90% Cut to Fed Staff

US Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is charting a bold path for the 2024 elections by targeting the central bank. If elected, he has vowed to cut the Federal Reserve’s staff by a staggering 90%.

In an interview with Fox News, he said, “I think that we don’t need 23,000 employees in the US Federal Reserve.”

Ramaswamy Targets the Fed on Price Stability

The Republican primary candidate is advocating for a system rooted in efficiency. Ramaswamy told Fox, “I think we could have a 90% headcount reduction in that system back in its place, stabilized on the dollar. That’s what I say.”

Ramaswamy has long been a vocal critic of the Federal Reserve’s expansive role. Earlier this year, at the 2023 Bitcoin conference in Florida, he argued for a shift in the apex bank’s mandate.

In a conversation, Ramaswamy said, “I would put the Fed back in its place to have a single mandate, to focus on stabilizing the U.S. dollar as a unit of measurement, period,” he said, “rather than trying to focus on multiple other mandates,”

Vivek Ramaswamy’s statements have elevated the role of the central bank in the economy to a prominent issue in the presidential race.

Making his stance on crypto clearer, Ramaswamy announced in May his intention to accept Bitcoin donations ahead of the primaries. While he wasn’t the only one breaking from traditional campaign financing, he has strengthened the wide Republican stance of allowing innovation and financial freedom in crypto.

Ramaswamy is reportedly second in the race, trailing former POTUS Donald Trump, per the latest PredictIt data.

Many Republicans Advocate for Financial Freedom Through Bitcoin Investment

Florida Governor and another potential Republican contender Ron DeSantis is next in line. He promises to “rein in” the central bank and believes in removing Chairman Jerome Powell before his term ends in 2026. DeSantis has opposed the concept of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), advocating instead for more freedom with cryptocurrency investments.

“Biden’s war on bitcoin and cryptocurrency will come to an end when I become president,” DeSantis recently stated. Ramaswamy recently surpassed DeSantis in the odds for the Republican nomination in recent reports.

Former President Trump is also campaigning on a tone of financial reform. He has promised to dismiss IRS agents hired by President Biden. “I will say ‘no’ to 87,000 IRS agents who want to take your money and destroy your lives,” Trump recently told his supporters.

The GMI PAC, a crypto-focused political action committee, found that 44% of US voters own or consider owning digital assets. With Millennials and Gen-Zers expected to make up a large part of American voters, cryptocurrency has emerged as a key issue in the upcoming election.

As Balaji Srinivasan pointed out, the prominence of Bitcoin in this election cycle is unprecedented. It leads him to dub 2024 the “first Bitcoin election.” This parallels the first “Twitter election” in 2016, which demonstrated the influence of tech and social media on American politics.