Posted on 12/05/2016 3:53:06 AM PST by usafa92
Dr. Ben Carson will be Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the president-elect’s transition team confirmed Monday morning.
“Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities,” Mr. Trump said in a statement released by his team.”We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities. Ben shares my optimism about the future of our country and is part of ensuring that this is a Presidency representing all Americans. He is a tough competitor and never gives up.”
Carson heavily hinted at the HUD position in a Facebook post days earlier, writing, “After serious discussions with the Trump transition team, I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone.”
“I am honored to accept the opportunity to serve our country in the Trump administration,” Carson was quoted as saying in the statement released Monday. “I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly by strengthening communities that are most in need. We have much work to do in enhancing every aspect of our nation and ensuring that our nation’s housing needs are met.”
Carson, who has never held elected office and failed earlier this year in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, speculated to Fox News before Thanksgiving that Mr. Trump’s consideration for the HUD position was in part due to Carson’s upbringing.
“I grew up in the inner city and have spent a lot of time there, and have dealt with a lot of patients from that area and recognize that we cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities,” he said Tuesday.
The 65-year-old has no previous policy experience in the field of urban development.
Carson, who was raised in an impoverished area of Detroit, later rose to prominence as a renowned neurosurgeon who drew national political attention this year when he ran in the Republican primary race earlier this year.
While his presidential campaign was short-lived, Carson has continued to make headlines with his early endorsement of Mr. Trump, and his advisory role with the president-elect.
In September, Mr. Trump toured Carson’s boyhood neighborhood in Detroit with the retired doctor by his side. During that trip, the then-GOP nominee pitched African Americans on his plans for inner cities and promised a “civil rights agenda for our time.”
Carson’s role in the coming administration was unclear as late as last week. Even the neurosurgeon’s longtime friend and adviser, Armstrong Williams, told The Hill that Carson wasn’t interested in running a government agency because he’d never served in a federal capacity.
“Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency,” Armstrong said Tuesday. “The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
Leaders hire good finance guys. Accountants are not visionaries.
ping
I still fail to see why the FedGov should be housing anyone other than some military and Gov positions.
Is that all you retrieved from the mission statement? Build can be establish and he will not be a 1 man department.
Hey Ben I want a HUD loan.
You know the kind you get that does not need to be paid back.
I will even give you part of the loan money.....
Did not say he was not equipped to do the job but anyone going into this thinking they are going to fix it is not seeing the big picture.
The politicians have created a voting block of dependents that will always be on the government tit.
It was planned that way by government and government will keep it that a way.
I hope that he is a good choice for this position.
Look at the bright side brother, things will be getting better rather than worse for a while.
The things that Obama did to ramp up the numbers on food stamps and such, can be easily undone.
The work requirement for welfare worked at getting a big chunk off the dole. Obama removed it administratively. It can be popped back in the same way. When it was first put in place (1996) caseloads dropped in half over 5 years. When Maine put it back in 2014, their caseload of able-bodied adults without dependents dropped by 80 percent within three months.
HHS can issue a one page policy requiring verified proof of citizenship for any benefits, making it a firing offense for bureaucrats to sign up illegals.
Just changing what the boss is measuring, will change the outcomes - bonuses for reducing the caseload, instead of increasing it.
There are many powerful tools like that, which could be used by the new Administration. House Republicans have also been cooking up welfare reform legislative proposals in earnest over the last year. Also, a rising economy itself has a strong effect on reducing welfare rolls.
Dr. Carson is one more tool in reducing dependency - he will not have to be dragged into supporting it, he will be a driving force to get folks off the dole and on their own feet.
You make excellent points about Kep's tax and economic policies. But he is now most quoted for his support of unrestricted immigration and open borders. Such as Paul Ryan.., who said this right before his plan to bring the Gang of 8 Amnesty to the House -- a plan derailed by the defeat of Eric Cantor...
Speaker Ryan Pushes Conservatives To Back His ‘Jack Kemp’ Pro-Immigration Economic Agenda
As Breitbart put it...
Jack Kemp was a libertarian GOP leader in the 1980s, who favored large-scale immigration into California and other states.
When Kemp was active, California was dominated by U.S.-born mainstream voters who elected Republicans. Now, after Kemp helped overcome public opposition to large-scale migration, California’s politics are dominated by minorities, including poor immigrants, ensuring the state is dominated by Democratic politicians. But Ryan’s speech still touted Kemp’s policies.
Being a Cabinet Secretary (such as for HUD) is basically an opportunity for someone in US politics to have a mini-bully-pulpit to oversee a lot of policy decisions to ensure they are done Constitutionally. Here is the org chart of who Carson will oversee.
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/directory/director
Also every high school student and any college special snowflake who thinks life is hard should read Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Alexander Denisovich."
that was also the Reagan philosophy. And Dubya believed that we could moderate the arab world by replacing secular dictators with democracies. Those ideas failed and we moved on.
Oops “Ivan Denisovich”
Its not like its brain surgery folks. Give the man a chance......
If you get a HUD loan, they have rules about you hanging laundry out to dry or the verbiage used in your loan documents . . .
They send HUD auditors to review the loan servicing by the lender and find mistakes, then the next year they send a new auditor who says the mistakes were right and go back to the first way of doing things.
Stuff like that.
Donald John Trump is the president with zero political experience.
Yeah, I won’t argue the point - immigration turns out to have been a big mistake.
Back then, as I recall, conservatives were pro immigration but anti welfare. without welfare there would be nothing to fear from normal immigration.
The Democrats are only upset about the Carson appointment because he is a black man. They are racists & bigots!
Carson is perfect for the job because he is brilliant and knows what it like growing up in the inter-city. He is the most loving and caring individual appointment yet!
HUD is not in the construction business and this is not a construction issue. HUD is a Gibsmedats agency at its core. The truth hurts, but that is what it is. The policy of moving low income, minorities, single parent families into stable, two parent communities is been disastrous for those communities. Decent, hard-working neighborhoods have morphed into drug addled, crime infested neighborhood where real estate prices dropped like a stone. We need better solutions.
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