Notes:GDN:Ben Carson Insights

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About Dr Carson

Ben Carson (born September 18, 1951) is a columnist and retired neurosurgeon.

He grew up in Detroit and, at 8, his parents divorced and he and his 10-year-old brother were raised by their mother. He attended high school in Detroit, and graduated from Yale University, where he majored in psychology. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School

Carson was a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics, and he was the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. At age 33, he became the youngest major division director in Johns Hopkins history.

He is credited with being the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head. The 70-member surgical team, led by Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins were successfully separated and can now survive independently.

In March 2013, when asked, he said he would retire as a surgeon and he would leave the decision of whether to go into politics “in the hands of God, but much can be done outside the political arena.”

He has written six bestselling books, the latest of which is One Nation and his book, Gifted Hands, was made into a movie. DVDs are readily available, including on Amazon

He has said he is not a member of any political party. “If I were part of one, it would be called the Logic party, and it would be dedicated to commonsense approaches we all should be able to see.” Source–Read More…

He was the keynote speaker at the 2013, National Prayer Breakfast. During his speech, he commented on several social and fiscal issues including political correctness, education, the national debt, health care, and taxation. The speech was magnified because Carson’s views were generally interpreted to be politically conservative, and President Barack Obama was sitting 10 feet away. When asked about a possible run for the White House, he responded: “If the Lord grabbed me by the collar and made me do it, I would.” You can listen to, or read’ the speech here.

After the National Prayer Breakfast speech, in an ABC News interview, he said: “What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not people just casting aspersions at each other.”

Independent conservatives have organized to encourage him to run for president, and by May 2014 had raised $4 million in campaign contributions for a potential presidential campaign. But, when asked about it on ABC’s “The View” (May 20/2014) he responded:

“My hope is that someone will come along who excites the people, who really understands what America is about and really doesn’t want to change it into something else. And if that happens, then I won’t do it. But, I have so many people asking me, and as a patriotic American, I certainly have to think about it. But it wasn’t what I was thinking about when I retired.” YouTube Video

Some Carson Insights

Civil political discourse – The basic problem that must be solved

“In his famous book, Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, an activist organizer of the far left, makes it clear that leftist trying to affect change are to have no conversations with their opponents, because open discussion could lend credence to their opponents arguments and humanize them in the sight of the public. He argued that activist must demonize their opponents and get the larger society to recognize the activist as the ones who will deliver society from the demons. As a Alinsky suggests, cultivating hypersensitivity to perceived slights by conservatives is a convenient way to halt important conversations and to demonize opponents.” One Nation p.14

“Self-appointed political correctness police set up speech guidelines that go far beyond the requirements of kindness, good manners, education and tact.” One Nation p.12

“To stop this, Americans need to recognize what is happening, speak up courageously, avoid fearful or angry responses, and ignore the barking and snarling as we put political correctness to bed forever.”….. It is also the reason why I continue to encourage Americans to stand up for the freedoms that were hard-won and must be preserved. If we are to remain a free society. One Nation p.13

“PC is dangerous, because you see, this country, one of the founding principles was freedom of thought and freedom of expression. And it muffles people. It puts a muzzle on them.”

“We need doctors, we needs scientists, engineers. We need all those people involved in government, not just lawyers…I don’t have anything against lawyers, but you know, here’s the thing about lawyers…I’m sorry, but I got to be truthful…got to be truthful – what do lawyers learn in law school? To win, by hook or by crook. You gotta win, so you got all these Democrat lawyers, and you got all these Republican lawyers and their sides want to win. We need to get rid of that. What we need to start thinking about is, how do we solve problems?.......Why can we fix it because we’re smart. We have some of the most intellectually gifted people leading our Nation. All we need to do is remember what our real responsibilities are so that we can solve the problems.” Source–Read More…

Education

On education, he compared current graduation rates with those 200 years ago: “In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville came to our country…anybody finishing the second grade was completely literate. And based on questions extracted from a sixth grade exit exam from the 1800′s – a test you had to pass to get your sixth grade certificate – I doubt most college graduates today could pass that test. We have dumbed things down to that level and the reason that is so dangerous is because the people who founded this Nation said that our system of government was designed for a well-informed and educated populace, and when they become less informed, they become vulnerable. Think about that. That is why education is so vitally important” Source–Read More…

“The founders of our nation understood that such a society could not long exist without a well-informed and well educated populace who used the amazing brains God gave them. Even people with only a grade school education in America’s 1800s were extremely well educated. That education in turn allowed them to make informed decisions in the voting booth, protecting them against tyranny.” One Nation p. 126

