CARSON: What I would really like to see is an administration that seriously sits down with our experts in that region and ask them what is needed in order to accomplish our goal of eliminating this group of terrorists?
Q: So you don't know whether you'd want those rules of engagement loosened?
CARSON: Those of us who are not experts in that area can sit around all day long talking about doing this or doing that. But why don't we listen to the people who actually are the experts in that area, find out what it is that they need?
CARSON: I agree that there's no such thing as political correctness when you're fighting an enemy who wants to destroy you and everything that you have anything to do with. And I'm not one who is real big on telling the enemy what we're going to do and what we're not going to do.
Q: But you would do that even though many consider waterboarding torture?
CARSON: As I said, I'm not real big on telling them what we would or would not do.
CARSON: Well, I said in the larger capacity that we should monitor anything -- mosques, church, school, you know, shopping center where there is a lot of radicalization going on.
Q But how would you know that is happening?
CARSON: Intelligence. We have intelligence on the ground already. We do need to enhance that. For instance, we've learned last week that the FBI seems to be only to be able to monitor 30 to 60 people at a time. And we know there's a lot more than that that needs to be monitored. We need to get very serious about our intelligence.
CARSON: Well, as you, I'm sure, know, there are a lot of people on that watchlist and they have no idea why they're on that list and they've been trying to get their names off of it and no one will give them information. You know, I am a big supporter of the Second Amendment, and I don't want to deprive people unnecessarily of that. There needs to be better due process. And that's one thing that I'm very interested in finding a way to make government more responsive to the people. It's really unfair that people can't get a real hearing. And they get put on a list and nobody can tell them why they're there, and they go through for years and years and they have to be tormented. It just doesn't make any sense.
A: All of our friends in that region are, I think, are very relieved to see us doing that. Australia, also, is doing that. You know, we need to challenge these boundaries that are not legal.
Q: So is this enough, sending a guided missile destroyer in?
A: It's a good start; I hope we continue to do those kinds of exercises.
CARSON: I think that's a move in the right direction, because we clearly need to have those special ops in terms of helping to guide what the Air Force is doing. But I think that that's only a small part of it; we need to have a much bigger plan when it comes to battling the global jihadist.
Q: What is your much bigger plan for Syria?
CARSON: Well, my plan involves Putin and Iran. Those are the forces that are propping up the Assad regime. And even though Putin came in there and said he was going to fight ISIS, he's really fighting the anti-Assad forces. What we need to be thinking about is how do we oppose him? First of all, look where most the refugees are, at the Turkey-Syrian border. I think we should establish a no-fly zone there. We should be doing this in communication with Putin to try to decrease the likelihood of conflict and keeping the forces apart.
CARSON: We get into this question every year. It's ridiculous that we wait until we're right up against the wall and then we say, yes, we've got to raise it or we're going to default. What we need to do is, at the beginning of the financial cycle, determine where we're going to make the cuts so that we don't wind up in this situation every single year.
Q: But this is money we've already spent. These are bills we have to pay
CARSON: Well, I recognize that our backs are up against the wall in a couple of weeks and we have to do that in order to prevent a default. However, this should be the last time we have to do it.
Q: So you would raise it this time but not again?
CARSON: I would raise it this time with the stipulation that we are going to go and look at those 645 government agencies and sub-agencies and we're going to find fat and we're going to get rid of it.
CARSON: Well, certain types of regulations. Glass-Steagall was a reasonable regulation after what happened on Wall Street in 1929, because the banks were playing with people's cash. And then in the '90s, we took the teeth out of that and we started thinking maybe men were angels. But what we have done instead is we've just ballooned the number of regulations. And every single regulation costs in terms of goods and services. And who is hit most? Poor people and the middle class.
Q: So would you re-impose Glass-Steagall?
CARSON: With some modifications. We certainly need to make sure that we don't have out-of-control credit default swaps and all kinds of funny money going on. We need to make sure that we protect the people. And that's what the regulations are for.
