The Blob Goes After Ben Carson

Manhattan Contrarian ^ | 5 May, 2017 | Francis Menton

[MtnClimber]

Of all the federal agencies that ought to have their budgets zeroed out, HUD should be the first. There is no bureaucracy in the "anti-poverty" business that does more than HUD to take people perfectly capable of self-sufficiency and intentionally turn them into lifelong government dependents. And, in the "bang for the buck" category, no other bureaucracy could possibly outdo HUD for futility. No housing grant, subsidy or other initiative counts for as much as a penny in the income of any recipient. Therefore, if somebody was poor before receiving an HUD grant or subsidy, it is one hundred percent assured that that person will still be poor after climbing on to the gravy train. There is no known metric under which HUD's "bang for the buck" could ever get above zero. If you count trapping millions of able-bodied people into dependency, HUD is hugely destructive.

At the same time, running HUD "programs" is the perfect bureaucratic sinecure. Virtually nobody ever escapes HUD's web. Once you are into subsidized housing, why would you ever go back to paying full price for your home? So the bureaucrats have a permanent lifelong clientele ready to advocate at the drop of a hat for continuation and increase in budgets. And if the bureaucrats fail in their job of maintaining the buildings properly (as of course they will), they have a ready-made source of self-inflicted heart-rending stories to use to get their budget increased. The whole thing is a cancer.

Into this disaster has now stepped new HUD Secretary Ben Carson. He has expressed many times his desire to reduce the dependency that it is HUD's core mission to increase. But can he actually accomplish anything?

[MtnClimber]

HUD needs to be dismantled, but I doubt Carson will have any positive impact. The momentum is too great.

[Maverick68]

I have faith in Dr. Carson because HE has faith in a higher power.