Nothing like staying within a budget. Makes you wonder.
Lol. I live in the DC area. Number one, all government office have cafeterias and joint senior level dining rooms.
Number two, the DC area has Marlo, IKEA, value City Furniture, Macy’s, and Bob’s.
Dining room sets from $299.
6
What a lame excuse. I (like most voters) didn't vote for Trump or select Ben Carson to this Cabinet position. We certainly didn't select Candy. Why does she have a say over expenditures in a department which is decreasing funding vital to public and affordable housing in the nation?
It doesn't take a "brain surgeon" to realize that $31,000 is an excessive amount for even a large dining table - particularly in a government agency. My NYT weekend print edition has inserts featuring much lower pricing and values from quality merchants. While the amount seems small in the scope of a multi-billion dollar agency, $31K could also repair apartments out of service in NYCHA, or pay for someone to clean dirty buildings in Chicago or Miami, or pay the rent to house a homeless family / veteran in St Louis, or fund an afterschool Scout program in a Newark Housing Authority community center, or replace light bulbs so residents aren't shot in stairwells by frightened police, or - well, you get the idea.
9
Can the NYT also report the cost of the investigation of the $31,000 dining room? I will take bets that if you tally up all the staff time, overhead, and fringe the cost will rise up to over $300,000 and could possibly reach $3M.
6
What a quaint twist on the "dog ate my homework" defense! My wife made me do it! First of all Dr.Carson does know how to spend money for the finer things in life.He is after all a member of Trump's Mar-a-lago Club which is several hundred thousand dollars.Also he is out of his league as head of Housing and Urban Development-it was cynical of Trump to appoint him and naive of him to accept.He earned his reputation as a neurosurgeon, why ruin it with a bumbling foray into politics?
5
Guess when they were teaching integrity in medical school, Ben must've missed that day.
6
Totally believable everything this man says... he is off in the wild blue yonder most days. Shameful that he was ever appointed, shameful that he accepted, and shameful the job he has done. Save your reputation as a well regarded physician and step down sir.
7
I may have missed them, but when are we going to see photos of the new furnishings?
Ben and Candy are quintessential hypocrites and takers, seemingly the only qualifications needed to be a part of the Trump orgy.
5
Very gallant, Mr. Carson. Throw your wife to the wolves rather than taking responsibility. This administration's excesses, lack of accountability, clueless arrogance and moral turpitude seem more and more like the court of Louis XVI. His comments reflect the sexism that is pervasive throughout this cabinet. Carson is deflecting blame on his wife because he thinks it will be more easily dismissed if the "little woman" is at fault, being that she's good at decorating and bad at finance and judgement.
Is this guy some kind of idiot savant, very good at a singular thing but hopeless at everything else? He surely comes across as a dimwit.
9
He's offered a slew of excuses. None credible. A brainless brain surgeon is something only the GOP could find.
10
Sounds so lame to say something like that. He's supposed to be a responsible, educated individual. Surely he would have inquired about the spending limits prior to starting. It's embarrassing for him to say something as stupid as that, even more so for the country!
3
What a coward to blame his wife, regardless of the truth.
3
How is this guy still in a job? Oh, right -- because at this point $31,000 is chump change.
4
Yes, love the way #45 cleans up the swamp with his "only the best people" appointees.
8
That Dr. Carson's choice of new furniture for his HUD office would resemble a hospital waiting room is all the proof I need the guy is in the wrong job. He should go back to performing brain surgeries and leave housing issues, and office decorating, to the people who believe in the cause and who know what they're doing.
3
"I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said.
Well, that's painfully obvious.
And when you step in it and get caught, you tell three contradictory stories and throw your wife under the bus. Such class, such character. SMH.
7
Someone please tell me, why does a bureaucrat need a dining room set in his office? Is it used as a conference table, are hosting dinner parties or is it just for looks?
3
Trump cheats on his wife with porn stars. Carson throws his wife under the bus to protect himself from political scandal. And all the while, evangelical Christians praise these men for strongly upholding their "family values." It would appear that under the evangelical definition of family values, wives hold a status similar to that of disposable paper towels.
13
The wife, in the cabinet room, with the expense account...waiting for the ax to fall.
