Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words 20140831

Tell this young lady how much we officiate her. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much. [applause] thank you. If a georgetown person wins the drawing, it is going to be mighty suspect. I want you to know how to take his seat because these are strictly by the numbers. I will not load and i will pull from the middle. Pull from the middle, okay. First, read the row. All right. We will do this for some drama appropriate to a theater. The row that has been written or. The row would be jay. And seat number are you ready . All right. We owe jay, c. 26. [applause] this is for you, rather jay, seat 46. [applause] your name as pay him thanks. Enjoy your book. [applause] in the booth, as soon as we can you kill these flights. Thank you for coming. We appreciate. We are according to get her back for the second book. Thank you so much, everybody. It has been a pleasure. [inaudible conversations]. That all happened tonight on cspan2s booktv. Up next on booktv, after words with guest Host Chuck Todd of nbc news. This week dr. Ben carson and his latest book one nation what we can all do to save americas future. In it for prominent former neurosurgeon and president ial critic proposes a road out what he calls the u. S. Decline. He contends these solutions appeal to every americans decency and common sense. This program is about an hour. Host dr. Carson, welcome. I think the best way to store before you delve into your book is to delve into you. So tell me, you have a very inspirational, i grew up there tell me where you grew up. Guest i grew up in detroit. A couple years in boston also. You know, my mother came from a large rural family, got married when she was 13, rural tennessee. She and my father moved to detroit. He was a factory worker. Some years later she discovered he was a bigamist. She had the response that at the point with only a third grade education of trying to raise us on their own how. Host how many of you were there . Guest myself on my brother. We were particularly good students. Thats putting it mildly. I was the dummy, thats what everybody called the. Host a neurosurgeon now and youre a dummy. How do you go from the dummy to neurosurgery transit and one used to tease me and call me names. My mother, and i think any success ive had, you know i can contribute to god and my mother. Shes always seeking wisdom and came up with the idea of open your eyes and looking around you, and she noticed that the homes that she cleaned, people did watch a lot of tv no offense. And they read a lot of books. She looked at where we lived. She looked away they lived comments about the click in her mind, if i can get my voice to stop looking at tv all day long and start reading. She imposed that on the. Host did you have a favorite tv show . Guest i love anything. Host whatever was going . Guest you did need to tv guide around. I could say what was on every station. She basically restricted as to to or three tv programs per week. And with all the spare time she said went to read two books of peace from the Detroit Public Library and submit a written report. She couldnt read but we did know that. Host when did you find out she couldnt read traffic later on in high school. She got her ged the same year i graduated from high school. Host no kidding . Guest yeah. But anyway, by making us read, which i hated, something happened. I used to admire the smart kids in the classroom. I was always saying how come they know all these answers . They are the same age i am. But as a starter reading all this and the teacher would ask the question and i knew the answer. It got me excited and i got to the point where if i had five minutes i was reading a book. I went from being the dummy to the top of the class in the year and a half. Host give me the first book that you read. Guest chip the dam builder. Host my dad made me read profiles in courage. What was it for you . Guest chip the dam builder. It was about a beaver. It was a cool beer, ive got to tell you. Cool beaver. I read every animal book in the detroit libra and the nested reading about plans and rocks rs because we look at the Railroad Tracks and theyre all these rocks. I could get boxes of rocks. Soon i could invite any rock. Host suddenly youre a scientist and you didnt realize it. Now starting to make the connection. That may be sparked your interest transferred one day a Science Teacher held up a big black shiny rock and to does anyone know what this is . I didnt raise my hand because i never raised my hand. Nobody gets i raised my hand. Everybody turned around but couldnt leave, they said this will be how larry is. Host we known as a jokester . Guest they knew i couldnt possible know the answer so the new would be dumb. I said its subsidy and. They did know whether they should be laughing or be impressed by the teacher said thats right. Then explained how oxygen was formed and they were shocked but i was more shocking anybody because it dawned on me at that moment that i wasnt stupid. The teacher invited me to come host what grade is this . Guest fifth grade. The teacher invited me to come to the lab, got me involved in taking care of little animals. I started looking through the microscope discovering the whole world of protozoa. Host do remember the teachers name transferred mr. Jacob. Host how long ago . Guest that was more than 50 years ago. Interesting thing is i went back to that school and this was several years ago with good morning america, and they wanted to sort trace my roots. Mr. Jacob was still there. Balding and potbelly. Host are we all at some point . Guest i want him to show them the animals because he had a red squirrel, tarantula, jack dempsey fish, all these things. He said oh, we had to get rid of those things a long time ago. Host did you have a relationship with your father . Guest not a strong relationship. We would see them periodically. The last time muslim was the day i got married 39 years ago. Host did the second, he had, did you have