CARSON: I meant one of the things that happens, for instance, in Europe, for medical school, is that you don't have to pay for it. And, as a result, they don't have the skew that we have here. A lot of people, when they finish medical school, they're hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. And instead of, you know, doing what they may have wanted to do, which was maybe be a primary care doctor, they decide that "I'd better become," you know, "one of the specialists that makes a lot more money so I can pay this money back." That's not an issue in Europe and they don't have this primary care deficit that we have.
CARSON: I've subsequently switched over to a health savings account. You know, I was trying to work within the framework of what we have. But I've concluded that what we had simply did not work. And one of the reasons it didn't work is because insurance companies made profits by denying people care. And that, of course, is a total conflict of interest. But utilizing the health savings account system that I've talked about more recently, I think,
CARSON: The annual Medicaid budget is $400 billion to $500 billion a year. We have about 80 million people participating; that's $5,000 each. Most concierge practices charge $2,000 to $3,000 a year. And then you still have thousands left over for your catastrophic insurance, which is much cheaper now since everything is coming out of your HSA. And the interesting thing is people say poor people wouldn't be able to manage a health savings account. Of course they would be able to manage it.
Q: But those health savings accounts are only $2,000 a person. That's a fraction of what the cost of an average family's health insurance.
CARSON: Well, the $2,000 figure was when I was thinking about the government funding it. But I've subsequently decided the better thing to do is to allow it to be funded through the same channels that regular health care is funded through. The money is already there, so why change that?
CARSON: If they have a pristine record, I support giving them an opportunity to register as guest workers so they're not living subterranean. They have to pay a back tax penalty and they have to pay their taxes going forward, they don't get to vote and they aren't citizens. But my long-term plan would be for us to allow American businesses to go over there, develop the acreage, create jobs and teach those people the agri business, while also making profit. If we do that in Central America and South America and help them to be able to improve their own standard of living there, they won't need to come here.
CARSON: Yes, I would. I think we saw what happened in Iraq when we precipitously withdrew. I don't think that we want to make that mistake again. And I'm very happy to see that we have a learning curve there.
CARSON: I'm saying anybody who attacks us in the cyberspace they need to understand that there will be consequences for that. You know, we can't just sit around and talk about it. That's going to be one of the real factors in the future. Not only that, but we have to harden our grid. We have to have several layers of alternate energy. We have to get back into space. In the future, he who controls space will control the Earth. You know, there are a lot of things that we have to do. We have to take a strong stance. Strength is really the defense against aggressiveness by others.
CARSON: I personally don't feel that way, but I would certainly be willing to listen to somebody who had evidence to the contrary. I think that's one of the problems, we get to our little corners and we don't want to listen to anybody anymore.
CARSON: Well, I talked to a number of the sheriffs on the borders and they've told me what kind of people are coming over. So I'm not sure that I would trust, quite frankly, any figures coming from the government, given the fact that they are the ones who are problematic. You know, a lot of these people who are captured, it's ICE who comes along and says, "you must release these people."
CARSON: I said anybody, doesn't matter what their religious background, if they accept American values and principles and are willing to subjugate their religious beliefs to our Constitution. I have no problem with them. But right now, when you have something that is against the rights of women, against the rights of gays, subjugates other religions, and a host of things that are not compatible with our Constitution, why in fact would you take that chance?
CARSON: I would recognize that bringing in people from the Middle East right now carries extra danger. And we have to be extra cautious. You know, we need to tighten it up and be very careful, because we cannot put our people at risk because we're trying to be politically correct.
CARSON: Well, you have to go back to the beginnings of the organization. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger believed that certain people, including blacks, were inferior and that the way you strengthen the society is you get rid of them. She basically believed in eugenics.
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The above quotations are from ABC This Week interviews during 2015 (George Stephanopoulous interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races). Click here for other excerpts from ABC This Week interviews during 2015 (George Stephanopoulous interviewing candidates for 2015 and 2016 races). Click here for other excerpts by Ben Carson. Click here for a profile of Ben Carson.
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