Trump has not offered Carson U.S. housing post: spokesman

Yahoo News ^ | 23 Nov 2016

[mandaladon]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump has not extended an offer to retired neurosurgeon and former presidential rival Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a Carson spokesman said on Wednesday, disputing a report by the Wall Street Journal.

"Trump did not make an offer," Carson spokesman Armstrong Williams told Reuters. "He asked him to consider HUD. Nothing has been offered and no decision has been made."

The Wall Street Journal earlier had cited Williams as saying Carson had been offered the post and had accepted. The Journal later corrected its story to say Carson was being considered for the HUD job.

"@realDonaldTrump is considering @RealBenCarson for a cabinet post. Dr. Carson is prayerfully & seriously considering," Armstrong said on Twitter. On Tuesday, Armstrong had told Reuters that Trump had asked Carson to consider taking the post and that Carson was considering it.

As recently as last week, Carson, 65, had told The Washington Post he was not interested in a Cabinet job, saying, "Having me as a federal bureaucrat would be like a fish out of water."

But he and Trump met on Tuesday at Trump Tower in New York, and earlier on Wednesday Carson posted on Facebook that after the talks he felt "that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone."

[cgbg]

HUD is a very challenging bureaucracy to deal with--way out of Carson's comfort zone imho.

Just one example from many years ago:

In 1989 the Bush administration brought in a investment banker to be the FHA Commissioner (the second most important job in HUD responsible for most of the budget and employees of the Department). When she got there she was stunned by the waste and lack of accountability in the agency. She had the experise to carefully review the books and concluded that hundreds of millions of dollars had "disappeared". She kept digging and digging and digging until she found the money.

Then they hustled her out of Washington DC in a hurry.

Her name--Catherine Austin Fitts

Her discovery--the Black Budget was siphoning money out of HUD.

Where is she today?

I leave that as an exercise.

[SaveFerris]

Probably that budget is found in every agency, I’d imagine.....No telling what we really have out there.....

[StAnDeliver]

"Carson was on a fox channel this am and as much a made the claim that he had been offered the job."

There's also a counter-narrative that Carson says one thing to the press, and another thing to Trump Tower: I. Want. That. Job.

I could do without Carson in the Cabinet, frankly.

[Impy]

Coverage of the transition has been terrible.

[hal ogen]

Media coverage for decades has been terrible...expect such coverage to continue.

[PghBaldy]

Yep. The man is obviously brilliant, but he does not seem like the right pick for HUD. Surgeon General maybe.

[eartick]

Eliminate HUD. Don’t appoint anyone and start removing people from this agency.

Federal HUD has proven to be a disaster.

Let the states control the HUD portion of State taxes that are poored into the FERAL Government coffers.

You will see progress in short order because the State knows what its people should need interfacing with local communities.

[eartick]

That is why HUD needs to go away and be handled at state level

[cgbg]

HUD needs to go away and be handled at state level

You are on the right track. Let's put some meat on those bones. HUD is a creation of Congress so Congress will need to act to make it happen.

Meanwhile while Trump waits for Congress to act here is what he can do immediately:

Remove all Obama political appointees and replace them with his folks.

Have Fair Housing eliminated as a separate part of HUD and have them report to his political appointees.

Stop all Federal grants to the "sanctuary cities" and states which have "sanctuary cities" until the states sign agreements not to fund their "sanctuary cities".

Ramp up investigation of the corrupt public housing authorities (low hanging fruit everywhere).

Eliminate half of the federal managers across the board--hire a management consultant to figure out which half--but err on the side of eliminating the positions. This was the old concept of zero base budgeting--eliminate something and then find out if you really need it.

Eliminate half of the Headquarters employees--same approach. That will require negotiating with the union--not easy or fun.

This stuff is way too complex for someone like Carson.

[Albion Wilde]

I never believed Carson had been offered HUD when it was announced. It would have been racist — “you may be a brain surgeon, but your being black and the inner cities being mostly people of color is what qualifies you.”

Trump more interested in “good fit” and “best practices” than that. Carson would have been so completely ticked off at the suggestion that the merest discussion of it would never even have gotten to the “leak” stage.

[Sontagged]

Thanks for the heads up, had never heard of Catherine Austin Fitts.

Forget Ben Carson for HUD, give Fitts back the job?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBe55dL_J04

[bIlluminati]

A manager with demonstrated downsizing and refocussing skills....

---

Romney for Secretary of C.H.U..D.!

[bIlluminati]

From 2002 - Want to stop those who keep feeding the populace fake and distorted news? There’s no need for violence, just stop giving them your time and money.

This and many other points are made by Catherine Austin Fitts here, points that after reading leave one feeling perhaps that this is only common sense. So why is it so uncommon? Because the populace allows themselves to be fed programming and imprinting by the mainstream Fake News folk, the same folk who own the war machines, the political machines, the corporate machines, by voluntarilly giving them our time and money.

It’s a vicious cycle that goes round and round, and will continue to do so until each individual makes the choice to change cycles.

[Evil Slayer]

Why not Surgeon General? Seems much more relevant to Carson. HUD needs much higher energy management.

I totally agree. It would be the perfect position for him.