Man who recently got stuck in an elevator and current Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said that poverty is a "state of mind," because nothing says that you understand the people you represent better than completely minimizing their struggles.
According to The Washington Post, Carson was visiting Armstrong Williams at SiriusXM Radio when he spewed his insensitive remarks.
"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," he said on air. "You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there."
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But, wait, it gets worse.
"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," he added.
As you can imagine, people on Twitter were not having it.
trump: I'm getting killed in the news by #CBOSCORE, Jeff Sessions, and AHCA. Can u say something about poverty?
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) May 24, 2017
Ben Carson: Hold my beer. pic.twitter.com/fJRtqGuGXp
States of mind, as defined by well-known individuals:
— AnnD (@WS_AnnD) May 24, 2017
New York - Billy Joel
Poverty - Ben Carson
Ben Carson: "Poverty is a state of mind. Sadness is imaginary. Fingers are hand toes. The sky is rainbasketed and flarflenorg. I like eggs."
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) May 24, 2017
The remarks are especially surprising since Carson himself grew up around many people who relied on public housing, as The Washington Post reported back in December 2016.
Despite seeing the impact of poverty first-hand, Carson still maintains that some government programs are “sustaining [people] in a position of poverty.”
"I think the majority of people don't have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don't see the way, and that’s where government can come in and be very helpful," he told Armstrong. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."
Carson's statements came out just after Trump released his controversial budget, which, as The Washington Post writes, would cut over $6 billion to the HUD.
If passed, the proposal would junk the Community Development Block Grant program, which The Washington Post reports, "provides cities with money for affordable housing and other community needs, such as fighting blight, improving infrastructure, and delivering food to homebound seniors." The impact would be potentially devastating.