a relationship with those halfbrothers come halfsisters . Guest no. Host did you ever forgive in . Guest absolutely. I kind of look at the big picture. My mother tried to make up for all that. And my father, you know, he was involved with drugs, alcohol, women. Nothing wrong with women but you cant have more than one, okay . Thats the problem. That probably would not have been the best influence on me. In retrospect even though i was devastated as a kid, i was praying let him come back, now i realize that perhaps it would not have been the best thing for me. Host detroit today, what would you be doing . Guest first of all, the same thing i would be doing almost any place, bring back some fiscal responsibility, fiscal common sense. A lot of people blame the unions for what happened to detroit. But i actually dont you need to do what you need to the a golden egg, give me the egg. Thats all they want a. Host they represent their members and their members want a better deal. Guest right but executives in the big three auto companies, they have a one year, five year, tenure, 15 your plan. They understand all this and a new if they kept competing with the and eventually there would be a problem. They kept doing it anyway because they knew they would have their golden parachute and they would be long gone. Host you blame as much of executives as you do guest the same thing i see around the country. Let it be somebody elses problem. Host you know, you have gotten this spark of enthusiasm among conservatives. Conservatives. Have even surprised it is come from conservatives . Did you assume you were a conservative when you did this . I get the impression you want always a conservative. Guest no. Well obviously, like most young people, growing up in a place like detroit, when i went off to college i was a radical. Host would you go to school . Guest yale. Host what is a radical at yale . If you told me radical at berkeley i would know. Guest they were radicals. There was a black panther rally, you know, Kingman Brewster was evil and all this kind of stuff. But it was just though it was at that time during our history. Radicalism was very much accepted among young people at that point. I consider myself really more of a logical person than i am a conservative or liberal or anything. Im not all that fond of labels. But i say most of our problems are easily solvable if we could just throw away the labels. I indicated in the book i would love a situation where Party Designation was not on the ballot. Where you had actually know who that person was. Host in a lot of cities, mayors races, thats the case. Its not surprising to me guess whos getting stuff done these days . Mayors. They dont have the baggage that comes with a Political Party right now. Its an interesting so eager to yale, and when you decide im going to be a doctor . Guest i actually decided that when i was eight years old. I used to love Mission Stories in church. It seem like the most noble people on the face of the earth. Great personal sacrifice, bringing mental, physical and spiritual healing to people. I said thats what im going to do. But when i turned 13 having grown up in dire poverty i decided i would rather be rich. So that point i wanted to be a psychiatrist. Host decided a psychiatrist was a better way to make money than guest on television, dr. Lawrence, plush offices. Host who was a psychiatrist that you are referring to . Guest most of the tv programs where you its a psychiatrist host they were doing it. Guest i started reading psychology today. Everybody would bring me the problems. I would sit down and host give me a nickel, tin since. Guest and i majored in psychology in college. I had blueberry professors like it was really pretty exciting. But when i got to medical school i said, you know, everybody is special gifts and talents, and what are yours . I started to make about my life and realize i had a tremendous amount of eye hand coordination. Host for a surgeon, that is key. Gasping and the ability to think in three dimensions which is essential for neurosurgeon because you do with a nebulous mass. And you have to be able to keep in mind when all the tracks are even there you cant see them. If you dont have good threedimensional skills you are host howd you know you had that skill . Guest from some of the jobs that i done annually performed extremely well like working in a steel factory. Host what did you do in the steel factory treachery crane operator. Right after i finish college. Host interesting. Guest you are driving these enormous beams of steel through narrow areas and dropping them in the bed of the truck. And that they would let me do that after one day of practice host a little scary. Guest i said, these guys see something in the that they dont see very often. Host the next guy up. Guest no, no. That was a summer job and a lot of the guys who worked there probably didnt get to do that. But, you know, as i thought about it i said youd be a tremendous neurosurgeon to a lot of people thought that was strange because at the time there have been eight black and nurses in the history of the world. But to me i didnt think about that. I said this is what my talents are. This is where im going to go. Host i hear in surgery that basically in some ways the rotations, the one rotation where people can identify the best surgeons are sometimes the Plastic Surgeon rotation in some way because youve got to be artistic and precise at the same time. Its more of, now we lampoon it in some ways. But there is some truth to that. Guest a lot of my career was developed around craniofacial surgery with the Plastic Surgeons which is why i have an apartment in plastic surgery. Host you are not practicing right now. Do you miss the . Guest i miss the way it used to be. There were a lot of things in the process of changing. Most people when they chose medicine, they chose it because you had a great deal of autonomy. You could sort of figure out, wow, im going to solve this problem. And in the days come in the early days they