Opinion
‘Gifted Hands,’ Foot in Mouth
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
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The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
D
r. Ben Carson became the
darling of conservatives
earlier this year by stri-
dently attacking the Affordable
Care Act with President Obama
sitting just a few feet away. Car-
son, who was serving as the
keynote speaker at the National
Prayer Breakfast at the White
House, said, “Here’s my solution:
When a person is born, give him a
birth certificate, an electronic
medical record, and a health sav-
ings account to which money can
be contributed – pretax – from the
time you’re born ’til the time you
die. When you die, you can pass it
on to your family members, so that
when you’re 85 years old and you
got six diseases, you’re not trying
to spend up everything. You’re
happy to pass it on and there’s
nobody talking about death pan-
els.”
Predictably, the Right wing
rushed to embrace him. Rush Lim-
baugh, Sean Hannity and the crew
at Fox News were ecstatic that a
prominent Black neurosurgeon
shared their world view. Jonah
Goldberg, a columnist for the
Right-wing National Review,
compared Carson to racial apolo-
gist Booker T. Washington. David
Graham, writing in The Atlantic,
called him Herman Cain without
the “personal skeletons.” And the
conservative Wall Street Journal
ran an op-ed under the headline,
“Ben Carson for President.”
Professionally, Carson is no
dumb man. He earned his under-
graduate degree from Yale
book, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Ben Carson. In 2008, George
T HE C URRY as
W. Bush presented Carson with
R EPORT
the Presidential Medal of Free-
dom.
Carson has made several contro-
George E.
versial
remarks
after
his
Curry
appearance at the White House. In
March, he said on Fox TV: “Mar-
riage is between a man and a
woman. No group, be they gays,
University and his M.D. from the be they NAMBLA [North Ameri-
University of Michigan. At the age can Man/Boy Love Association],
of 33, he became director of pedi- be they people who believe in bes-
atric neurosurgery at Johns tiality, it doesn’t matter what they
Hopkins University in Baltimore, are. They don’t get to change the
the youngest major division direc- definition.”
Under pressure, Carson with-
tor in the school’s history.
In 1987, he led a 70-member drew as commencement speaker
Any idiot knows that having access to
healthcare is not worse than slavery
surgical ream that separated twins
who had been joined at the back of
the head. After the successful 22-
hour surgery, Carson gained
national recognition. His autobi-
ography, Gifted Hands: The Ben
Carson Story, was published in
1992. The book recounts how his
mother, Sonya, reared him and his
older brother, Curtis, after she and
her husband, Robert, divorced
when Ben was 8 years old. In
2009, TNT released a television
movie with the same title as his
for the Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine. He also apologized for
“not the best choice of words,”
called his critics racist, and then
apologized again.
Of all of his outrageous com-
ments, his latest one ranks among
the most egregious.
Speaking at a Voter Values Sum-
mit, Carson said, “I have to tell
you that Obamacare is, really, I
think, the worst thing that’s hap-
pened to this nation since slavery.
It was never about healthcare, it
was about control.”
First, the Affordable Care Act
does what its proper title implies –
it makes health care affordable to
millions of people, including the
uninsured. If making insurance
more affordable, not allowing
insurance companies to reject peo-
ple with pre-existing conditions
and allowing children to remain on
their parents’ insurance policies
until they are 26 years old isn’t
about healthcare, the esteemed
neurosurgeon doesn’t know the
definition of healthcare.
Second, any idiot knows that
having access to healthcare is not
worse than slavery.
Enslaved Africans had no rights,
as the Supreme Court ruled in its
1857 Dred Scott decision, “which
the white man was bound to
respect.” They were brutalized,
degraded, whipped, killed, and
raped at the whim of the slave
master. Marriage was not recog-
nized and the slave codes in
various states made it illegal to
teach Blacks to read or write.
The Affordable Health Care Act
is worse than that?
It’s a ridiculous comparison. At
the rate he is going, Carson’s pho-
tograph will be slapped on boxes
of rice. Dr. Ben will be more
appropriately known as Uncle
Ben.
