Trump Nominates Ben Carson for Secretary of HUD ?

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
The Contradictions of Ben Carson's
Vision for American Housing

In his confirmation hearing, he simultaneously
pledged to maintain and eliminate programs from
the Department of Housing and Urban Development.




When he was on the campaign trail, Ben Carson spoke frequently about the inefficiency of government, and expressed skepticism about particular government programs. “We have 4.1 million federal employees, and we have 645 government agencies and sub-agencies. And there's an enormous amount of inefficiency and overlap to be gotten rid of,” he told
Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal in November 2015. He also expressed special disdain for an Obama-era rule, released in the summer of 2015, that required local communities to assess segregation in their communities and try to address it. “Based on the history of failed socialist experiments in this country, entrusting the government to get it right can prove downright dangerous,” he wrote about the rule in theWashington Times.

All of this made many housing advocates nervous when Donald J. Trump announced that Carson was his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which spends much of its energies on providing housing and subsidies for the poor. How would an agency with a $47 billion budget fare under someone who thought government spending should be cut, and that efforts to end segregation—a core HUD mission—are akin to “failed socialist experiments”?


His Senate confirmation hearing did little to answer these questions,
as Carson both pledged to cut spending, and to keep—or even
expand—programs that are the hallmark of what HUD does.


“I do believe that government can play a very important role,” he said, in his opening statement. “There are points of intervention, things we can do to make a difference in people’s lives.” What he doesn’t believe, it seems, is that the government should spend money to carry out those interventions. When New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez asked Carson whether his “worldview” fit into HUD’s core mission,

Carson defended his campaign pledges to cut back on government spending.


“We can never seem to cut, because people have their programs and they say, ‘This one is sacred, and this one is not.’ The point being, if we can find a number on which we can agree and begin to cut back, we can start thinking about fiscal responsibility,” Carson said. “Bear in mind, we are approaching a $20 trillion national debt.”


Carson also believes that there should be a limit to how much public assistance America should provide.

“We have to be cognizant of our fiscal responsibilities, as well as our social responsibilities,” he said in response to a question by Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. “Would we love to put every single person in a beautiful unit forever? Absolutely, that would be ideal. But we don’t necessarily have the necessary funding.”


And in an exchange with the Republican senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis, Carson pledged to look at which HUD programs he could cut:

Tillis: What’s the best thing we can do for people with government assistance?

Carson: Get them off of it.

Tillis: Do you think there are any sacred cows in HUD that stand in the way of that outcome?

Carson: I've been studying it carefully and I haven't seen one yet.

Tillis: Do you think that to a certain extent over the years we've gone from providing housing to providing warehousing for an unacceptable number of people who are supported through the federal government?

Carson: Well, the key to your question there was the word “unacceptable.” And yes, absolutely.

Tillis: Do you believe that HUD and the other agencies have creeped their scopes over time and that you can be someone who may say that HUD needs to be smaller, or some other organization needs to be smaller so that the people best able to provide the safety net, the agency best positioned to provide the safety net can do it, and you can complement in some points and take the lead in others?

Carson: I believe we need to be much more efficient.


Yet when various senators asked Carson to weigh in on specific programs that helped their constituents, he consistently pledged to keep them going.

  • That included a rental-assistance demonstration that provides assistance to 4.5 million households,
  • a community-development block grant that will provide $1.6 billion to Americans, including thousands affected by floods in Louisiana, and
  • a program to rid housing of lead hazards.
  • In fact, he said, a program to end veteran homelessness “needs more enhancements.”
  • He also promised to embark on a nationwide “listening tour” to hear more about what needs to be improved at the department.

And, despite his own repeated statements to cut down on expenses, he pledged, to the Democrat senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, that he would advocate for a budget for HUD. “I want to put together a world-class plan on housing in this country,” Carson said. “And then I want to come to you with that world-class plan. And I want to convince you all that this is what we need to do. I don’t know what that number is going to be—it might be more, it might be less.”

Carson also seems to be of two minds about the government’s role in eradicating segregation.

For all his criticisms of government policies meant to reduce segregation, when asked by Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio about the Obama-era rule to affirmatively further fair housing, Carson said he didn’t have a problem with affirmative action or integration.


“I do have a problem with people on high dictating it when they don’t know anything about what’s going on in the area,” he said. “What I believe to be the case is that we have people sitting around in desks in Washington, D.C., deciding on how things should be done.”

But the pivot from anti-Washington rhetoric to policy setting is always complicated when one of those desks is now yours.


SOURCE: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/ben-carson-hud-hearing/513011/


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QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Ben Carson refers to slaves as immigrants


Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves as "immigrants" while speaking Monday to department employees.


"That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity," Carson said. "There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less."


 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
What Ben Carson Thinks About
the Proposed $6.2B HUD Budget Cut




President Donald Trump released his budget proposal last week that included a
proposed $6.2 billion cut in funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As HousingWire staffer Ben Lane notes, shortly after the plan was announced, HUD released a statement in support. In part,
HUD stated,

The blueprint reflects the President’s commitment to support HUD’s critical functions that provide rental assistance to low-income and vulnerable households and to help work-eligible families achieve self-sufficiency.

