Ben Carson on Debt Ceiling: ‘Do We Really Need 4.1 Million Employees?’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BLITZER: “Let's talk about the other issues. The debt ceiling. In early November it's got to be raised, otherwise the U.S. Will fail to pay what it already has accumulated as far as its financial obligations.”
CARSON: “Sure.”
BLITZER: “What would you do about that if you were president of the United States?”
CARSON: “If we keep raising it, it's sort of like, okay, you've reached the limit for your fourth credit card, I'll tell you what, why don't we get a fifth credit card. That's not solving the problem. So, no, I am not in favor of continually raising the debt ceiling.”
BLITZER: “But something has to happen in November and everyone agrees the U.S. Has to do something about reducing the annual deficit, reducing the national debt, but there are debts that the United States already has accumulate that had have to be repaid otherwise the U.S. goes into default.”
CARSON: “Well, there may be other places we should be thinking about getting rid of some of our expense. We have 4.1 million federal employees. Do we really need 4.1 million federal employees? We have 645 federal agencies and sub agencies. Do we really need that? We need to be looking at other things. I know Nancy Pelosi said if you cut one penny, the whole system will collapse. You know what I say about that? It's not true.”
BLITZER: “I think a lot of people agree there's a lot of waste, fraud, corruption. You can cut the federal government. A lot of jobs could be eliminated. You could cut spending. I think almost everyone agrees. In the short term you have to deal in early November with raising that debt ceiling and people are wondering if you were president what would you tell members of Congress to do?”
CARSON: “I would make a deal if I were suddenly president now. Because it's too late to do what we need to do so that we don't have to raise –“
BLITZER: “Because now and November you're not going to cut all that spending.”
CARSON: “Right. I would say if we raise it now, it is on the stipulation and I would say let's take all of those different agencies. You're going to cut your budget by 3 percent or 4 percent.”
BLITZER: “In other words raise it now but make sure that within a year all of that spending is reduced so that the deficit goes down, down, down.”
CARSON: “Right. Because we don't want keep having this problem.”
