This is the full text of a great speech by Dr Benjamin Carson, a senior medical specialist at the national prayer breakfast in the US, with the President in attendance. What was he laughing about?
The pc police are out in force at all times. I remember once I was talking about the difference between a human brain and a dog’s grain, and a man — and a dog’s brain, and a man got offended. You can’t talk about dogs like that. [laughter] People focus in on that, completely miss the point of what you’re saying. [laughter] And we’ve reached reach the point where people are afraid to actually talk about what they want to say because somebody might be offended. People are afraid to say Merry Christmas at Christmas time. Doesn’t matter whether the person you’re talking to is Jewish or, you know, whether they’re any religion. That’s a salutation, a greeting of goodwill. We’ve got to get over this sensitivity. You know, and it keeps people from saying what they really believe.
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?
What about our taxation system? So complex there is no one who can possibly comply with every jot and tittle of our tax system. If I wanted to get you, I could get you on a tax issue. That doesn’t make any sense. What we need to do is come up with something that is simple.
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 in else in the world, and yet not very efficient. What can we do?
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 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. When Mr. Jones gets that diabetic foot ulcer, he’s not going to the Emergency Room and blowing a big chunk of it. He’s going to go to the Clinic. He learns that very quickly – gets the same treatment. In the Emergency Room they send him out. In the Clinic they say, now let’s get your diabetes under control so that you’re not back here in three weeks with another problem. 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.
Personal control and responsibility. Perish the thought!
I posted this a short while ago on the OT.
CNN’s Csamdy Crowley of Presidential Debate infamy Asks Sunday “State of the Union” Panel If Dr. Carson’s Speech Was “Offensive”
CROWLEY: Did you find anything offensive with — well, certainly it’s America, he’s entitled to his opinion. A lot of the talk was about was this the right place to do it? And there was lots of applause from Republicans who said, finally somebody stood up and said it.
Dr. Ben Carson Takes To Fox To Address His Critics, Blast ObamaCare, And ‘Stand Up To The Bullies’
Newfound conservative hero Dr. Benjamin Carson appeared on Fox’s Your World this afternoon to respond to his detractors who’ve called his National Prayer Day speech before the president “inappropriate” and “offensive” given the apolitical nature of the event.
“Why did you take [your speech] to go beyond medical policy and talk about tax policy?” Cavuto pressed, prompting Carson to say:
“One of the things I also said during the speech, there will be some people who will say, but you’re a doctor and you’re a surgeon. You should be sticking to that. And I mentioned the fact that five physicians signed the Declaration of Independence and were involved in the framing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and several other things. There’s absolutely no reason at all that physicians, scientists, shouldn’t be involved in things that affect all of us. We’re people who have learned how to make decisions based on facts, empirical data, rather than on ideology, and one of the geniuses — one of the real things that made us a great nation — is that we brought people from all backgrounds into the legislative process.”
The doctor also noted that people don’t often ask why lawyers get involved in “this that and the other,” so he doesn’t understand why they would say it to a well-educated physician like himself. “I have advocated a tax policy that comes from the Bible,” Carson continued. “If it was good enough for God, why wouldn’t it be good enough for us?”
“If I wanted to get you, I could get you on a tax issue. That doesn’t make any sense. What we need to do is come up with something that is simple.” — Benjamin Carson.
“We propose to abolish all taxes save one single tax levied on the value of land, irrespective of the value of the improvements in or on it.” — Henry George.
“If it was good enough for God, why wouldn’t it be good enough for us?” — Benjamin Carson.
“The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” — God (Leviticus 25:23).
And the Russians, don’t forget the Russians.
At that point Obama could be seen making a note: “Can – get – them – on – tax“
Establishing politics as a career and not a community service is an attack on democracy. Remunerating politicians creates a new layer of bureaucracy, in essence a monopoly with the power to control the flow of information, and to protect itself from retribution. Carson correctly points to the danger of parliaments full of lawyers, gone is the separation of powers that protects our democracies.
The first act of Tony Abbott should be to end the ability of political parties to purchase the loyalty of politicians through pre-selection using public monies.
Carson is a Raaacist, just like everyone else who disagrees with the Rev Wright’s protege.
In old NZ, to call someone politically “controversial” was MSM code for “worse than a child molester”….seems “offensive” is the equivalent in modern USA.
What a great speech. It encapsulates much of what libertarian leaning people have been banging on about for decades. Obama must have felt like throwing up listening to it.
This guys speech really was inspiring, from his background to the way he just said it how it was in a way that anyone could understand. Yes, there was the religious aspect and I’m not religious but this didn’t bother me one bit. What mattered was the content and the ideas that he was arguing in favour of and you simply could not disagree with him.
Hence the left wing MSM and his detractors have focussed on how ‘offensive’ and ‘inappropriate’ his speach was, which is ironic (and stupid) as all that does is prove his major point, that people are too damn sensitive!
I also loved how his mother used to teach him. “She’d ask ‘do you have a brain’ and if the answer was ‘yes’ then the response was ‘well then you could have thought your way out of it’. Because once you stop accepting excuses you start looking for solutions.” [paraphrased].
Brilliance, pure brilliance.
That was a great speech, but I think the dog joke was lost on Obama, he seemed to be trying to work out if it really was offensive to him….
His health plan is simple, and put into place with a “shoot on sight” order for lawyers entering medical establishments would probably assist in getting some of their health costs under control.
His bit about athletes hit home though, we do the same thing to poor Aboriginal kids. “Become an AFL star” not a doctor, the focus on encouraging the physical rather than the mental is almost a soft racism.
You could see Obama’s brow furrow and a slightly panicky look in his eye at the punchline of the lighthouse joke.
I’m guessing he just didn’t get it.
Makes you wonder why there can’t be more honest, straight-talking people in political leadership positions around the world. Then I think to myself that these people are actually doing more good being doctors, engineers, scientists etc and not politicians.
Honestly, in the past I think this was the case. These days the political discourse and culture has become an utter cesspit of vested interests and rent seeking. People like Dr Carson could do a world of good going into politics, if only to clean up the mess that the current political class has created.
TFM,
Have you seen aboriginals in the outback? It would be a lot easier for them with their family background and schooling to become an AFL star (or alcoholic) than a doctor.
“CROWLEY: Did you find anything offensive with…”
Well, Ms (I presume) Crowley, you have an unfettered human right to be offended – I recommend that you enjoy it!
“We propose to abolish all taxes save one single tax levied on the value of land, irrespective of the value of the improvements in or on it.” — Henry George.
Because in the end, everything else is theft.
I find it interesting that the left has considered his speech an attack and the right has considered it an endorsement. Seemed pretty non-partisan to me.
That seems pretty clear to me as a non-endorsment or attack to both sides. If this is included in a speech then you must be pretty sad if you consider it an endorsement. The best that the Republicans can honestly say about the speech is that it more closely matches some of our rhetoric (not actions).