December 5, 2016

"I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development."

Said President-elect Donald Trump.
"Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities. We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities. Ben shares my optimism about the future of our country and is part of ensuring that this is a Presidency representing all Americans. He is a tough competitor and never gives up."

36 comments:

David said...

Should be interesting. Does he have the administrative and political ability to get things done?

exhelodrvr1 said...

His background will give him a good perspective on this. Of course, he's not a real African-American anymore, since he is a Republican, so his opinions aren't really worth anything.

mesquito said...

I'm not sure how the direct-mail grifters who surround Dr Carson are going to monetize this.

Michael K said...

Dismantling HUD should be high on his agenda.

damikesc said...

I bet Trump's still totally racist and a closet Klan member, amirite press?

Bad Lieutenant said...

They talk about walking the talk and all that. I wonder if HUD has ever been run before by someone who had lived in public housing.

Damikesc, yes, Trump is still a racist, because shut up.

Sebastian said...

He couldn't not pay off Carson. Surgeon-General would have been safer.

YoungHegelian said...

This morning NPR's "Morning Edition" had trouble affixing the title "Dr." to Ben Carson's name, repeatedly calling him "Ben Carson", or "former surgeon Ben Carson". But, as the show went on, & was repeated at the top of the hour, I noticed that the title "Dr." was being inserted.

I imagine that even NPR listeners called in & complained about that snub. No doubt their MD listeners called in & said "Look, assholes, a doctor's a doctor, whether you like his politics or not!".

Captain Drano said...

Blogger Sebastian said...
He couldn't not pay off Carson. Surgeon-General would have been safer

Carson did not want SG nor HHS. He wanted HUD.

tcrosse said...

He couldn't not pay off Carson.
Why not ? He certainly paid off Chris Christie.

Hagar said...

I think a Giuliani or Christie type character would be a better fit for HUD and agree that Dr. Carson would be ideal for Surgeon General. This is an office that should mean something and is badly in need of someone to save it from what it has become under the last several administrations.
It could be an excellent bully pulpit with real influence in the hands of the right person.

Alexander said...

Eh. Personally, I would have liked to have seen HUD weaponized as a way to shove diversity down the throats of people who like to virtue signal about how much they love diversity. Section 8 housing at Martha's Vineyard. 'Syrian refugees' relocated from Ohio to San Francisco. Ensuring that the highest achieving public schools are properly enriched.

But I'm probably in a minority on that one (for now). A 6/10 for Carson's appointment - nothing really objectionable and decent pick, but nothing that looks ground breaking. Course at this point, that probably just means I don't see what Trump sees.

Paddy O said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paddy O said...

The HUD Secretary will have more influence in the public health arena than the Surgeon General. Probably a lot more.

steve uhr said...

Not one comment discusses the obvious -- Trump said Ben was certifiably nuts in the primaries. That was one of the few things Trump said that was true. But that was just politics and Trump didn't really mean it (i.e. he lied when he (truthfully) said Carson was crazy).

CJ said...

Personally, I would have liked to have seen HUD weaponized as a way to shove diversity down the throats of people who like to virtue signal about how much they love diversity. Section 8 housing at Martha's Vineyard. 'Syrian refugees' relocated from Ohio to San Francisco. Ensuring that the highest achieving public schools are properly enriched.

A thousand times this.

You have to force the Left to see how their policies and politics can be used against them if you want to change anything: the filibuster, federalism, and the FCC "net neutrality" come to mind.

Paddy O said...

The HUD Secretary becomes President in The Designated Survivor show.

exhelodrvr1 said...

steve uhr,
So is everything that Obama said about Hillary in his 2008 campaign accurate?

CJ said...

Carson to HUD is one appointment I don't like. Carson is obviously a smart guy but he doesn't have bureaucratic experience (beyond working in hospitals, I suppose) and I don't know if he'll be able to handle the massive bureaucracy that is HUD.

HUD is really a finance company - it needs a CEO.

Just to throw out a 11-D chess theory: Maybe Trump appointed him because he knows that Carson will bungle the operation of HUD so much that it will have to be dismantled.


I'm also going to really dislike it if he appoints Palin to fix the VA System.

walter said...

"He will be committed..pathological."

steve uhr said...

exhelodrvi

When did I ever say I supported Hillary? I stayed home on election day. And two wrongs don't make a right.

mockturtle said...