would be like a kid from believe you are someplace that had this incredible problem, and didnt have resources. I would just say, overriding and take your. Host you figured out because you want to solve the problem of. Guest and nobody said boo because the hospitals had a big enough war chest that it was okay. Once the Insurance Companies got to the point where they could dictate how much theyre going to pay and hospitals no longer had a margin, and then you want to do what . For free . Are you kidding me . Its a changing so much and so much bureaucracy and stuff. So one of my goals in life is to try to make medicine fun again. I want doctors to get it get up in morning and be excited about going to work. Host should doctors be getting rich . Guest i think doctors should be well compensated. Rich is a very different thing. I know a lot of rich people. Doctors that are rich. Host who should be paid more in our society, teachers or doctors . Guest i would say its an irrelevant question. I think, you know, ma people should be paid for what they do. Recognize that doctors spent a very long time and training to be doctors. They go to college, they go to medical school for four years, internship, residency. Host so you argued we say its 12 years of simply postgraduate work to be a practicing neurosurgeon. Guest it takes a long time. Theres a lot of sacrifice involved. And even when she do start working, youre working extraordinary hours and then youve got the port issue. With neurosurgeons its particularly bad because everybody thinks everything is supposed be perfect and theyre getting with very high risk real estate. That was one of the reasons that had a real problem with socalled Health Reform that doesnt include tort reform. They can even be serious. Host rhetorically the present would talk about when push came to shove. Let me ask you, your christianity is throughout the book. Science and faith sometimes collide. You are this highly scientific mind, and youre a very deeply religious person to some people would say hey, that doesnt compute. That doesnt always compute. How does it can be with you treachery first of all i was im not deeply religious but i have a personal relationship with god. There is a difference. Host let me posture there. What would be the difference . Guest the difference is that religion tends to be more form, and faith tends to be more substance. In the name of religion a lot of really silly stuff has been carried out. Host the middle east right now. At any point in time. Guest exactly. However, people who have a dip relationship with god i think of a tennessee deeper relationship see religion into the way. I actually believe that science and faith can be really quite compatible. Ive had some interesting discussions with Nobel Laureates who say, you know, how can a person of your intelligence believe that, you know, not created heaven, earth and all this stuff . I say, well, how can a person of your intelligence believe that something came from nothing. Explain to me exactly how it works. Well, we dont understand everything. Okay, so ill give you that theres something. Just, theres something. And now youre going to tell me it explodes, and we have a perfectly organized solar system to the point where we can predict 70 years when a comment is coming. The earth rotates on its axis going around i mean, so that just happened, right . And they say, well, you know, if you have enough explosion over a long enough period of time, then eventually one of them will be the perfect explosions and thats what will happen. And i said, so if i blow a hurricane for junkyard over billions of years, billions of times, eventually after one of them it would be a pretty formed 747 ready to fly, right . Well, thats what youre saying. And i say youre welcome to the plea. I have no problem. Im not going to denigrate you because of that. Its just that requires a lot more faith than it does for me to believe. Host if someone asked you are you a creationist, the believe in evolution, you would answer guest i believe that god created heaven and earth. I find that much easier to believe. Because you to recognize that you take somebody like Charles Darwin who, as you probably know, started out in a seminary. But he got to the point where, you know, he goes off to the galapagos islands. He start seeing stuff. Hes never seen finches like that anyplace else. He said, thats evidence of evolution. Well, it depends on a look at it. Two years before, which he did know at the time, there had been a severe drought. Billy finches who survived were the geeks have enough to break through the seedlings to extract what actually is happening is that you have a creator who is given his creatures the building to adapt to the environment so you have to start over. Host it sounds like you believe in natural selection. You believe in sort of some parts of darwinism not the whole thing. Guest i may not call of darwinism but i believe in a caption. Creatures with the ability to adapt to environment. If i would agree to i would certainly get my creatures that ability. Host is at 6000 over billions treachery the earth . I dont know the answer to that. The bible says in the beginning god created heaven and earth. Period. Host ive had some people say one day could have been a billion years. Guest but we dont know. Host people have created defend creationism sank 6000 years guest i would say theres nothing that tells us how old the earth is in the bible. It could be billions of years old. But also i believe the reason that god is god is because he can do stuff we cant do. So if you wanted to create something that already had age in it, he could do that. Absolutely. Thats why he would be god. Host and so your scientific education, you feel like does not conflict with your faith, your billy . Guest ive never had an instance where my belief in god has conflicted might ability might ability to be a good neurosurgeon. Host alec baldwin every character he played with an absence of malice and he was a surgeon with a god complex. That