Ben Carson fends off questions over lack of experience
WASHINGTON — During his failed presidential run, Ben Carson won over conservatives with his scorn for government social programs that he said were good mostly for keeping people mired in poverty.
But at a hearing Thursday to confirm him as President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Carson gave a more nuanced picture of how he would lead the $47 billion agency, whose core mission is to provide housing for poor people.
He said he wanted to get businesses and faith groups more involved in helping people in HUD-backed housing, and find ways to enlarge the role of private industry in backing home mortgages.
“I don’t think we have to continue to come to the government for everything,” he said. Asked by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis what would be best to do for someone on government assistance, Carson said: “Get them off it,” adding that he agrees that too many people are warehoused in public housing.
For worried Democrats, he gave assurances that he would not try to strip programs like rental assistance and said he wanted to intensify efforts to remove lead and other hazards that harm children living in older housing. He said he still opposed “extra rights” for LGBT people, such as gay marriage, but said he would enforce rules prohibiting housing discrimination against them.
“When it comes to entitlement programs, it is cruel and unusual punishment to withdraw those programs before you provide an alternative,” he said.
“Of course, I would enforce all the laws of the land,” Carson added.
Carson, 65, opened his statement with an account of his own poverty-marred childhood living in “dilapidated” housing in Detroit, where his mother worked long hours as a domestic worker and he said he didn’t expect to live past 25.
Instead, he rose to become a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, heading the department by age 33. He said he found questions about his lack of experience in housing “humorous” because of what he knew about the capabilities of the human brain.
“A good CEO doesn’t necessarily know everything about the business ... but he knows how to pick those people, and use them,” he said.