Since he grew up in the inner city, he probably has some ideas. An outsider to bureaucracy, yes [although he was an administrator at John Hopkins] but that might be good. Bureaucracy is what cripples most of these programs.

steve uhr said...

Blame the bureaucracy but not the bureaucrats. The career employees are just doing their job implementing regulations required by law, Congress pass laws requiring the agencies to develop regulations with little guidance. The political people at the agencies make the policy decisions and every one else is simply following directions.

Chuck said...

Ben Carson was not a great doctor; he is an okay doctor. With a strange religious background, and some terribly unreliable views on abortion.

My source, for these allegations against Carson, is Donald J. Trump.

Chuck said...


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/trump-ben-carson-was-ok-doctor#60015

exhelodrvr1 said...

steve uhr,
Stop being obtuse.

Seeing Red said...

Maybe the certifiable nut will take a sledgehammer.

Did HHS arm themselves?

I want all departments to turn over their weapons and ammo.

Alexander said...

When did I ever say I supported Hillary? I stayed home on election day. And two wrongs don't make a right

No, but in war and politics they do have a tendency to prevent a repeat offense.

walter said...

Ah..another "Don't blame me" bumper sticker on the road.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I imagine that even NPR listeners called in & complained about that snub. No doubt their MD listeners called in & said "Look, assholes, a doctor's a doctor, whether you like his politics or not!"

I forget where I saw it, but last week I read a blog post that clipped two NYTimes editorials from the same day. The first repeatedly referred to Tom Price & Mr. Price, never Dr Sessions. The second always had the VP's wife as "Dr. Biden."

Price got his MD from Michigan, worked as a Dr. for two decades, taught orthopedic surgery at Emory, and ran Grady Hospital's ortho clinic. Jill Biden's got two MAs, taught HS English for more than a decade, got an EdD from the Univ. of Deleware, and teaches English at a community college. Dr. Biden deserves the respect of her title...but I guess Mr. Price's political affiliation negates his.

Scott said...

Regarding the overuse of the 'Dr.' title...

My father (who had four of the damn things) was notorious for his prickly insistence on being called 'Dr.' at every conceivable opportunity. His father, who had little schooling, but could think rings around just about everyone I have met before or since, had no use at all for such nonsense. One night when we were out at dinner together, my father tore apart some hapless waiter who forgot to call him 'Dr.' As he was walking away, my grandfather said to my dad, 'can you cure warts?' My father, somewhat taken aback said that he couldn't. My grandfather replied 'then you are no doctor'. Pretty much my feeling too...

Bilwick said...

Anyone who opposes Carson's appointment is obviously a racist.

gadfly said...

HUD has an awful history of failure since the first day that FDR turned them loose. Tear down slums, pick-up and move tenants to new high-rise structures, tear-down the old and leave the brownfields unattended in the center of the city. When the high-rise structures are taken over by the gangs and disrepair is everywhere, tear down the high rises and move the tenants to a better zipcode into brand spanking new low-rise structures.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, local governments are taking over, rebuilding downtowns with sure-to-fail ballparks and coinvention centers and new libraries and (as Andy Griffith famously said) "I don't know what-all." And all of us dummies believe in these magical "special tax districts" that rip off local taxpayers. That allows HUD to push huge amounts of money out for low-income home financing - of course I am talking about Dr. Ben's FHA and Palin's VA mortgages.

It's all about socialism folks and nobody is going to shut down socialism while Trump is president. Anyone who meets with Algore to talk about fake science will never get a good word from me.

Douglas B. Levene said...

Whoever becomes Trump's HUD secretary, one thing is clear: the Obama administration's attempt to force affluent suburbs to build low income housing for slum dwellers is now officially dead, dead, dead.

Bad Lieutenant said...

steve uhr said...
Not one comment discusses the obvious -- Trump said Ben was certifiably nuts in the primaries. That was one of the few things Trump said that was true.

Have you ever been slapped in the face, steve? Would you like to be? I bet you've got a really slappable face. What a sleaze you are.

But no, you're not worth the powder to blow you to hell. Ben Carson craps bigger than you.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Gadfly, as you know, I think you're an ass of the first water; however, I admit I do wish to know what sent Gore out of the tower with a smirk on his smirky face.

Slum clearance is tough.