Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #427

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
HUD Secretary Ben Carson Says Poverty Is About A “State of Mind"
By Kathryn Watson
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said in a radio interview airing Wednesday that a mindset parents hand down to their chil- dren contributes to poverty.
"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," Carson said in a SiriusXM radio interview with Armstrong Williams, a top adviser to Carson's 2016 presidential cam- paign. "You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guar- antee in a little while they'll be right back up there."
"And you take somebody with the wrong mind-
set, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bot- tom," the neuro- surgeon contin- ued.
The former GOP contender also referred to a "poverty of the spirit" and a "wrong mindset" that can develop from inadequate parenting and a negative environ-
ment.
"I think the major- ity of people don't have that defeatist attitude, but they some- times just don't see the way, and that's where gov- ernment can come in and be very helpful," Carson said. "It can provide the ladder of opportu- nity, it can pro- vide the mecha- nism that will demonstrate to
them what can be done."
Carson himself grew up in pover- ty in inner-city Detroit. He worked hard, and went on to gradu- ate from Yale University and the University of Michigan. Carson has indicated he will focus on not just reforming HUD policies, but addressing social issues as well.
Carson is no stranger to con- troversial remarks. In March, he called African-American slaves "immi- grants," and he in 2013 called Obamacare the "worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."
Carson, con- firmed March 2, walked into an agency with a financial night-
mare. The department is working to fix bil- lions in book- keeping errors that have kept it from receiving an audit opinion for years, according to HUD's Office
of Inspector General. At the same time, President Trump's proposed 2018 budget slashes the department's funding by about $8 billion.
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