“Congress today has less than a 10% approval rating, yet its members are reelected, 90% of the time across the nation. This means they have been successful in fooling the voters, but it does not mean that it should or will continue. Until the laws of this country are changed, we the people still have the ability to select our representatives. This is not only a right, but a responsibility, and we can only exercise that right responsibly when we are well-informed.” One Nation p. 127

“Time and space won’t allow me to provide an exhaustive outline of the things informed citizens should know, but here are a few basics:

  • Basic world and American history
  • Basic world and American geography
  • Basic household economics
  • Basic understanding of how credit works and how debt accumulates
  • Names of state and national representatives
  • Basic nutrition and disease management
  • Traffic rules for pedestrians and vehicle operators
  • Basic math, including the calculation of percentages
  • The ability to read at an eighth-grade level

“You may be surprised at the elementary nature of some items on this list, but a surprising number of adult Americans are lacking in these areas.” One Nation p. 131

Taxation

“Considering the views of both the rich and the poor, I would argue that fair taxation means that everyone contributes according to their ability, or in other words, proportionately. I like that idea of proportionality because that was put forth in the Bible. The concept of tithing. All taxpayers are required to give 10% of their increase. If they had no increase they had to give nothing, and if they had an extra-large increase, they still only had to provide 10% of their increase. This system recognized that the wealthy were not above the law – no tax breaks and no political clout for having given a larger amount. It also recognized that the poor were not “below” the law – as dignified human beings, they had responsibilities to give, even if just a little.” One Nation p. 104

“First of all, we need to recognize that the United States has the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Our rates even exceed those of openly socialist countries. A few years ago Canada and several other countries significantly slashed their corporate rates, which had the desired effect of attracting American business. Our American leadership has talked about cutting corporate tax rates, but nothing has been done.” One Nation p. 119

“More controversial, however, is the issue of cutting tax rates for individuals and small businesses. The Democrats feel that those with high income should pay most of the taxes since they can afford to do so. Republicans feel that enabling people to keep the vast majority of what they earn is more conducive to growth and encourages people to work hard. Again, a little common sense goes a long way. Taxation needs to be fair for everyone and not just for a favorite group. This is the reason I like the tithing model set forth in the Bible….. As soon as you depart from a proportional taxation system, you introduce ideological bias, making arguments endless. Also, everyone must have skin in the game when it comes to taxation. People with a lot of money have a large amount of skin in the game, and people with very little money only have a small amount, but everyone is taxed proportionately, which makes it fair.”

“Unfairness is introduced when the tax code is riddled with loopholes that are accessible to some but irrelevant for others. Those with good tax lawyers and accountants can substantially reduce the tax they pay, which is grossly unfair to those unable to take advantage of such things. Lowering tax rates and eliminating loopholes at the same time is a no-brainer that has been advanced by both Republicans and Democrats, but once again, nothing is done.” One Nation p. 120

Healthcare

“We’ve already started down the path to solving one of the other big problems, health care. We need to have good health care for everybody. It’s the most important thing that a person can have. Money means nothing, titles mean nothing when you don’t have your health, but we’ve got to figure out efficient ways to do it. We spend a lot of money on health care, twice as much per capita as anybody else in the world, and yet not very efficient. What can we do?

Here’s my solution. When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record and a health savings account [HSA], to which money can be contributed, pre-tax from the time you are born, to the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members so that when you’re 85 years old and you’ve got 6 diseases, you’re not trying to spend up everything. You’re happy to pass it on and nobody is talking about death panels. That’s number one.

Also, for the people who are indigent, who don’t have any money, we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money and instead of sending it to bureaucracy, let’s put it into HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care and what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to learn very quickly how to be responsible. That’s how we begin to solve these kinds of problems. It’s much more complex than that, and I don’t have time to go into it all, but we can do all these things because we are smart people.” Source–Read More…

A final insight

At the end of his prayer breakfast address, Dr. Carson gave this insight into the state of our government today:

“And let me begin to close here – another parable: There is a Sea Captain, and he’s out on the sea near the area where the Titanic went down. And they look ahead and there’s a bright light right there – another ship he figures. He tells his signaler to signal that ship: deviate 10 degrees to the South. Back comes the message, no you deviate 10 degrees to the North. Well, he’s a little bit incensed you know. He says, send a message, this is Captain Johnson, deviate 10 degrees to the South. Back comes the message, this is Ensign 4th Class Reilly. Deviate 10 degrees to the North. Now Captain Johnson is really upset. He says send him a message, this is a Naval Destroyer. Back comes the message, this is a Lighthouse. Enough said.” Source–Read More…


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