Editor’s note: Our audience liked what it saw in The Daily Signal’s two recent interviews with HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and some of those responses provide the top to this week’s collection of comments. Write us at letters@dailysignal.com—Ken McIntyre
Dear Daily Signal: Thank you for Genevieve Wood’s interview with Dr. Ben Carson (“Exclusive Interview: Ben Carson on Draining the Swamp, Fighting Poverty, and Kanye West”). He is the right man for the job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he is getting things accomplished. This is what our country needs.
In just a very short time, the president who I and many other conservative families voted for has gotten much done in our great country.
I read the news on the internet so that I can select the sources I enjoy and agree with. I’ve long ago cancelled TV, and cannot watch the mainstream media anymore.
I read that elites including George Soros want to spend $50 million to have another Russian collusion investigation. Could Genevieve Wood interview Kanye West or some members of Congress and ask them what they could do with $50 million? Kanye could use his skills to improve Chicago with that money. Look at our own homeless veterans, and so on.
Thank you for the great articles.—Laura Lepley, Pennsylvania
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Ben Carson says: “The goal is to get people in a positive economic status. In the past, it’s been how many people can we get in here in this program? Our goal is, how many can we get out of there with a positive outcome?”
This is the real measure of success, but as happened in the past, success is determined by the numbers in the program. The swamp loves this because they can show they are doing something.
The measure of success for welfare has to be the numbers that are taken off and working productively.—Philip Daspit, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
I love Dr. Ben Carson. He is now getting the “baptism by fire” experience in the political arena, and hopefully for the next seven years. I still look forward to when he becomes our president.—Keith LaDue, Brandon, Miss.
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Very good interview. I’m confident that Dr. Carson will succeed in improving HUD. I’m so glad President Trump appointed him. He is definitely up to the task.—Arelia Pendergrass
Always an honor and pleasure to talk with @SecretaryCarson
Exclusive Interview: Ben Carson on Draining the Swamp, Fighting Poverty, and Kanye West https://t.co/frVvuiolhC via @genevievewood @DailySignal
— Genevieve Wood (@genevievewood) April 30, 2018
Genevieve Wood’s interview with Dr. Ben Carson was just stupendous. I learned more in 10 minutes than the “media” have (or have not) reported in a year.—Glen Hillebrand
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Thank you for getting the only interview with Dr. Carson that I have read since the election. As a physician and supporter, I have great admiration for his position and all that he brings to the challenges of this perpetual entitlement cycle. God bless his efforts.—Dr. Paul Church
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We have been very lucky to have a man in that job who is trying to help people to better themselves.—Russell D. Remmert, Baton Rouge, La.
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Our dear Dr. Ben! Always up for a challenge and always using God’s wisdom to think outside the box to solve problems. He is a national treasure.
I wish we had more in office like him to drain the swamp because he knows how to handle it with intelligence and grace. He has the ability to take the sting out of speaking the truth.
And he’s highly honored as someone who, along with his wife, has fought the good fight in poor communities to inspire the young in the very best way possible. They are encouraged to reach for their full potential and live a fulfilled life.—Dahn Carey
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Dr. Carson spoke of getting day care so young mothers could go to work or earn a GED. Actually, that is not a new concept in public housing.
In 1972, I was able to set up day care programs in each of our scattered site projects. Through a grant from HUD, I contracted with our local school system to operate the day cares while we basically furnished the space. Volunteers from our local housing developments built much of the playground equipment.
The only requirement for placing a child in day care was you must be working, looking for work, or attending classes to obtain a GED or job training. The program is still running today with the school system still operating the program and the housing authority providing space. Included in this program was a “well baby” clinic operated by the local health department. It continues today, even though the HUD grants ended in 1974.
We at the housing authority felt that outsourcing these programs rather than attempting to operate them in-house and hiring people was the best route. We were not equipped to operate the programs, and saw no reason to build an unwieldy bureaucracy.
It could be accomplished once again if Dr. Carson can eliminate the “empire builders” who seek to serve themselves rather than the people they were hired to serve.—Dallas P. Williams
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Ben Carson’s analogy of “like drinking from a fire hydrant every day” reminds me of a similar experience with a federally funded community health center in the Midwest.
