|
Ben Carson on Welfare & Poverty
Tea Party challenger in Republican primary
|
|
|
We the people--not government--should take care of indigent
Q: How do you reconcile the traditional Christian value of "caring for the least of these," and the GOP stance against welfare?CARSON: My stance is that, we the people have the responsibility to take care of the indigent in our society. It's not
the government's job. You can read the constitution all you want, it never says that it is the government's job and I think where we've gotten confused. In the old days of America, if it was harvest time and the farmer fell down and broke his leg,
everybody pitched in and harvested his crops for him. We have a history a taking care of each other. Starting in the 1920's, the government started getting involved in everything. It kept growing, metastasizing. By the time we got to the 1960s, LBJ
was saying, "we, the government, are going to eliminate poverty." $19 trillion later, 10 times more people on food stamps, more poverty, more welfare, broken homes. Everything is much worse. And that's because it's not their job. It's our job.
Source: 2016 CNN GOP Town Hall in South Carolina
, Feb 17, 2016
Give poor people opportunity to not be poor people
I do care about the poor people. And in the system that we're putting together, there will be a rebate for people at the poverty level. But I also want to emphasize the fact that as we get the economy moving, and I hope I get a question about how do
we get the economy moving, there will be a lot more opportunities for poor people not to be poor people because this is America. This is the land of dreams. And our policies should be aimed at allowing people to realize that dream.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate
, Nov 10, 2015
Get rid of dependency; that's true compassion
Tea Party favorite Dr. Ben Carson kicked off the Conservative Political Action Conference, telling an attentive audience that the next President must "get rid of dependency" that some Americans might have on the U.S. government."We need to
understand what true compassion is to reach out to individuals who think that being dependent is reasonable as long as they feel safe," said Carson, the first speaker to address
this year's annual keynote conservative conference. "It's not compassion to pat them on the head and say, 'There, there, I'm going to take care of all your needs, your health care, your food.' That's the opposite of compassion.
"I'm not interested in getting rid of a safety net, I'm interested in getting rid of dependency," Carson said, prompting one in a series of raucous rounds of applause.
Source: N. Y. Daily News: 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf.
, Feb 26, 2015
Charities better at providing for needy than the government
He railed against the government's lack of forethought to deal with the national debt. "We're not planning for the future," Carson said. "If we continue to spend ourselves into oblivion, we are going to destroy this nation."
He also said the government is treating corporations "as enemies" and that corporate taxes should be lowered to encourage growth. "Corporations are not in business to be social-welfare organizations; they are there to make money,"
Carson said.Charities, he added, are better at providing for the needy than the government. "Nobody is starving on the streets. We've always taken care of them,"
Carson said. "We take care of our own; we always have. It is not the government's responsibility."
Source: 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. in Baltimore Sun
, Mar 17, 2013
Those who don't want to work? They are on their own
The issue of how to handle able-bodied individuals who simply do not want to work has three practical solutions:- Tell those who don't work that they are on their own.
- Take from those who have something and redistribute it to the individuals who
aren't working.
- Borrow from a 3rd party in order to take care of the nonworking individuals and leave the debt to future generations.
Logically, with solution 1, the individual who isn't working clearly either starves or finds a job.
What about solution 2? In this case, those who are forcibly constrained to support the individuals who aren't working eventually lose interest in working themselves, since the fruits of their labors are being confiscated. This, in turn, leads to even
more individuals who aren't working. What about solution 3? These investors are unlikely to extend credit indefinitely. Thus solution 1 is the only one that stands the test of logic and is the one upon which we should concentrate.
Source: America the Beautiful, by Ben Carson, p. 88-89
, Jan 24, 2012
Government entitlements compete with private-sector charity
It is very difficult to travel to any community in our nation and not find charitable organizations specifically created to aid the indigent citizens of that community.Our government used to fully understand the role of private-sector charitable
organizations in ameliorating the plight of the poor. This is why the government offered tax deductions and exemptions for churches and other charitable organizations. Today the government actually competes with many of these private-sector charities
while still offering them tax deductions. How does this wasteful duplication benefit government or us, its citizens? Certainly by creating huge government entitlement programs, the size and power of the government increases dramatically. Before long,
people generally depend on government for everything from health care and education, to a comfortable retirement, instead of looking to government for the basic protection of life and property, as well as providing public roads and public safety.
Source: America the Beautiful, by Ben Carson, p. 91
, Jan 24, 2012
Eradicate poverty by providing education and requiring work
The Bible makes it clear that we have a responsibility to be kind to the poor among us. [But] America did not become a great nation by encouraging people to feel sorry for themselves and seek handouts from othersIf we really want to eradicate poverty,
we should allocate significant resources and personnel toward providing education and opportunity for the poor. And if we are to provide assistance to our able-bodied citizens, it should be attached to a requirement for work or acquisition of education
and/or skills.
If they have to work anyway, many people will put real effort into finding the kind of job they want as opposed to collecting unemployment benefits and being assigned to work they consider undesirable. Some conservatives would say that
we should leave such people on their own to sink or swim because we cannot afford to keep supporting them, while some liberals would say that these people already have enough problems and that it would be unfair to require anything of them. I reject both
Source: America the Beautiful, by Ben Carson, p.176
, Jan 24, 2012
Page last updated: Oct 01, 2016