In Memphis, Ben Carson defends hiking rents
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson defended a plan to raise subsidized rents at a political conference Monday in Memphis, where an estimated 10,600 households could see their minimum rents rocket by 25 percent.
Raising minimum subsidized rents from $50 to $150 will give people “more skin in the game,” said Carson.
Carson also talked about how he had grown up in poverty and, at one point, homeless in Detroit before his mother replaced television with books, leading him to become a neurosurgeon. Carson denied that the plan was a “war on the poor.”
“What we’re really doing is declaring war on poor management and taking care of what should be done,” Carson said without mentioning the potential impact on Memphians.
Carson, who delivered the keynote at the American Conservative Union Foundation’s Conservative Political Action Conference 365 in the FedExForum lobby, said his goal was to incentivize public housing recipients to reach their God-given potential. More than 100 people attended the event, filling up about half of the seats.
Citing critics who said the administration wants to raise rents on disabled and the elderly, Carson replied with “What a bunch of crap” and pointed out that the plan was initially proposed — but not implemented — by the previous administration.
Carson also touted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, now in its seventh month, calling its tax cuts “historic” and saying the Trump administration was “blazing new trails” — they’re the largest tax overhaul since 1986, according to the Brookings Institute.