The Republican contenders for Utah's Senate seat pitched their vision for major cuts to the size of federal government, including eliminating entitlements and disbanding the departments of Education, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development.

Such an overhaul is essential, the seven candidates argued during a candidate forum Friday night, to control the ballooning federal deficit and bringing government back in line with its constitutional obligations.

"I would turn all of the entitlement programs over to the states. That means Medicare and, in particular, Medicaid to the states," said businessman Tim Bridgewater, referring to the government-run health care programs for the poor and the elderly. "That would eliminate a major part of the debt and deficit we have on an annual basis. In addition, we need to eliminate the departments of Energy and Education."

Bridgewater is a consultant for the alternative energy company Raser Technologies, which has received federal funding, but he said that if the Energy Department is eliminated, it would free the energy industry from restrictive regulation and allow the marketplace to take over.

Sen. Bob Bennett, who is fighting for his political life amid an anti-Washington fervor, said he has already proposed legislation to replace Medicaid with a program that uses market principles and to make major changes to Medicare so that the program makes more sense.

Bennett's Health Americans Act, which he co-sponsored with Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would replace Medicaid with another program to enable the poor to get health care, which would also be administered by the federal government.

"I'd start by eliminating the U.S. Department of Education at a cost of $50 billion and then move on to Housing and Urban Development," said Mike Lee, who is regarded as Bennett's leading opponent.

Lee said afterward that there is no constitutional basis for Congress to involve itself in housing. "There are few things more local than housing. It's a very local enterprise," Lee said.

But Lee said all of the cuts could be "like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" if we don't address entitlements in a real way.

Mandatory spending on things like Medicare and Medicaid now accounts for about two-thirds of the federal budget.

Cherilyn Eagar said that, as a disciple of Ronald Reagan, she would want to fulfill his dream of wiping out the Education Department. She would also want to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

Former U.S. Rep. Merrill Cook also targeted the departments of Education and Energy; Jeremy Friedbaum said the federal employees union and Bureau of Land Management should get the ax; and Leonard Fabiano said every function of the federal government not explicitly defined in the Constitution should be eliminated.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Holland said the extreme views of the Republican candidates will provide a strong contrast with the Democratic nominee in the fall.

"It would be very interesting to see the reaction of families in Utah if Congress were to eliminate Medicare, just destroy the Medicare system. I thought we were past that," he said. "As regular Utah citizens start to see the extremism of some of these proposals, it's going to be a very interesting election and will give us a chance to expose what we think has happened to the Republican Party, and that is a takeover by the extreme right."

The call to shrink the federal government resonated with those Republicans on hand Friday.

"I do agree with cutting the education department at the federal level," said Jared Clayton, a state delegate from Sandy, who is leaning toward supporting Lee. "I think they just waste money."

But Derk Timothy, said that while lots of politicians talk about shrinking government, no one seems to have been able to do the job, and he wonders if they are swayed when they get to Washington, D.C.