The Club for Growth believes Ben Carson’s philosophical inconsistencies make it impossible to know whether the retired neurosurgeon would make a good, pro-growth president.
The club is an influential conservative nonprofit organization that focuses on economic issues and cutting taxes, which releases “white papers” developed from the group’s research on the presidential candidates. It released its white paper examining Carson on Thursday.
“Ben Carson’s life story and his career in medicine are very impressive, but the full measure of his statements on economic liberty seems to indicate significant inconsistencies,” said David McIntosh, Club for Growth president, in a statement. “For example, Carson has sharply criticized Obamacare, but has promoted a de facto nationalization of private health insurers. Likewise, he has called for needed entitlement reform, and yet recommends a new government-run catastrophic care program. Contradictions such as these have made it impossible for the Club for Growth to conclude that Dr. Carson would be a pro-growth president.”
The white paper expressed particular concern for Carson’s willingness to hold socialism in high regard.
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“At times, he seems to allow socialism and free market capitalism to stand on parallel planes. At other points he seems to show a lack of understanding about how free markets operate,” reads the club’s analysis. “Like his stated partisan affiliations, Carson’s policy proposals and suggestions have been all over the map.”
The club called Carson’s proposals for health insurance reform “straight out of the Left’s playbook” and expressed concern about whether his “good proposals” are rooted in the core ideology of free markets and economic freedom that the club espouses.
Despite the club’s criticism, Carson, who ranks second in the Washington Examiner‘s most recent power rankings, has surged in recent polling and overtaken Donald Trump in Iowa, according to a new Quinnipiac University survey that shows the doctor in first place.