is is supposedly stereotype of surgeons. Is that just an unfair hollywood view of most surgeons . Guest well, theres no question that there are some surgeons are fairly large egos. And, in fact, its especially gushing even get people host you can be confident. Guest those are not going to become surgeons, okay . So does select for the kind of people but i know a lot of incredibly nice surgeons, incredibly caring, decent people. Host i guess i get why they might have a god complex because the theyre the only ono can solve a problem in their head, right . And thats where this comes from a little bit. Guest and its unfortunate, but host how did you prevent it. Its easy. You at Johns Hopkins. You are the elite of the elite. How did you keep your head from getting a god complex . Guest because i personally remember, and still remember, where i came from. And i also recognize that a lot of things depend on a lot of other situations. There were a lot of important people involved in virtually everything that ive done. I make that clear to people. I tell the residents, everybody else, there are always other people involved. My mother, e. G. Hadnt given me, you know, what i needed, i probably wouldve ended up working in a factory or sweeping the floor. Not that theres anything wrong with that, we need those people but i would not have realized my potential. With some of the very complex operations, you know, you think about the first set of conjoined twins that were joined at the back of the head, that kind of thing had never been done with them surviving before. But i had to consult with a cardiothoracic surgeons who were extremely good and understood the whole concept of hypothermic arrest and had we work that together and work with the Plastic Surgeons . How we ever going to get this covered after we get, you know, a lot of people besides myself are involved in those kinds of things. Host i want to get to the heart and deep parts of this book but warmer question on science. What is your scientific background to you about Climate Change . Guest it tells me that if you look at the earth at any given point in time, temperatures are either going up or they are going down. Over a specific period of time. As you may remember, you might be too young, in the 70s one of it was time for newsweek, i dont remember which one had this big glacier on the front, a new ice age is coming. Now is global warming. It depends what kerry did you look at. Is what i say about it. Whether were getting colder or warmer, we have a responsibility to take care of our environment. Thats the bottom line. We dont have to sit here and argue that whether were getting hotter or colder. We need to argue about how do we intelligently take care of host effective something changed we know that. You look at new york city, new jersey, bigger seawalls. You had to make Public Policy decisions based on what you think is coming. Thats the importance of figuring this out, is it not treachery right but its also important not to get overly involved in paranoia about it. You know, our epa as far as im concerned should be working in conjunction with our Research Facilities and with industry to say, how can we best utilize our Natural Resources and at the same time respect our environment . Rather than saying, no, were not developing this, when not developing this because, i dont think thats a wise use of our intellect and our resources. Host i guess i look at, remember the great concern about the hole in the ozone layer, a lot of focus on what we thought it was an but basically, the entire aerosol industry changed and the whole close. So this is a case where a problem was identified, a solution was identified, industry thought it hard and lo and behold weve moved on. Industry adapt. Guest but im not saying we shouldnt do that. Host so you do believe we should at least pursue some of these scientific researchers . Guest absolutely. But i think we need to take a balanced approach. And as you saw from reading the book, i say that in just about everything. Remember when i said at the National Prayer breakfast in order for a nickel to fly high and straight, it needs to wings, a left wing and a right wing. If you do everything in a lopsided way, my way or the highway, youre going to crash. Host let me start Chapter Three because i think its interesting. You on this highly intellectual person. You would to the best schools, you have taught that the best schools. And yet youre concerned about elitism. Guest well, the reason im concerned about elitism is because you are a class of people, for instance, you see it in a lot of our universities right now, you believe that they are sort of the beacon of light for everything. And anybody who doesnt i grieve with them, not only do they not want to do them, they dont want anyone to them. They dont want anybody to them. If they have a business, it want to shut it down. If have a reputation they want to destroy. Where does that come from unless you just believe that you are the cats meow . Host you feel like academic elitism is among when did you first say im into politics . Im following this . When did you make that transition from scientists, you know, and highly acclaimed surgeon, Johns Hopkins saying you know what . I want to get into the political fray. What was the trigger transfer i dont know that there was a dramatic moment. If you look through books ive written over the last 20 to 30 years, you will see that ive been talking about these issues were decades. If you go back to book i wrote in 1999, as a whole Health Reform program laid out there. Im not johnnycomelately to these issues but the thing that really changed me and the perception of people was the National Prayer breakfast in 2013. Because i just spoke my mind. I spoke about what i really why i was concerned about it. Because i very much love the nation we live in. I dont want to sit fundamentally changed. Host you have an interesting challenge in chapter six of your book which you say to somebody which is this concert of the concern