It also recognizes a greater role for State and local governments, and the private sector to address community and economic development needs.

Moreover, the spending plan supports the longstanding home-ownership mission of the Federal Housing Administration to provide mortgage insurance to credit qualified households.”

HUD Secretary Ben Carson also came out in favor of the proposed cuts.

“The discretionary budget plan released today by President Trump aligns with Agency plans to provide rental assistance to low-income and vulnerable households and to help families achieve self-sufficiency,” Carson said.

“The budget also promotes fiscal responsibility at HUD by promoting better efficiencies and leveraging IT modernization,” Carson continued. “I look forward to working with the President and remain keenly focused on HUD’s mission and core values.

A more detailed program-by-program budget proposal will be announced in May.

Absent from that statement was any reaction to the budget from new HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

So, what does Carson think of the cuts to HUD’s budget?

For one, he’s in favor of them.

In a short statement issues late Thursday by HUD, Carson said that :

the budget furthers the Trump administration’s view of how HUD should operate.

“The discretionary budget plan released today by President Trump aligns with Agency plans to provide rental assistance to low-income and vulnerable households and to help families achieve self-sufficiency,” Carson said.

“The budget also promotes fiscal responsibility at HUD by promoting better efficiencies and leveraging IT modernization,” Carson continued. “I look forward to working with the President and remain keenly focused on HUD’s mission and core values.”

The statement strikes a bit of a different tone from what Carson said last week, when the rumors of a budget cut for HUD began to circulate.

After those budget figures leaked out, Carson attempted to calm the fears of HUD staff, saying in an email that the numbers being circulated were simply “preliminary numbers” that are likely to change.

Carson’s email stated: Today you may have read preliminary HUD FY18 budget negotiations in national media reports. Please understand that budget negotiations currently underway are very similar to those that have occurred in previous years. This budget process is a lengthy, back and forth process that will continue. It’s unfortunate that preliminary numbers were published but, please take some comfort in knowing that starting numbers are rarely final numbers. Rest assured, we are working hard to support those programs that help so many Americans, focus on our core mission, and ensure that every tax dollar is spent wisely and effectively.

As it turns out, those leaked numbers were correct. Now it’s just a matter of whether Trump’s budget passes or not.

For a more detailed look on what programs would be cut and which ones get a boost under Trump’s budget, click here.


SOURCE: http://www.housingwire.com/articles...-about-the-proposed-62-billion-hud-budget-cut


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MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
BREAKING: Elizabeth Warren just destroyed Ben Carson to his face for his $31K dining set... but what she said next is the REAL scandal.

 

gdatruth

A Man Apart
Certified Pussy Poster
just like EPA
they put someone in place to undermine the motives of the organization
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Ben Carson is the latest Trump official to test positive for coronavirus


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CNN
By Jeremy Diamond
and Betsy Klein, CNN

November 9, 2020


(CNN) Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, his deputy chief of staff Coalter Baker confirmed to CNN.

"Secretary Carson has tested positive for the coronavirus. He is in good spirits and feels fortunate to have access to effective therapeutics which aid and markedly speed his recovery," Baker said in a statement.

An aide added that Carson, 69, tested positive Monday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after experiencing symptoms. He is no longer at the hospital.

Carson's chief of staff Andrew Hughes disclosed the secretary's positive diagnosis in an all-staff letter, writing: "He is resting at his house and is already beginning to feel better."

Hughes also said staff would be notified if they'd been in contact with Carson and that "all precautions are being taken."
Later Monday afternoon, two sources confirmed to CNN that another individual in Trump's orbit, David Bossie, had tested positive for coronavirus. The diagnosis came days after he was tapped to oversee the Trump campaign's legal challenges contesting the outcome of the election.

Carson attended an election night party where White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and nearly every other attendee was not wearing a mask. Meadows and four others in Trump's orbit subsequently tested positive last week.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, was spotted maskless at several Trump campaign events in the lead up to Election Day, including a Trump campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, on October 30.

Carson's diagnosis was first reported by ABC News.

Social media posts by Carson and Trump supporters indicate that the Housing secretary was traveling to campaign for the President in the southeast before Election Day.

Black Voices for Trump posts indicate that Carson and his wife, Candy, traveled to events in Florida and Georgia ahead of the election. Masks went largely unworn during the events. And the Carsons were photographed without masks, posing shoulder-to-shoulder with supporters.

And a Facebook post from the Carsons on November 1 states: "Over the past few days we have attended many political events in our personal capacities."

The new set of positive coronavirus diagnoses within the President's orbit comes a month after Trump's own bout with the disease.

After Meadows and four other staffers tested positive last week, Trump campaign staffers told CNN they were furious that the campaign never informed them about positive cases among staff. Meadows had been in the office multiple times that week without a mask.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 increases as individuals get older, and that 8-in-10 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the US has been among adults aged 65 and older.

Men are also more likely than women to suffer severe illness or die from coronavirus, according to the CDC.


 
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