Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Photo of Dr. Ben Carson courtesy of USA Today.
Photo of Dr. Ben Carson courtesy of USA Today.
Dr. Ben Carson, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary and Sunken Place representative, recently gave his thoughts on poverty and what he believes it stems from.
Speaking with friend and conservative media personality Armstrong Williams, Carson reportedly described poverty as "a state of mind," explaining that some people are poor while others are not based on their outlook on life.
"You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there," Carson said. "You take somebody with the wrong mind-set, you can give them everything in the world — they'll work their way right back down to the bottom."
Carson also stated that although he believes the government can assist people in getting out of poverty, he feels that certain programs that allow people to remain in poverty are not helpful.
"I think the majority of people don't have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don't see the way, and that's where government can come in and be very helpful," Carson said. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."
As a part of their 2018 budget blueprint, Donald Trump's administration plans on cutting more than $6 billion from HUD. The cuts would result in the end of popular grants used to revitalize economically distressed communities, as well as cut billions of dollars in funding for public housing support.
This is not the first time Carson has offered a tone-deaf statement that resulted in a backlash. Three months ago Carson described African slaves that were forced to travel to America as "immigrants with a dream."
"There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land," Carson said during a talk with his department employees.
Source via the New York Times