that i have in what and how people consume too much of only one side. They only follow, if theyre conservative they follow conservatives on twitter. Watch one channel here on one channel there. Is a potential a different, member of a different Political Party and make a rational defense of one of the issues. So im going to make a rational defense of which on the spot to the Presence Health care plan. Guest okay. Thats easy to do. Everybody should have Health Insurance. And we need to find a way to make that possible. And since we know a lot and we have a lot of really bright people, we can probably figure out better than the private sector and resort in no better than the people themselves who are actually very benign and. Host let me stop you there. You are saying we know better. Let me push you more. What parts of the president s plan do you think were good parts . Is there any part of the Presence Health care plan you we keep . Guest certainly lifetime limits. Host someone who deals in very expensive surgeries you sort of understand, a young family having a pediatric neurosurgery for their child, thats a bankrupt will deal. Guest sure. Preexisting diseases. Excluding people on the basis of that. Those are horrible things. I talked to a High Administration official before the thing was passed. I said theres some good stuff in there. I said i agree with it. I agree virtually everybody, why not take those things and make them the foundation of Health Care Reform . It would be a bipartisan effort and then lets build it together. Because health care is something we all need. Why cant we work on this together . If you push it through on one party and hav you have unanimous disagreement, all you going to do is create rancor and youre not going to have cooperation for anything. Why would you do that . And he said, you are probably right, but this is washington and this is politics. Thats the very problem. When we take these important issues and would make them into politics and which is key polarizing. And a wise man once said a house divided against itself cannot stand. Host not just any wise men. Arguably the wise men of this country. Guest s wide web to keep doing this . Widely called that book one nation . Because i think our strength is in the unity. Not in our decisions. We the American People are not it excels at you would have e Health Insurance reform and would not come he wouldve made the first goal, what you like other reforms in the interest interest. It was the next of the figure how to expand and please give universal access is where the collision happened. Guest and we can get universal access because we spend twice as much per capita as the next closest nation but its not that we have not put adequate resources. So to think we need to be pouring more money into a, thats foolishness. What we need to think about is how do we decide it in a reasonable way. And thats why ive emphasized the Health Savings accounts because people have control of what theyre going to spend their money on. Host you in fact have an idea in your you would say from birth to death you would get a Health Care Savings account. Walk me through that. How is it funded . Guest through a variety of different ways. People who work can be funded through their employers. People who are indigent, the same money that we spend far host medicaid . Guest that would go into this Health Savings account. You dont lose it if you dont use it. There are no limits on it. If youre having a birthday party, you could say please contribute to my hma. It contributes such a lifetime. Host European Countries basically at the beginning of birth and your money. Some of it is for childcare, sounds like would you put some government money in this hsa at the beginning . Guest people who need government money host you with automatic restart up maybe 5000 country people who need money put in your but even it would take all the people who are needy in this country and we put, you know, money into their hsa, they will fall far short of what were spending now with inefficient programs. So heres the key thing. People began to be responsible. You need to have something done, you are going remember when the Food Stamps Program first started. A lot of people said you cant do that because people will be irresponsible. Theres no with their going to use the appropriate. They will go out i dont like poorhouses take the first five days and they will start the rest of the month. Host thats why they had to put limits on it. Guest no, you didnt have to put limits on. People arent themselves. Im going to buy some hamburger and hamburger helper. They would learn to stretch it out and make it work. They will do the same thing if they have control of their Health Savings accounts. That would bring the whole medical system into the free market Economic Forum which would control price and quality. Host it sounds like youd make an argument of hospitals are as much of him as anybody because a hospital will charge some ridiculous amount. My father died of a very long disease. My mother would go through the bill line by line and she would find double things and should send to the Insurance Company to let them know. But they were charging crazy amounts of money that is unfathomable. Guest its because the costs they know of is maybe only 2000 but if they put the cost down, the Insurance Company will pay them 300. Therefore, if we put 20,000 down, then maybe they will pay us 3000. Is all games. Host this is a total gain. Guest its ridiculous. Host this is a case where it sounds, the administration and hospitals, that was a tough one to crack. They ended up working with the Insurance Companies, not with the hospitals. Guest but remember, if youre in charge to your hsa, unit going to go to the hospital that does that. You go to the other one which is going to make this would start acting like this one. Thats the way the free market works. Host you think the only way to truly Reform Health care system is basically get out of the Insurance Industry transfer you