Posted on 08/16/2015 5:59:34 PM PDT by markomalley
Ben Carson isn't pandering to voters in Iowa, telling them Sunday that he would phase out agricultural subsidies if elected president.
The Republican candidate, however, said that he would allow 10 years for the policy to take effect.
"Particularly when you're talking about renewable fuel standards and things, there are a lot of promises that have been made that really extend all the way out to 2022, and people have made plans based on those kind of things," Carson said Sunday. "You can't just pull out the rug out from under people."
The reform was just one of several Carson was asked about after an appearance at the "soapbox" at the Iowa State Fair sponsored by the Des Moines Register.
Carson, a famed neurosurgeon and new entrant to politics, suggested that the government could fund more research in clean fuels and alternative energy with the revenues that would come from loosening restrictions on exporting oil.
"We have enormous amounts of energy that we can utilize in appropriate ways," he said, if not for "archaic" government rules.
With energy exports, he said, "we can make Europe dependent on us for energy, rather than Putin."
Carson's comments came shortly after his soapbox speech, delivered to a large crowd.
While his speech was mostly autobiographical and not political or policy-focused, Carson identified improving the country's finances as a top agenda item. Loosening restrictions on oil exports is one of the ways he would address the government's fiscal gap.
"We are in the process of destroying the future for the next generation," Carson said of the federal government's unfunded liabilities.
He claimed that "politicians" don't want to talk about the country's fiscal problems, but that he would.
"They want to get re-elected," Carson said, "and I want to save the nation."
Gutsy.
Well...it’s not like he had a chance to win there anyway.
Perhaps the telling of truth is getting contagious.
One can dream...
That’s at least 2. Cruz has been saying it since early on and restated it at the AFP event in Vegas the other night.
He says that he would ease the tax and regulatory burden so farmers could find their own path to prosperity without relying on government.
Will the voters like this approach? So far -- they seem to.
But if the voters find comfort in the old lies, they may fall back on cries of "Hillary! She will give us free things! And she will punish the rich who cause our troubles!"
We shall see.
Ballsy...
Nothing go together like Iowa and pork.
That’s why Iowa demands to go first. They get all the politicians to guarantee their pork or they’re a big loser in Iowa.
It’s kind of hard to keep your candidacy going if you do very poorly in Iowa. The candidates know that.
It’s a beautiful thing, and VERY refreshing after 8 years of constant LIES.
Did the greedy corn farmers have the vapors listening to this heresy? We all have to have their ethanol junk in our gas tanks because politicians will not pull the plug on this give-away program to the corn lobby.
It's called EWG Farm Subsidy Database (I don't know what the EWG stands for). I stumbled across it by accident when I was searching for a distant Ewing relative but I doubt that's what it stands for.
You can search it by zip code, state, name. It gives the amount for each year and the total for the years.
In a releatively recent year, 2007, 2008 or so, it cut off subsidies for earners of income from all sources to 500K or above.
Long overdue. At least Carson and Trump are the real “Straight Talk Express” unlike that idiot McVain who claimed that in 2008.
Yes, you can—and we should.
10 years is ridiculous pandering.
Environmental Working Group.
Bad news we play the first 2 games of the season in blue states.
First 10 primary/caucus states should be among ones that voted R for POTUS in last election.
WOOOOHOOOO Ben Carson. HUGE move. Thank you, sir.
I found some people I know there several months ago. A young couple with two children, were getting $80,000 every year from “farm subsidies”. It seems outrageous.
My best friend from high school and her wealthy farmer husband averaged $113,000 a year during the time listed. A few years ago she and her friends flew to New York (from MN) to do their Christmas shopping. That list went on line several years ago and farmers in my hometown were livid.
Funny thing is, her husband is very conservative politically and back when I was a bleeding heart liberal college student told me I would become a conservative republican within a year of graduating college. He was right ;-).
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