Dr. Ben Carson, a man who received many government benefits that aided in his quest to become a doctor responded to a question from Chris Wallace about Mitt Romney's famous attack on the 47 percent of the country in the 2012 election. His response was that Romney phrased it wrong and the real problem is most of the people just refuse "work" and instead settle for government hand outs.
WALLACE: But let me pick up on that. Because you have a debate right now where the president and Democrats are talking about providing more benefits for people, free community colleges as the president likes to put it and extending more tax credits, expanding the tax credits so you can get more pay for childcare, and the Republicans are saying no, we can't do that because the cost of that would be raising taxes on the wealthy. When they are proposing middle class and working class benefits and Republicans are talking about no, we don't want to raise taxes on the wealthy, doesn't that play into the old political stereotype?
CARSON: Yeah, I mean I think what I would be saying, is, you know, there are Pell grants available for poor people to go to community college already, they have existed for years and they are very effective. For those who are not poor, there is a four letter work that works extremely well, it's called w-o-r-k, work. And appreciate the education that you are getting. You know, we don't have to give away everything. That was never the intention. The government is not there to give away everything and to take care of people. It is to facilitate our ability to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's it.
In 2008, the country suffered through a 1929 type depression which was caused by the elites of the financial sector and their proxies that hurt the poors and the middle class severely. Many lost their houses on top of it all and they depended on unemployment insurance and food stamps just to survive. This isn't a way to live at all and a person certainly can't strive for the American dream under those conditions.
But to Ben Carson, their sin is not only accepting government assistance, but then refusing w-o-r-k because they were content to live on the dole. Where were all these jobs he says were available to them? There were none. In a crisis I believe the government is there to help its citizens and not tell them they are sh*t out of luck.
WALLACE: But I guess the counterargument that may make sense philosophically, but politically if you are offering people free things, aren't they going to take it?
CARSON: Well, I don't think that those -- you know, that Romney talked about the 47 percent. He made one major mistake. He assumed that they all had the same mentality. They don't. A lot of people in that 47 percent are very anxious to experience the American dream. What they are looking for is the right mechanism, the pathway out. This is what we have to provide for them, and that's going to include fixing the economy, which is not going to be that difficult to do, quite frankly. You know, some tax reform, some real tax reform, regulatory reform, you know, utilizing our natural resources the right way. Recognizing that, you know, utilizing fossil fuels is not necessarily exclusive of developing green and renewable energy. We can do more than one thing at one time. There's a lot of stuff that can be done, but people just make it into a big political issue so that they can win. That's what it's all about. They want to win. It's not about the American people.
Almost all of the 47 percent do want to experience the American dream and that's what was so appalling about Mitt Romney's words. To cavalierly say anyone taking some form of government help is a moocher and a low life is unconscionable.