can have all these artificial influences. Host you are advocating for no insurance or no Health Insurance guest no. What im saying is for all of your routine health care, 80 of everything that youre going to to deal with can easily be paid through your hsa. But youve got remember, people do have major and catastrophic issues that come up to thats what your insurance is for. Host so everything should be catastrophic. So for instance, there was a Cancer Policy that was big in the 80s. Those dont exist anymore. They dont sell them because they . Guest into losers with health Insurance Companies. You get for the big diseases, big problems and take that unless of off the Insurance Industry completely . Guest correct. I remember, you sprain your ankle, you think you didnt actually . Thats coming out of your hsa. You need a physical exam . Hsa. Birth control pills . Hsa. No hobby lobby. So what happens . Youre not impinge upon your major medical. What happened to the cost of the . Guest well, it should come down. Now lets live in the real world or we have insurance lobbyists and the Insurance Companies and hospitals and all these people who have gotten rich. Health care is among the Fastest Growing sectors in our economy. Is considered a money maker in the semiprivate sector. I say semibecause we know without medicare and without some of these things, so how do you enact your plan in the world we live in . Guest well, keep in mind what im talking about insurance, insurance is interest. It all works basically the same. Like your homeowners insurance. If you have a high deductible, guess what happens to the price of its . It plummets. If you want everything taken care of, guess what happens . Same thing. Exactly the same. Host Chapter Seven you use the phrase enslaving our children. Its a chapter on debt. Some of our language your language that you just as certainly come to talk about this, the politically correct police, but words do matter and it did offend folks. So why not curtail some of your language . Guest what offends people that ive said . Post but i think it depends on the point of view. It may be your political positions. Theres all sorts of ways people get offended. Guest when i talk about Political Correctness im talking about not being able to express how you actually feel. Host so enslaving our children to some africanamericans would say, slavery is awful, slavery is this. To compare the National Debt to slavery is doing a disservice to slavery. Guest what i would say about that which i talk about in the book, the whole hypersensitivity thing. A lot of things that bother people, but then somebody comes, did you what he said . A fan the flames. You should be offended. Host it works really well and 140 characters by the way gets back this is the same stuff thathey use to go on in the thid grade playground. Did you hear what he said about you mama . Come on. We dont have to deal with that. We have real major problems that we have to do with. The reason i talk about enslaving our young people is because this level of debt, i dont think most people can even comprehend 17. 5 trillion going on the 18th truly but if you tried to pay that 18 trillion at 10 million a day, it would take you 5000 years. I mean, that is an absurd amount of money. The only reason we cant sustain that is because the u. S. Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. What if we were not . That the designation agenda goes with the number one economy in the world, which we then since the 1870s. We are going to lose it soon because hosting do you believe that . China is a mass. Guest they are a mess but they are going at six, 7 . How much are we growing . Host right has been so they will pass us up. However, i dont believe theyre going to become the same kind of force. Look at the banking system. Host theres a lot of problems theyre going to face. Guest right. However, heres the issue. Russia starting to talk about and some other nations about creating a basket currency. So instead of u. S. Dollar being the basis to be a hodgepodge of things. What will that do to its . It will rob is or deplete us from the ability to print money. What happens when you cant print money and you have the kind of data that we have . Stop and think about that for a moment. Host let me ask you about raise. Because you talk about Political Correctness in here. I look at the last 30 years and i think when i grew up, we have more honest discussions in the 70s about race than we do today. We are actually afraid to have, we Say Something happens, somebody attacks the president and we say were going to have a real conversation about race, and we dont. Theres some fear there. So let me start first with this. Do you think, do you believe that some people against the president simply because of the caller of his skin in . Guest if you see some people, im sure there are some people who are against host do you think guest i dont think its a larger number of people anymore. I do think people are very much influenced by their perceptions. So for instance, if somebody told you, you know, carson is evil, terrible guy and hes scheming all the time. And then you met me, you would interpret everything i did, hes scheming. In a summit on the other hand, said he is this really nice guy, he loves everybody and to say okay, i can see that. Somebody is always looking for racism, no matter what you say to them, you know, they are perceiving that as racism. Host have you experienced racism tragedy im sure that there probably has been some summer along the line, but it really has not been a big factor for me. My mother told me something very important when i was a youngster. She said if you walk into an auditorium full of racist, bigoted people, she said, you dont have a problem. They have a problem. They are all going to cringe and wonder if youre going to sit next to them and you can sit anywhere you want. [laughter] thats the way id lead my life. If someone has a problem with it, enjoy. Ive got more important things to do. Host do you think race