn’t remember five years earlier, but neither of them managed to remove him.

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) called for eliminating the Perry trio of energy, commerce and education during his 2024 campaign, as well as defunding the IRS, while Ramaswamy wanted to hack education, the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission .

Some Cabinet members chosen by Trump have even called for eliminating their own departments.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been controversial exploited to run the Justice Department, an agency he planned to kill in 2023.

“I don’t care if it takes every second of our time and every ounce of our energy,” he said. said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Either we get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the FBI, the CDC, the ATF, the DOJ, every single one of them if they don’t get their act together. »

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Based on his comments, Ramaswamy agrees, and he plans to test the limits of how far the Trump administration can go, whether it’s streamlining the federal bureaucracy or going further.

“We want to intervene directly through executive action,” he said on Fox News. “The people we elect to run the government are not the people who actually run the government. They are the unelected bureaucrats of the administrative state. This was created through executive action. This is going to be resolved through executive action.