While You Were Distracted by Shiny Objects...

While the leader of the United States was distracting you from real news of incompetence in this administration with tweets, nonsensical interviews on the state propaganda arm, and attacks on the media federal budgets are being destroyed.  This is an amazing exchange between the Honorable Representative Al Green from Texas and the alleged brain surgeon masquerading as the authority on the nation's housing policy.    The "HUD Secretary" said that he planned on $6 billion in cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but he could not answer specific questions about his own budget.

Carson tried, "Rather than go through a quiz on all the numbers..." but that did not work well with Representative Green.

Then Carson tried, "I agree with you that it is difficult to do these things..." That just made the Representative from Texas angry that Carson was answering questions that he had not asked. Green offered Carson an out by saying that he was allowed to say, "I don't know" and he would accept that.

Dr Carson then tried, "Let's just move on. I do not want to offer a number, because it is subject to..." Then after some push back from the Representative and Carson said "...because we have already talked about the total amount of the cuts." Finally, a Hail Mary, Carson asked for a cheat sheet,  "Let's hear your number..." What the hell?  What witness asks a Congressman for help with how much his own department is planning to cut?  This is insane, and Representative Green jumped on this. "Mr. Carson, you are the witness today..." Green offered the chance to ask for a lifeline. Carson said, "I do not want to open the book, and look at the numbers."

Then Green asked about Community Development Block Grant cuts, and Carson started out saying, "I want to talk about..."  Rep. Green exacerbated cut him off and said, "Mr Carson, you don't get to talk about what you want to today. You get to talk about what I want you to talk about. You get to answer the questions that I pose, Mr. Carson. That is the way it works."  Carson reverting to the 11 year old inside said, "Yeah, but I get to answer the questions the way I want to."  Green summed it up, "I am going to move on. I accept your lack of knowledge."  Green ended his questions scolding Carson for his belief that rich people need tax cuts while poor people need to tighten their belts.

It was a great five minutes of questioning for Representative Green and showed the utter lack of knowledge by DOCTOR Ben Carson and his utter lack of ability to handle the complicated housing policies.  Coincidentally, The Hill published a story today quoting Sec. Carson as saying that "People are so stupid" for questioning his abilities.

I was critical of all those who voted to support this utterly unqualified HUD Secretary, but the big issue is a $6 Billion dollar cut.  This would no doubt make many low income people homeless people.  Public housing, CDBG, and the voucher programs are barely operational today and any cut will just destroy those Johnson War on Poverty programs.  Ben Carson's performance sure seemed like contempt of Congress if there were people with spines in leadership.

Brian Davis