has benefited you . Guest i dont think its hurt me or i dont think its benefit me. I think it is a wash. And i think particularly in the profession that i spent my whole life and, as a neurosurgeon. Now, i fully recognize early on in my career, i would come into the room and some eyebrows would kind of go up, you know . Is black that is going to operate . Wow. Exe give you a little bit of that traffic i would feel a little bit but by the time i got through talking with them, and heres the problem, heres a report and let, you would see that completely melt away. Hosthost that you entered a field i would argue some ways its so result oriented. That issue into a perfect Perfect Place to sort of if you wanted numbers, science, numbers dont lie. Thats going to drop everything else. Guest without question. Thats the wonderful thing about medicine. There was a procedure that i started advocating which was very, very controversial. And people were complaining, a complaint to the president of the hospital, the dean, department chairman, the maryland medical association, eva went up to the ama. But by that time i was able to reveal the numbers. They demonstrated that not a Single Person that died and there was very little in the way of complications. That ended the controversy. That wont work in politics. Guest numbers dont, people of their own set of facts and it really is a set of halftruths on both sides and the question is everybody is ground over there in the truth, just enough to defend their position. I want to go to an economic issue. You advocate for a flat 10 . Everyone has to contend something. Guest i didnt say 10 but i said it could be 10 but but it needs to be proportional. The reason i use 10 it because its very easy to do the math. Host there in a. Guest but it needs to be whatever it needs to be to support the government. But it needs to be proportional because which a to recognize is by having this very skewed system with all of these deductibles and things, there are a lot of people who make enormous amounts of money who pay very little in taxes. 10 would be a lot to them. Host for some of them sure because theres so many ways for them to hike taxes. Guest and i think thats craziness and we dont have to do that. On the other hand, i believe its insulting for people who make small amounts of money to say, they are, you little thing, you dont have to do anything, im going to take it be. I believe if they really stopped and thought about it they would want to be, even though they would be contributing a lot, they are still carrying their weight. Host let me propose a counter argument in here on this group of folks that dont pay any federal income tax. If they go to a casino, if they buy a Lottery Ticket come in some way all of this game that we use, praise on the poor. Guest it does. Host they are spending more money funding our schools whether its detroit thats decide to go casino gambling or other places but theyre putting tax dollars into the pockets. They are putting tax money and. So there are ways that this group that, while theyre not telling, writing a check to the federal government, they are can shipping arguably more money to edge tatian in a game situation than the rich. Guest however, gaming. Thats what were doing is gaming the system with this complex tax system. If we have something thats simple and easy to figure out, first of all we are going to have a predictable amount of money that were going to bring in. We will know what we need in order to run the government. The other thing that you mightve noticed, im not a big proponent of gigantic government. Why do i say that . In 2010, we have the statistics for that, if you took the income of her buddy who made 69,000 above, 5. 1 trillion. What was the federal budget . 3. 5 trillion. 60 of everything that middleclass and above makes. Does that make sense . Of course it doesnt. Obviously, we need to reduce it. And i have proposed a very simple and fairway, thousand Government Employees retire every year. Dont replace them. You can shoot people around but dont replace the. You do that for about four years, get down to a manageable size. And that doesnt fire anybody. If people are down to a manageable size, then they can concentrate on what theyre supposed to be doing. Host as you and i will know come something happens. Like at the veterans affairs, eddie the hospital where something is getting done and nobody is up in arms and then we find out there just werent enough people to do this. All of these things in the grand scheme of things make a lot of sense and the window the way government and politics work. How do you prevent the politics of the latest the way account works, look at this bomb and the federal government. We will have to fix it anybody, democrat and republican has to throw money at it. Guest sure. But they dont understand, a lot of people dont understand the fundamental problems of the via. Ive worked in the va hospital. Wonderful people, doctors, nurses, therapists, great people. Wonderful patients. Above them to death. Huge amount of bureaucracy between this group and the screw. Thats the problem. Get rid of that stuff. Honestly, there are some things that veterans hospitals do very well, posttraumatic stress disorders husband and you think they should be specialized. Guest but everybody else should go to other hospitals. Host go somewhere else. I want to in a little more political, which is used a seaward and i dont hear conservatives use for it often, and thats a compromise were. Conservatives watches, grand. Theres a difference between compromise, 50 of what you want, and Common Ground which is a tiny 10 that you both agree on, right . Whats better . You are advocating for cover much. You want more 50 50 propositions. Guest when i talk about compromise, im talking about compromise and a method. Not necessarily a compromise in values and in principle. Host this is in chapter 10. Guest right. When i look at democrats, look at republicans, except for the fringes, i think we all pretty much want the