On a much smaller scale, most of us can grasp how serious was HUD not having a chief financial officer. That is almost beyond belief. Easier to talk of “accountability” as if the word has little to do with “accounting for progress to monitor and solve big and small problems” from a responsible platform of authority in planning and getting things done.
The term to derogate accountability is to call financial management a “numbers game”—the harms from this attitude translate into wastes unimaginable because they cannot be accounted for.—Felipe Galang, Chesterfield, Mo.
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Thank you, Ben Carson, for making it possible for everyone to have the possibility of living the American dream. We are very lucky to have you fighting for a good cause. God’s blessings for you and your family always.—Carolyn M. Scotti, Rapid City, S.D.
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Wonderful, positive interview showing common sense and what needs doing to help people to be able to help themselves. Thank you, Ben Carson.—Bonnie McGuire
https://twitter.com/RobertBluey/status/981855380790751232
Carson Says He Plans to Stick Around
Dear Daily Signal: I have nothing but compliments for Ben Carson, the subject of your interview by Fred Lucas (“Exclusive: Ben Carson Says He’s Not ‘Going Anywhere’”). He is a gentleman and a class act. He had a great run for president and bowed out like a gentleman when it was time.
Dr. Carson graciously stepped up to help out the Trump administration, not because he needed face time and not because he is looking to enhance his political career. He is already a brilliant self-made man. He took on this challenge because he really cares about how we deal with the poor in our nation and how we trap them on the Democrat plantation.
This man is quietly making a real difference in the nation.—Glynnda White
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Dr. Ben Carson is probably the finest gentleman ever appointed to any previous administration’s staff. He fully understands, and has firsthand experience with, the minority/racial problems facing America today.
The big “furniture” deal was a pure and simple mistake by someone on his staff, and has absolutely nothing to do with his qualifications to do his job in this “winning” administration. An administration that has the Democrats and “false news” media striking out blindly and ferociously, in every direction, at anything, everything, that this administration tries to do.—Bob Perkins, Hayesville, N.C.
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I have all the faith in the world in Ben Carson. His entire life he has been a man of integrity and insight. I see no reason to believe Ben Carson has dramatically changed just because he is now putting his abilities to work in a high position in government. Ben Carson stands as a great model for American youth to strive to be like.—Robin Boyd
Cory Booker’s Inquisition Into Marriage Views Is About Keeping You Silent https://t.co/mrkapWGzfU via @JDaniel_Davis @DailySignal
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) April 13, 2018
A Senator Makes Beliefs on Marriage a Test
Dear Daily Signal: Great commentary by Daniel Davis on the remarks on marriage by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and an accurate description of exactly what is happening in our culture (“Cory Booker’s Inquisition Into Marriage Views Is About Keeping You Silent”).
Gay rights activists are trying to delegitimize the Christian faith, and our Christian heritage as a nation, in order to justify a view of human sexuality that is unnatural, unhealthy, and immoral. It is a view that never can be accepted by those whose belief system recognizes that fact.—Randy and Peggy Malcom, Yoder, Colo.
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This business of judging others by willingness to accept ever more insignificant differences in appearance and behavior is completely tapped out. The left needs to discover some new purpose.—Greg Brown, Bloomington, Ind.
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As a New Jersey resident, I have witnessed the incompetence of Cory Booker as a failed mayor of Newark and now as a U.S. senator.—Bob Cottam
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Booker is attacking those who hold a religious view differing from his. It is a constitutional right to hold any religious view we like, and our Constitution is plain that there be no religious test to hold the office of senator, congressman, or president.—Don Cauley, Wilsey, Kan.
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Booker isn’t interested in national security, only about making a point and forcing another person to bow to his alleged ideology.—Tom Subler, Versailles, Ohio
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Mr. Booker, you are way out of line. Your leftist views are not the same as most citizens. This is just why I am no longer a Democrat.—Sandy Paleka, Spring Grove, Ill.
