As Dr. Carson visits Connecticut, politics isn’t brain surgery

L ast year nobody in Connecticut’s congressional delegation — all Democrats — had anything good to say about President Trump’s nomination of Ben Carson to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

While the Senate appointed Carson by a vote of 58-41, most Democratic senators, including Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, voted against him. Carson was renowned as a brain surgeon but the closest he came to having any qualifications in housing and urban development was his being black like the Americans who are most in need of housing and urban development. Politically, most Democrats considered Carson a moron and religious fanatic.

So what a different reception Carson got upon visiting Connecticut last week. Blumenthal, Murphy, U.S. Reps. John B. Larson and Joseph D. Courtney, and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman were all smiles as they greeted the HUD secretary, since he is now in charge of the billions of dollars his department has to bestow even as state government in Connecticut, now effectively insolvent, finds itself nearly helpless in the face of two serious housing problems.

The first problem is the deterioration of the foundations of probably thousands of houses and condominiums in the northeastern part of the state as the result of concrete contaminated with a corrosive mineral.

Replacing a home’s foundation typically costs more than the house is worth and insurance policies don’t cover it. So if government doesn’t subsidize the repairs, many homeowners will be wiped out financially and will walk away, damaging neighborhoods and municipal tax bases. Repairing all the properties could cost hundreds of millions of dollars even as state government has unfunded pension liabilities of as much as $100 billion. Only the federal government easily can come up with the repair money — at least as long as the rest of the world remains willing to buy the government’s debt.

Connecticut’s second housing problem is the deterioration of 26 apartment buildings on the north side of Hartford that are owned by a landlord who has been paid generously by HUD to house poor people but long has failed to maintain the properties decently. The tenants, assisted by Larson, their congressman, persuaded HUD the other day to terminate the landlord’s subsidy and give the tenants vouchers for renting other apartments.

But that leaves the buildings deteriorating in an already troubled neighborhood, and the vouchers do not guarantee that the tenants will find other homes soon.

Carson joined the state officials in inspecting a home with a crumbling foundation in Willington and then Larson and Mayor Luke Bronin brought him to meet some of the Hartford tenants. The secretary promised that HUD would contribute financially to a comprehensive solution for the foundations. For the Hartford tenants, he cited some HUD programs that might help them and their neighborhood. The congressmen will keep pursuing appropriations for both problems.

Carson’s visit didn’t solve the problems or even promise anything specific but he made a good impression just by showing up, listening sympathetically, and expressing a desire to help. He realizes that politics isn’t brain surgery.

Will the state officials who received him realize that while they may think the federal government is being run by morons, constantly calling them morons may not be how to get money out of them?