Vivek Ramaswamy to Newsmax: Solutions Needed From GOP Hopefuls

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who last week announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Sunday said on Newsmax that while a looming economic crisis can't be avoided, in part, there are still ways to blunt its impact and that is offering the solutions the United States needs.

"Right now, we have a double whammy where we've had money running from on high, like manna from heaven, for a long time, both through government spending and loose monetary policy but now combined with actual disastrous economic policies from the Biden administration," Ramaswamy, the author of "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam," said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."

But unlike the last time the United States was in the same situation and then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker raised interest rates, President Ronald Reagan's good economic policies were behind the move, he said.

"There's going to be some tough times ahead," Ramaswamy said. "I think we can blunt that impact by doing some simple things, by unleashing domestic energy production here in the United States. Energy costs are a driver of inflation."

Monetary policy wasn't the only thing at fault, because under President Joe Biden, the United States has "shot itself in the foot" when it came to energy production, he added.

The United States also did not learn its lesson during the 2008 financial crisis, because banks got bailed out at the end, he continued.

"I think we need to resist that crony capitalist temptation now," said Ramaswamy. "There's going to be a little bit of economic hardship, but our culture can learn from it. In some ways, our culture is so weak. The rise of wokeism…it's just a symptom of the fact that our culture has been trained to ski on this artificial snow. Well, now the snow machine has to turn off. Easy money isn't going to work anymore."

Ramaswamy said Sunday his blunt messaging so far has been "overwhelmingly effective" as his campaign has rolled out.

"I've traveled [in] Iowa and New Hampshire this week," he said. "I was actually overwhelmed by how many people came out to our events in the first week, and that's because I think people are hungry for specificity."

Part of the problem, Ramaswamy added, is that "we have to see the problem with clear eyes."

"We're not in 1980 anymore when the only problem in America is big government," he said. "It's a new hybrid of big government and big business and even our culture…now it is time to start moving toward solutions. That is why I'm running for president."

Ramaswamy said he expects to lead the field of candidates seeking the GOP nomination because he will be offering "specific courses of action to address this scourge of wokeness climate, the race-based division in this country to revive our missing, nationalized identity."

He further pointed out that while former President Donald Trump is boasting a significant number of achievements, he's no longer the non-politician in the race.

"I am the only non-politician who is or will be in this field now," said Ramaswamy, adding that he does not see himself as running against Trump but instead, for the United States.

"I think Donald Trump is misunderstood," he said. "People say he didn't care about national unity. I know him. I think he actually does care deeply about national unity. But the question is, how can we actually now deliver it? And when I look at anybody else who's an established politician running versus somebody else who's coming in like Trump did in 2015, which I respect from the outside to say the things that no one else is willing to say? That is my role."

About NEWSMAX TV:

NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!