George E. Curry, former editor-
in-chief of Emerge magazine, is
editor-in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers Associa-
tion News Service
IMM Publications Inc.,
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ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers
Association.
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property of The Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
Don’t Play Politics with the Debt Limit
“I
n the event that a debt
limit impasse were to lead
to a default, it could have
a catastrophic effect on not just
financial markets but also on job
creation, consumer spending and
economic growth—with many pri-
vate-sector analysts believing that
it would lead to events of the mag-
nitude of late 2008 or worse, and
the result then was a recession
more severe than any seen since
the Great Depression.”
— U.S. Treasury
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2013 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
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Page 4 The Portland Skanner
On September 21, one week
before the first government shut-
down in 17 years, President
Obama addressed the 43rd annual
Congressional Black Caucus Leg-
islative
Conference
in
Washington. He told the 43 mem-
bers of the Caucus and thousands
of its supporters the same thing he
has been telling the nation ever
since, “We will not negotiate
whether or not America should
keep its word and meets its obliga-
tions. It’s time for these folks to
stop governing by crisis.”
It is also time to set the record
straight about the debt limit – what
it is, what it does and why it
should never be a political pawn in
an ideological game (yes, game)
of who will blink first. The Treas-
ury Department defines the debt
limit as “the total amount of
money that the United States gov-
ernment is authorized to borrow to
meet its existing legal obligations,
including Social Security and
Medicare
benefits,
military
salaries, interest on the national
October 16, 2013
T O B E
E QUAL
Marc Morial
debt, tax refunds, and other pay-
ments. The debt limit does not
authorize new spending commit-
ments. It simply allows the
government to finance existing
legal obligations that Congresses
and presidents of both parties have
made in the past.”
In other words, raising the debt
ceiling is not a license for
unchecked partisan spending. It
the damage to the American peo-
ple and to federal employees is
mounting – with almost 1 million
federal workers furloughed and
“essential” workers reporting to
work but not being paid. In addi-
tion, government agencies and
organizations that provide critical
services to millions of Americans
– and that are still reeling from the
detrimental effects of the
“sequester” – have been forced to
suspend needed services, putting
both the economic health of the
nation and the physical health of
our people in jeopardy.
But, as bad as all of this may be,
it pales in comparison to what
could happen if Congress creates
another manufactured crisis by
We must never become so
irreconcilable that rigid ideology is
valued above the needs of American
citizens
does, however, ensure that our
nation continues to pay our bills
and abide by previously reached
agreements.
Adding to the crisis is that as of
the time of this writing, the gov-
ernment shutdown has entered its
second week. With each passing
day, new burdens are added to
already hard-pressed communities
across the country. Even with the
recent House vote to guarantee
back pay for furloughed workers,
failing to raise the debt limit by
October 17.
Throughout our nation’s history,
our government has never default-
ed on our legal obligations. In fact,
the debt limit has been permanent-
ly raised, temporarily extended or
has undergone a revision of its
definition 78 distinct times since
1960 (49 times under a Republican
president and 29 times under a
Democratic president). According
to the Treasury Department, if
America defaults on our global
financial obligations, it would
likely send our economy back into
a deep recession – with high inter-
est rates, reduced investment,
higher debt payments, and slow
economic growth – that could last
for more than a generation.
This issue is not one to manipu-
late for political power plays or to
use as a stick to force repeals of
passed legislation. With the world
watching and China – our largest
creditor – using this as an opportu-
nity to remind us of “the lessons of
history” from our 2011 credit rat-
ing downgrade attributable to
Congressional deadlock, the
stakes are high and the conse-
quences of inaction are even more
dire. Political grandstanding isn’t
worth it for anyone, and in the end,
it will be the American people –
not one party or political figure –
who lose if we continue down this
path.
Let’s be clear – principled, parti-
san fights are a part of democracy.
But we must never become so
irreconcilable that rigid ideology
is valued above the needs of
American citizens. Our message to
Congress is clear: Don’t play with
the full faith and credit of the Unit-
ed States. Act now and
demonstrate to our nation and the
world how democracy can be – at
its best.
Marc H. Morial, former mayor
of New Orleans, is president and
CEO of the National Urban
League.