same thing. And we have allowed ourselves to be revved up into this group of hyper partisans, which we really shouldnt and dont have to be. Host where does it come from . We are more polarized. Theres odowd, more people are identified as liberals and conservatives. More people have really, they will discover liberals and conservatives in awful names the and conservatives would do the same thing. They think the other side thinks they dont love america. Thats something, thats what weve taken it too far. Guest leadership. It starts with leadership. A leader is somebody who can take a variety of individuals, create a vision and have everybody working together to accomplish that. A bad leader is someone who says to this group, that group is against you. They are the bad ones. They would get everything that you want for them. Thats bad leadership. Another aspect of multitasking. During the Current Administration we had in the Previous Administration there wasnt enough multitasking. It was like focused on war and try to make sure that america didnt get attacked again. Which have to be able to multitask. So weve had a pretty long drought since without the kind of leadership that says, america, lets remember who we are. Have we made mistakes . Of course we have. All people have made mistakes. Host give me some examples of leaders you think have done it the right way. Guest well, john kennedy. This is a guy who came in, he was 44. Look at the stuff that was going on. Bay of pigs, the cuban missile crisis the civil rights movement, the economy was horrible, unemployment, you know. And the russians had passed us in the space race. What did he do . He used the bully pulpit to say we continued going to put a man on the moon and bring them back. Galvanized business, industry, academic, everybody behind a project. They started working together. We were able to accomplish it. We put his brother bobby in charge of this of rights movement. Bobby was very compassionate. The guy had his ear to the ground. He was very smart. He faced down the russians, enabled face world war ii. Didnt blink. They did. You know, he defied his own party. He said we need to raise taxes. He said do just the opposite. We need to lower taxes. It had a tremendous and really grating affect the incredibly brave guy. Ronald reagan to look at the kind of leadership he provided, which actually resulted in the dissolution of the soviet union. And the winning of the cold war without firing a shot. You know, bravery, statesmanship, working across the aisle. He was able to work with the democrats. And kennedy was able to work with republicans. Host so do you see any leadership like that right now in either party . Guest i think theres potential, and one of the reasons i tend to keep speaking out is i want people on both sides to understand this. Host do you what did you think of the Clinton Presidency traffic i was very pleased with the fact that he was able to work with republicans to get the budget under control. Of course, if you know the whole history of that. Host it takes two to tango. Theres an argument maybe you get do a big did budget deals with one party. It may be impossible. Guest so that was good. As you probably know, i dont spend a lot of time talking negatively about people. But what i would rather do is to spend time talking about how do we solve the problem. Because we have the capability. We are smart people. We are innovative people. But we have two great the environment that offers hard work and the owners innovation. Host you bring it up yourself in this book, after speech after that for breakfast. Others said what about carson for president. So i ask you, why would you consider it . How serious are you considering it . Guest the reason, first of all certainly not my plan for retirement after a very long and arduous career. However, theres so many people every place i go, its unbelievable the crowds that show a. I could do a book signing and people are like streaming out the door, there so many people they cant even get in. And they all say, youve got to do this, and then again i didnt take it that seriously. But it just keeps happening. I have to ask myself, you know, at some point do you have to put aside what you were planning and listen . Host you said in many ways that you see this a little bit of faith, a little bit of gods plan. Guest absolutely. Host do you feel like guest i believe that america, despite what president obama said, is a judeochristian nation. And i believe that because i have done a lot of reading about the founding of this nation. All you have to do is go back and read the letters. Host very religious. Guest people who say our founders would be us have no idea what theyre talking about. The evidence is quite clear they had strong faith. So i believe that it was those judeochristian principles that led us to the pinnacle of the world, into a much higher pinnacle than anybody else ever experienced. Host you dont have a lot of factors things to say about the republican party. So i wonder, and have been thinking about your potential pl candidacy, a few grand, would you be more accountable running under a party banner or sounds to me like you be more accountable not running under a Political Party . Guest if iran i would run as a republican. Host clear that up once and for all. Guest i would run as an independent because all does this split of the vote. I dont think it would be welcomed in the Democratic Party post that you would pick one of the two parties . Guest yes. Host theres a distrust inside both parties right now. And part of it is this potters thing. The right thinks im not getting a fair deal and its government fall. The left thinks im a getting a fair deal, its wall streets fall. I think you can make an argument they are both right in some ways. And thats why ive wondered if some of this boils over to more of a row move and people go outside the party structures. Guest and i would, after seeing what happened with ross perot host thats what conventions you. You want to reform which