Ben Carson’s political inexperience has been an asset on the presidential campaign trail, but some worry it could prove to be a liability in the Oval Office. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, the world-renowned neurosurgeon revealed his plan to fix Washington and what voters should expect from the first 100 days of a hypothetical Carson administration.
Carson, who ranks fourth in the Examiner‘s updated power rankings, has skyrocketed to second place in polling of GOP presidential primary voters and courted controversy for his comments about Islam and governance. But his controversial remarks have not stopped the candidate with Iowa’s best favorability rating from continuing his campaign unabated, and he said his paid and voluntary staff continues to expand.
He also addressed the political forces that divide Washington and the rest of the country, and provided his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement and the congressional fight over Planned Parenthood funding. The following is an edited transcript of his recent conversation with the Examiner.
Washington Examiner: What’s the first change that you would make when you arrive in Washington, D.C., as president? What would the first 100 days of a Carson administration look like?
Ben Carson: Well I would call a joint session of Congress and make sure they understand that with this administration we understand that we work for the people. They don’t work for us. And so that everything we do puts the people in the center. Of, for, and by the people, with the government there simply to facilitate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the people. Then I will make it very clear that we’re in a very precarious situation.
We must immediately harden our electrical grid and have multiple layers of alternative energy. That’s critical. And that we also must beef up our cyber capabilities both offensive and defensive. That we will not be passive if we experience cyber attacks. We will very rapidly enhance our military. We have a woefully small Navy now, a woefully small Air Force, and in recent testimony before Congress the Commandant of the Marine Corps said half of the non-deployed units are not ready. We have to invest in our military but we also have to be efficient.
There’s a lot of waste there that can be trimmed, and in virtually every department. One of the things I want to do is call in every department director. There are 438 agencies and 200-and-something sub-agencies. I would call in the directors of all of them. Tell them that I expect a three or four percent cut in waste over the next year. And anybody who can’t do that might as well resign now because you’ll be fired. We need to bring that under control.
I will ask for a moratorium on hiring, on government hiring. Thousands of government employees retire each year. We simply will not replace them. We’ll do that for three or four years. That will get us down to a reasonable number and that I will not be signing any increases in the federal budget at all. Not one penny. And you do that for three or four years and we will have a balanced budget. We’ll bring fiscal responsibility back to the table. And we’ll be talking about a number of ways to do that.
Examiner: You mentioned … cybersecurity and rapidly increasing the military, so under what circumstances is it acceptable for the United States to use military force?
Carson: When the American people are being jeopardized. When their safety is being jeopardized. And when the interest of our allies is being jeopardized. And when we cant find another reasonable mechanism of resolving the issue.
Examiner: I’ve seen recently that you’ve said you opposed going into Afghanistan. So could you … explain to me how you applied the reasoning that you’ve just said to arrive at that conclusion?
Carson: I don’t have any problem with aggressive behavior in Afghanistan, like going in and taking out Osama bin Laden, even though it ended up he was in Pakistan. But there’s a close relationship there. And I don’t have any problem with wiping out some of the training camps. But that doesn’t necessarily need to occupy the nation in order to do that and set your soldiers up as targets who have been savagely destroyed.
Part of the problem with Afghanistan in particular is that they don’t have a strong central government. They have 300 hundred tribal leaders. That’s one of the reasons that no one who has come in there has ever been able to tame that nation. Now some of the limited progress that we did make is because we aligned ourself with the Northern Alliance of tribal leaders. And that did result in some limited success. And by supporting their activities I think that might be a much better way along with our covert activities and our special forces to accomplish what we need to accomplish there without necessarily putting a lot of our soldiers in harm’s way.
So I don’t have any problem with a vigorous response. I do have a problem with sometimes the way that response is carried out.
Examiner: One of the other things you mentioned [doing as president], the first one, had to do with alternative energy. So why is that at what the forefront of what your administration would be doing? And what would you specifically be doing about that?
Carson: Well we are blessed with an enormous energy in this country, particularly in terms of fossil fuels. There’s no question about that. And we have a ban on certain types of energy exportation. These limits were put in place in the 70s when we had an energy crisis. We no longer have that and we need to abolish those and take advantage. We have the ability to liquefy natural gas now. And we have almost unlimited stores of natural gas. Enough to last us at least a thousand years. And because we can liquefy it we can export it. And we can use those types of energy exports not only to drive down our debt, but also on the geopolitical scene.
