Presidential candidate suggests unusual math method to shrink government staff
A unique approach to federal workforce downsizing gets attention from presidential hopeful. The plan uses simple number-based elimination to reach specific reduction targets
Vivek Ramaswamy shared his straight-forward plan for cutting federal workers using a number-based method that caught many by surprise. During a podcast chat this fall he laid out his quick-math solution for government downsizing
If your Social Security number ends in an odd number youre out. If it ends in an even number youre in; theres a 50 percent cut right there. If your Social Security number starts in an even number youre in and if it starts with an odd number youre out. Boom. Thats a 75 percent reduction done
His two-step elimination idea (which relies on simple odd-even number sorting) would work like this:
- First round removes workers with odd-ending SSNs
- Second round cuts remaining staff with odd-starting numbers
The business-minded candidate points to this as a no-nonsense way to reach his goal — dropping federal staff numbers by three-quarters through basic math decisions rather than complex evaluations