Amid Push for Knife Control, UK Shows Gun Control Doesn’t Increase Safety https://t.co/JxDlUvnd5U via @AmySwearer @DailySignal
— Gary (@gds44) April 17, 2018
Going After Knives in Great Britain
Dear Daily Signal: About Amy Swearer’s commentary: After knife control … stick and stone control (“Amid Push for Knife Control, UK Shows Gun Control Doesn’t Increase Safety”)? And then what? Word control?
Leftists and their robots in the USA already believe that words can hurt you and are well on the way to having words banned, beginning with enforcing political correctness. I believe this can be traced back to the “self-esteem” issue created by wacky psychiatrists. Another government tool to control the masses.—Patrick Tadeushuk
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Excellent article by Amy Swearer. Sad to see Great Britain becoming not-so-great. A good cautionary tale illustrating the fallacy of the main anti-Second Amendment arguments.—Richard Pruett, Ridgway, Pa.
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You get the government you vote in and tolerate. It’s up to the U.K. citizenry to vote out these mayors and other leaders or rebel/revolt if they’re not responsive to the will of the governed.
If these are the policies, I’m guessing the U.K. folks want them. How silly of them to be so naive. If they don’t want these policies, get out the vote.—Gregory J. Budzien, Chenequa, Wis.
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When I first heard this news from the U.K., I told my kids: “Watch, in four or five years they’re going to try to claim coins are a dangerous projectile and attempt to ban them too in favor of paper currency.”—Anthony Politano
Great piece by @JarrettStepman —>> The Changes That Made California Become a Liberal Fiasco via @DailySignal https://t.co/qMKwj8ahBq pic.twitter.com/oQD5VM7AKQ
— Shane Vander Hart (@shanevanderhart) April 27, 2018
California When the Left Is Done With It
Dear Daily Signal: With regard to Jarrett Stepman’s commentary “The Changes That Made California Become a Liberal Fiasco,” I would like to offer the following comments: Looks like the liberals planned for our nation to experience what the Nazis had in store for Germany beginning in the early 1930s.
By this, I’m referring to “political correctness,” “thought crimes,” a single party suppressing all others, deep state politically minded thugs, anti-religious attacks, an “ideological” judiciary and a “you will take this and you will like it” mentality. I could go on.
I had always wondered why “Nanny” Pelosi kept using that word “Nazi” so many times in the past 10 years. Now I know why. Someone told me years ago that a liberal will always unwittingly telegraph his subversive thoughts. It’s almost as if they don’t believe you are smart enough to figure it out for yourself, or even care.
God preserve that as a people, we will continue to see liberalism for what it really is—scary stuff.—Michael R. Cartee, Marietta, Ga.
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Liberalism has ruined Detroit, Chicago, the states of Illinois, Oregon, Washington, and California. And now with the failures they’re moving to other states and cities to work on them.
San Francisco used to be a working person’s city where families lived. Most families are long gone; proof is the attendance in the schools.
Funny how California’s wealthiest live in walled compounds and travel with armed bodyguards. Remember, those things that normal people can’t afford or legally do.—Jeff Pearson
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I fled California years ago because Barack Obama and then Jerry Brown ruined about everything they touched. We need that wall, and we need a governor who is not so far left he can’t see the middle.
It was great at one time. I took 100 employees with me. For what they’ve done (tyranny), California deserves to be broken up and the coastal libs need to be exiled to Mexico.—Marcus David
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I left New York for the same reasons, and am watching anxiously as the liberal governor of Virginia tries to do the same. It amazes me that the results are visible to anyone willing to open their eyes, but many are blinded by ideology, politics, and just plain old bad education. But it is nice to be able to walk away and stop my dollars from being used to fuel the insanity of liberal politics.—Larry Gniewek
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You glossed over the hidden points that people with talent and money are flocking to California. That California has some of the strongest businesses in the nation. That California has the seventh-largest economy in the world and no other state can claim that.
There are many great states, but California is never as bad as The Daily Signal keeps predicting. I’d be shocked if The Daily Signal ever told the truth without the one-sided bias.—Edward Laurson
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Just look at what the influx of Californians has done to Seattle and Denver. After their elected politicians and their policies turned California into the mess it is today, Californians left to escape the mess they created and the high taxes necessary to continue it.