Putin is a one-horse show. It’s all about energy. And if we can begin to make Europe dependent on us for energy instead of him it greatly limits his sphere of influence. The only reason he’s really staying under control right now is because of the very low prices of oil so it limits his financial capabilities to some degree and that for us represents a blessing. But it should also inform us in terms of how we should be reacting to him to increase his containment.
Examiner: A lot of the other candidates that are running in the race have talked about their records to stand up for conservative principles and successfully implement reform. So can you point to an example of a time when you fought for a conservative principle and won?
Carson: Yes. I noticed, several years ago, when I would go into schools and I would see all of these trophies. All-state basketball, all-state wrestling, all-state this, that, and the other. And the quarterback was the big man on campus but for the student who was the academic superstar there was very little, very little reward. Maybe a National Honors Society pin [for the cap] on his head.
At the same time noticing how we were languishing in these international educational comparisons particularly in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] areas. So we made the decision, my wife and I, that we would see what we could do to alter that situation. We started a nonprofit that basically put kids who had achieved at the highest academic levels and demonstrated that they cared about other people on the same kind of pedestal as we did the athletes. We didn’t have nothing against athletes, but we wanted to change the focus. And we also started putting in reading rooms, particularly in Title I schools, where kids came from homes with no books, went to schools with no library or poorly funded, they’re not likely to become readers.
And as you may or may not know, 70 to 80 percent of high school dropouts are functionally illiterate. So these places are places that no little kid could possibly pass up the way they’re decorated. And they get points for the number of books they read. And they can trade them in for prizes. And initially they do it for the prizes, but soon it has a tremendous effect on their academic performance. You change the trajectory of their lives. And this is program is now active in all 50 states. As you know, nine out of 10 nonprofits fail. And not only has [this one] not failed but thrived and has won major national awards that are only given to one philanthropic organization per year that come with six-figure checks.
And that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the kind of compassion that’s conservative in nature that requires that people actually work, and invest in their own futures but then rewards them in the process and helps build and strengthen the fabric of the country.
Examiner: What sort of adversity did you have to fight through to succeed in that way and get it into all 50 states?
Carson: Lots of bureaucracy. You may know just incredible bureaucracy. People who don’t want to do extra work because it requires extra work to incorporate the program. People who don’t want anybody else to do anything for which they don’t get credit. I mean it really is truly disgusting, but that’s one of the reasons that we’re trying to inculcate into the next generation the kind of values and humanitarian qualities where they actually care about others and not just themselves.
Examiner: I know you visited Ferguson earlier this month and have met with activists in Baltimore in the past. The premise of this Black Lives Matter movement is that black lives have not mattered to the same extent that others have in the United States’ history so that emphasis has to be placed on black lives now, the value of black lives now. Do you accept that premise, the premise of the Black Lives Matter movement?
Carson: Well there’s no question that we should be concerned about them. But what I have said is that let’s look at the bigger picture. What is the number one cause of loss of life in the black community in America? Abortion. Let’s ask ourselves why is that the case? And let’s look at those root causes and see what we can do about it. Let’s ask ourselves, what is the number one cause of death for a young black male in our major cities? It’s homicide. Let’s ask ourselves what can we do in order to stop that practice? That’s what I’m saying. Let’s look at the bigger issues about where most of the lives are being lost. Let’s not carve out just one small segment. And it’s not that those lives aren’t important. They are important, but let’s not be going after the little gnat when there’s a big bee sitting there.
Examiner: Do you think the government should withhold funding from Planned Parenthood at all costs — including risking a government shutdown — in light of those undercover videos that have come out?
Carson: Well there is no question that the government in no way should have itself involved with killing people. Basically that’s what it is. And there are a lot of the population that feel that way so to have a situation where the majority of people are against funding an organization that engages in such barbaric activities and to still continue to fund it you know that’s antithetical to the principles of a nation that is supposed to be of, for, and by the people.
And clearly our representatives have a responsibility to not allow that situation to stand. I mean if they’re incapable of coming up with a solution for that which honors the will of the people, then they shouldn’t be there.
