Ben Carson Has Absolutely No Idea What the Debt Limit Is

[Attorney in Texas]

Source: New York magazine

Ben Carson ... literally does not know what the debt limit is. Kai Ryssdal has a harrowing interview with him, in which his lack of familiarity with the debt limit comes through clearly:

Ryssdal: All right, so let's talk about debt then and the budget. As you know, Treasury Secretary Lew has come out in the last couple of days and said, "We're gonna run out of money, we're gonna run out of borrowing authority, on the fifth of November." Should the Congress then and the president not raise the debt limit? Should we default on our debt?
Carson: Let me put it this way: if I were the president, I would not sign an increased budget. Absolutely would not do it. They would have to find a place to cut.
Ryssdal: To be clear, it's increasing the debt limit, not the budget, but I want to make sure I understand you. You'd let the United States default rather than raise the debt limit.
Carson: No, I would provide the kind of leadership that says, "Get on the stick guys, and stop messing around, and cut where you need to cut, because we're not raising any spending limits, period."
Ryssdal: I'm gonna try one more time, sir. This is debt that's already obligated. Would you not favor increasing the debt limit to pay the debts already incurred?
Carson: What I'm saying is what we have to do is restructure the way that we create debt. I mean if we continue along this, where does it stop? It never stops. You're always gonna ask the same question every year. And we're just gonna keep going down that pathway. That's one of the things I think that the people are tired of.

Read more: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/ben-carson-has-no-idea-what-the-debt-limit-is.html#

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WOW!

[Scuba]

1. Running for President as a Republican has become either a money-making scam or performance art.

[valerief]

16. Or both. I'm starting to this this guy's an idiot savant. Brilliant at brain surgery, helpless

at anything else.

[arcane1]

26. Citizens United basically legalized some forms of money-laundering.

It's all about the donations!

[skepticscott]

2. He counts on the fact

that the vast majority of Americans, and pretty much all of his misbegotten followers, don't either.

[PatrynXX]

13. called Abortion. if he's dumber than Dick Cheney he'll end up winning

even if he totally supports donating fetal parts. He's about as much anti abortion as Dems are anti gun. All talk but no action (well up till now) things are changing theoretically but we'll see if it's just talk

[still_one]

3. What he is really saying:

"I am an idiot, and have no idea what I am talking about"

[deutsey]

4. Which is sure to snag him the nomination n/t

[still_one]

12. You have a point

[beac]

5. Again, I am mystified that this man was

a neurosurgeon. Maybe God really did give him the test answers after all. Or maybe, as I have speculated before, he's had some cognitive loss in recent years. This is not a man who can think on his feet.

Let's say that he had never heard of the debt limit. Ryssdal explains it to him twice and he still doesn't get it.

[Darb]

10. Most certainly spent his life in a bubble.

Now that he is venturing out of that bubble, it's obvious that he should run back in.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Compare to the soaring intellect of President Obama and all the Democrats. America, and the

fucked up American pro-stupid media, wake the fuck up from your deception and from being deceived...it is not the way of the future.

[Myrina]

7. Did he pay his college tuition by volunteering for a lobotomy?

He sure doesn't sound like a doctor. Or college educated. Or even, high school educated.

[snort]

21. Wait

A lobotomy? There were 27 other students in his class.

[trusty elf]

8. .....

[img][/img]

[Gothmog]

9. Carson is even less qualified to be POTUS than Trump

Carson's understanding of the debt ceiling is truly scary

[PatrickforO]

11. Well he's definitely a 'know-nothing'

The thing is, if we REALLY wanted to do something about the debt, we'd get rid of the Fed and nationalize the central bank. Lincoln did this during the Civil War, and it worked. The bankers took it back, but it worked. There's a book called 'Web of Debt' which every American should read.

Here's an excerpt: "...the entire US money supply now consists of debt to private banks, for money they created with accounting entries on their books."

"If governments everywhere are in debt, who are they in debt to? The answer is that they are in debt to private banks. The 'cruel hoax' is that governments are in debt for money created on a computer screen, money they could have created themselves."

"Henry Ford said it best: 'It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.'"

"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are US government institutions. They are not...they are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the US for the benefit of themselves and their foreign and domestic swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers but the truth in the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes or breaks governments at will." Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairman, House Banking and Currency Committee, June 10, 1932

Seriously, when will we get wise to this?

[CanonRay]

14. Well, economics isn't brain surgery, you know!

I have never seen such a crop of brainless idiots running for President in my entire life.

[Brainstormy]

15. If you could combine Trump's and Carson's brains

you'd still have an idiot.

[snort]

22. Yes, but he could delicately

remove a tumor from your brain and turn it into a casino.