Unfortunately, they bring with them the mindset that created the problem in the first place. They are like locusts, consuming everything in their path, then moving on to another area to do the same.—Jerry Zacny
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The best part of a two-party or multiparty system is the gridlock. This keeps the politicians from destroying the liberties guaranteed in the Constitution. A single-party system would soon enough do away with personal liberties and create an oppressive system of government.—Jerry Box
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Everything the left manages is eventually destroyed. Detroit, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York (city and state) are all examples of this truth. California is just the latest and greatest disaster.
Texas, Arizona, and Nevada are getting stronger as the middle class migrates from California, bringing their entrepreneurial spirit, strong work ethic, and belief in family, faith, and freedom.—Mike Briggs
“This opinion should be challenged and overturned on appeal.” https://t.co/AQ8Qopq6DA via @AmySwearer @DailySignal/ We need to quickly condemn this judge 4 ‘making law’ & take this wrong decision to a higher court. If this were 2 stand, next lib judge could ban BB guns or worse.
— David Arcano (@wwwbighag) April 13, 2018
The Judge Who Upheld a Ban on AR-15s
Dear Daily Signal: About Amy Swearer’s commentary on the AR-15 ban in Massachusetts, if you believe the Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what is lawful and constitutional, then you have believed a lie and a myth that Jefferson warned about (“Bungling Judicial Precedent, Federal Court Upholds AR-15 Ban”).
The states still retain their rights to this day to defy the federal judiciary, which has become an oligarchy. We just need strong statesmen as governors and legislators to make that stand.—Rich Seibert
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Judge William Young says “democracy means policymakers—not courts—are best suited to regulate weapons.” With that statement, the judge demonstrates that he doesn’t even know the purpose of the judicial branch of government.—Jerome Waldemar
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The responsibility for the Parkland, Florida, shooting lies with failure of government authorities to perform their duties. Passing more laws will not help anything; criminals do not care about laws. There are enough laws on the books; enforce these and put criminals in jail.
Get criminals out of our lives. Make prison what it should be, punishment. Prisons do not need air conditioning, color television, etc. Make prison as self-efficient as possible; it should not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per inmate per year. Remember, these people lost their rights and privileges by violating the rights of others.
Remove judges that pass soft sentences for violent criminals, and any official who is derelict in his or her duties. If we return to the rule of law and the Constitution, and stop interpreting it to mean anything other than what is written, then a lot of our problems would not exist.
The Constitution was written in simple, plain language of the day. The Founders stated that it was written so that it did not take a lawyer or scholar to understand it.—Dave Bowden, Silver Spring, Md.
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Judge Young also bypasses a settled Supreme Court decision from 1939, U.S. v. Miller, which held that arms in common use that also serve a military purpose and could contribute to the common defense are within the Second Amendment’s ambit.—Barry Hirsh, Miami
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The Second Amendment is probably the amendment most infringed on by our government.—Michael Cunningham, Alvin, Texas
How Are We Doing?
Dear Daily Signal: I started reading The Daily Signal several months ago. I’m glad that I did, because now more than ever before it is difficult to find a news source that just delivers the truth absent of any other agenda. Keep up the good work. I really appreciate it.—William Dunker
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Thank you for bringing ignored but important news to me daily. Your work is commendable, well-written, well-researched and informative.—Suzanne Kelly, Barnstable, Mass.
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If Republicans do not cut back the outrageous overspending of the last omnibus budget bill, they will lose the next election. That pork-filled bill (which has the Democrats laughing at the Republicans) will ruin the good done by the tax cuts and reforms. Rescissions now.—Pat Ellis
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I greatly appreciate the “non-fake” news you bring. I only wish I could print out all the articles at one time instead of one by one. It would be more like a newspaper and I could read it all later. Not important, but just a thought.—Dave Barnard, Greer, S.C.
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I always get a great perspective on the news of the day. Thank you for your interest in America.—Ralph Andrea
Chrissy Clark helped to compile this column.