Ben Carson Says Progressive Policies Stopped Progress in Black Community; Warns That GOP Must Have Fix After Midterm
Conservative pundit and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said progressive policies have halted progress in the black community and warned that the GOP needs to ensure that they have a plan to address this lack of progress after likely wins in midterm elections Tuesday.
Speaking on the Hannity Show in a recent Fox News interview Carson addressed comments made by economist Ben Stein who charged that President Barack Obama is the "most racist president" America has ever seen.
Stein argued in a clip from an earlier interview on Fox News that: "More people are on food stamps than ever. More people are getting welfare than ever. What cuts are they talking about? More people are getting government subsidized healthcare than ever. What cuts are they talking about? It's all a way to racialize voting in this country. This president is the most racist president there has ever been in America. He is purposely trying to use race to divide Americans. Anyone who investigates it even a little bit knows it's hogwash."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
When asked by host Sean Hannity if he agreed with Stein's comments that Obama is a racist, Carson disagreed.
"I don't believe that he's racist, per se. But his ideal of what America should be is really not consistent with the ideals of the Founders of this nation. And we've had 50, maybe 60 years now of progressive policies, and what they have done is they have halted tremendous progress, particularly in the black community," Carson said.
"This is a community that is very, very strong historically that withstood the tragedies of slavery, the post-slavery era, Jim Crow and segregation, and still was strong — had intact families, had values. And then once the progressive left began to bestow all their wonderfulness on this community, that's when it really began to disintegrate," he continued.
"I think what needs to be emphasized is in the black community today, in America, there's control of $1 trillion worth of wealth. They need to learn how to turn those dollars over in their own community a couple of times before they send them out. That's what creates wealth. Reach back, pull others with you. And we need to be talking about what happens when a young girl has a baby out of wedlock. Her education stops," Carson further noted.
Hannity, although he also disagreed that Obama is racist, described him as a "radical ideologue, inexperienced and incompetent, and a little bit narcissistic." He then noted that under the Obama administration the number of black Americans on food stamps jumped from six million in 2008 to just under 11 million, then questioned why 95 percent of blacks voted for Obama.
"… Because people are becoming dependent. And it's inner-generational dependencies based on these policies," replied Carson.
The celebrated neurosurgeon, who is still mulling whether or not he will make a presidential run in 2016, charged however that the current plight of African-Americans is an opportunity for the GOP to present workable solutions.
"I think this is a wonderful opportunity, quite frankly, for Republicans to present a different picture, a way up and out of poverty. We need to start talking about some of the programs, like micro-lending, that allow people through their own efforts to rise. I think many Americans would be happy to invest in their fellow Americans to see them move from dependency," he said.
"We're going to have to think about these things and put those programs out there. Republicans are going to win tomorrow (Tuesday). But we can't be satisfied with that. We're going to have to put out programs that are understandable and intelligible and that work," he added.