[A Simple Game]

23. True, true, but a casino that would soon file bankruptcy. n/t

[question everything]

17. Just add to the list of other items of which he has no idea like... hurricanes

and foreign affairs.

[world wide wally]

18. Apparently, only one side of his brain is developed and the other side is out to lunch

Or maybe he is the world's greatest panderer

[Fearless]

19. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know was shoes are.

[zomgitsjesus]

20. Neurosurgeon or not

The man has no clue. He is embarrassing to our nation.

[Moostache]

24. Carson is not a real idiot...

He is just really, really bad at pandering to the idiots that make up the "base" of the GOP voting block and as such he sounds ridiculous to people of average or above intelligence.

The sad thing is, if you look at his poll numbers, the way these moronic statements and perceived gaffes are received and viewed by those "base" voters. These people are worse than "useful idiots". They are not low information voters any longer, they are anti-information voters. The very appearance of cohesion in your thinking and statements is seen as a negative trait by them.

The less sense you make and the more you garble basic tenets, the more likely they are to like you and to vote for you.

It is tragic.

[Codeine]

25. That interview was maddening.

I was listening in the car while looking for parking at the bank and I found myself shouting at the radio.

[bklyncowgirl]

27. The problem with this is that a large number of ordinary Americans will say they agree with him.

To them it will be the big picture that counts for them--the fact that the U.S. has been piling up debt for years and that in their hearts they know that just putting everything on the credit card and not paying it off is bad even if their own credit card balances are sky high. If someone quibbles and says "Oh look, he doesn't understand what the debt ceiling is" well, these folks aren't going to get it. What they do get is that debt is bad. Ben Carson is against more debt, Ben Carson says he would show leadership, make those lazy bums in Washington find stuff to cut therefore Ben Carson is a good and wise man.

It's sort of like pointing out that Carly Fiorina lied through her teeth about that Planned Parenthood video. Well if you believe that abortion is murder, then the details don't matter. Abortion is bad. Lying about a frame in a video is justifiable if it helps to stop the dismemberment of unborn children.

It's hard to argue with that mentality.

[tblue37]

28. Neither Trump nor Carson have any understanding of how the government works, what is

in the Constitution, or what the actual powers of the president are. (They seem to think the president has the powers of an absolute monarch.)

[Glimmer of Hope]

29. Good grief! What is wrong with this guy?

[Angry Dragon]

30. I would like to know why he is running to be the president

[tblue37]

32. Branding. He has already earned about $2 million giving speeches to conservative groups,

as well as to other organizations (e.g., high schools!); therefore, like other pretend candidates for the GOP nomination, he is raising his national visibility and burnishing his RW cred so he can get more RW speaking gigs and charge higher fees.

[0rganism]

31. this is exactly the scenario where Trump knows how to play it

if Trump had been the interviewee:

Ryssdal: All right, so let's talk about debt then and the budget. As you know, Treasury Secretary Lew has come out in the last couple of days and said, "We're gonna run out of money, we're gonna run out of borrowing authority, on the fifth of November." Should the Congress then and the president not raise the debt limit? Should we default on our debt?

Trump: Good question Ryssdal, since it's very important for everyone that we have a leader who can tackle the debt and the budget. First, as you know, I'm very rich and pay off all my debts at really great rates. Spectacular rates, really, you should see my rates. When you're rich, you get great rates. When the American people elect me, we're going to have so much money, so much money, it'll make your head spin. We won't have a debt problem because we'll be able to pay it off whenever we like. At much better rates. The people who negotiated this debt were idiots, I'll renegotiate all our debts to get a much better deal for America. A much better deal for America. Next question.

his supporters would eat this crap up all day and twice at sunday brunch.

[reflection]

33. That was so well-written, it could have come straight from Trump's mouth.

You definitely have the gift of mimicry.

[0rganism]

34. well, thanks; in all fairness, Trump's an easy target

thanks to months of nonstop media whoredom coverage, i feel like i have part of the Trump formula down. sometimes, i like spouting random Trumpisms around my house like
"When I'm in charge, we'll have much smarter dogs. Great dogs. The dogs we had before are idiots, compared to what we'll have when you elect me to make America Great Again."
(best said in a booming self-important voice when the dog is in the room to hear it)
insipid stuff, but completely safe.

i wouldn't dare tackle someone like Sarah Palin though - imitating that kind of "thought process" is quite dangerous and should only be attempted by true professionals.

[Paladin]

35. He's too busy, recruiting people to sacrifice themselves at the next mass shooting. (nt)

[Initech]

36. Did anyone see Larry Willmore last night?

I'm liking his theory that Ben Carson is a zombie. This is just more proof!