#Trump&039;s rich cabinet

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Dr. Ben Carson, formerly a pediatric neurosurgeon, is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Trump administration.  Dr. Carson was, by all accounts, an excellent surgeon, but as I have mentioned before in this blog, he should have stayed in the medical profession and out of politics.

Yesterday’s news, widely reported among the media, floored me – a jaw-dropping moment.   It turns out that Dr. Carson has a plan … a plan to raise rents on subsidized housing, in some cases as much as 300%.  This comes on the heels of an executive order that Trump signed earlier this month to expand work requirements for low-income Americans receiving Medicaid, food stamps, public housing benefits and welfare.

Hey … somebody has to pay for all those tax cuts we gave to the already-wealthy last year, right?

Carson also wants to scrap rules allowing deductions for medical and child-care costs when determining rent, which Carson says gives some tenants an unfair advantage.  Now think about this one.  He wants to impose a requirement that all adults under 60 must be employed, but take away the credit for child care?  If I’m a single mom, and I have to work, most likely at a minimum wage job, and I have to pay for child care … ???

Trump, in his budget proposal, suggested that families on food stamps be given, instead, a box of government-issued non-perishable food.  No fresh veggies or chicken, just canned beans and peanut butter.  Oh yeah, that’s healthy.

Let us not forget that it was just last May when Carson said that “poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind.”  And let’s also remember that Mr. Carson and his wife like to live well … they really like nice things.  Such as the $31,000 dining room set he ordered for his new office.  Once the public became aware of it, he canceled the order, but still …

And let’s take a look again at Ben & Candy’s 6,400 square-foot, five-bedroom house …

And now, how about, just for comparison purposes, some of the homes he plans to triple the rent on …

I do not suggest that Dr. Carson should live like a pauper, but rather that his lavish lifestyle prevents him from having any sense of what those less fortunate go through simply to survive in the world.  Just how little Dr. Carson understands about anything can be seen in his remarks last December when he offered a prayer at a cabinet meeting that included thanks for “the unity in Congress that presented an opportunity for our economy to expand so that we can fight the corrosive debt that has been destroying our future.”  He was referring to the wealthy donor tax cuts that will dramatically increase our national debt!

Dr. Carson’s own net worth is said to be around $30 million.  And although he claims a ‘rags-to-riches’ story of childhood poverty, I am willing to bet that this man has never missed so much as a single meal in his entire life!

Carson justifies his stance by saying he is doing poor people a favour, because the current system creates …

“perverse incentives, including discouraging these families from earning more income and becoming self-sufficient.”

While nobody expects cabinet members to be selected from among the poorest of poor, it would be nice if they weren’t so far removed from the day-to-day reality most of us live with that they cannot even relate to the very people they are supposed to be helping.

Raising the Rent … Dr. Ben Carson, formerly a pediatric neurosurgeon, is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Trump administration. 

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Trump's nominee for Labor oversaw restaurants that violated labor regs

Trump’s nominee for Labor oversaw restaurants that violated labor regs

More than 100 food and agriculture organizations, representing more than 10 million, sent a letter to Capitol Hill urging senators to oppose the confirmation of fast food CEO Andrew Puzder as secretary of labor. The call from the farmers, food-system workers and public health advocates, led by Corporate Accountability International, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Friends of the Earth and Real Food…