7
One of the big problems of this administration is that they don't get that US government service is not a private club where you get to bring your family in and let them buy, run, or travel about however they want. They look at the head of state and see that whole nepostic farce gone wild and think, this is ok. Need peace in the Middle East? Send your son in law, no Secretary of State vetted (such as it is) by congress. Problems with Korea? Send the daughter. Want to get married, go shopping or play golf? Take the imperial jet. This is the swamp on steroids.
6
"Swamp on steroids"-- I love it!!!
2
hmm. not so easy to bury these mistakes.
2
Dear, poor Ben. I guess in his household, when it comes to brain surgery, that's his bailiwick, but when it comes to buying furniture, that automatically goes to the Good Wife. My wife did it. Good grief, Ben. Are you gonna get it when you get home.
I wonder: who between them made the awful decision to take a position in the Cabinet of the worse president in history? Although, if you think about it for a minute, Ben acts more like he's a piece of Trump's gold-upholstered furniture than a man made of bone and flesh, with a brain, capable of having his own ideas how to run an agency.
It just goes to show you, even an illustrious brain surgeon has his limitations. Outside of the OR, Gentle Ben, it seems, is a fish out of water. The wife made me say that. And please, Ben, could you speak up?
DD
Manhattan
5
If you don't blame others for your own mistakes you can't work for Trump. It's a must. Good job doc!
3
I'm still trying to figure out why he needed a dining room table for his office
5
Geez, my wife would brain me if I threw her under the bus like that. And I'm not even a neurosurgeon!
4
I left it up to my wife! Really! I use to work for the city of Cincinnati several years ago and we had a group of people who made purchases. They are called buyers and they also have a list of items you cannot buy with government funds. I am almost certain that a dinning set is on the list of items you cannot buy for you personal office. This man is a fool. Keep in mind that he would like to get rid of the section 8 program but has his wife buy a dinning set. When every a meal is catered they also include the plates. Time for all of these clowns to go!
5
My goodness...when in trouble throw your wife under the bus. And to think, as a young person of color I used to admire this man. Ugh...what people do for "power".
6
No! No! No! This is not a story!
JARED KUSHNER getting massive loans in the Oval - that’s a story! KUSHNER got loans that could buy the factory that makes the tables & probably the forest where the trees come from.
FOLLOW THE MONEY!
5
He's done nothing wrong and neither has his wife. Everyone who can afford it should buy artisanal furniture made from sustainable material and by domestic craftsmen. IKEA and other cheap, low-quality, imported stuff is only OK if you're poor. One would certainly not expect to see it in one of the Swedish government's official dining rooms. They always order furniture from companies like Svenskt Tenn, Carl Malmsten, Gärsnäs and the like, which is how those firms survive and help keep people in economically vulnerable areas of Sweden employed. I would never expect the American government to cheapen itself like most commenters here suggest they should. And while this may seem like only a trifling matter, in the larger scale of things it is exactly this way of thinking that explains why things have gone so horribly wrong in Western countries in recent decades.
1
Ikea furniture is not for poor people. We are millionaires and we bought furniture from IKEA. It is very functional and well designed. Even if you want upscale you can get a handmade dining table by craftsmen for under a thousand. We have done that too.
2
So you don't mind then Michael that he spent your tax money on a $31,000.00 dining room set when he had a budget of $5,000.00 or perhaps that's ok with you. Man you people will continue to make excuses for this lame presidency.
2
Who buys dining room furniture for their office?
Perhaps the secretary was planning to save taxpayer money by using delivery services for important lunch meetings?
$31,000. A full time minimum wage job grosses about two thirds of that, for a year.
And of course Trump has completely redefined new boundaries of nepotism, so maybe it's ok to allow a non employee to make spending decisions for the govt. Carson may be a neurosurgeon, but he's lacking some common sense.
3
I'm surprised that Dr. Carson admitted that he allowed his wife, who is apparently not a federal employee, to participate substantially in agency business and decisionmaking. Forget the furniture, that breach of workplace practice and office security would seem to be enough.
1
I was surprised when I learned Carson was joining Trump's administration. But between the misuse of other people's money and the transparent dishonesty about that, it's starting to make more sense.
2
When in medicine Carson had two things going for him besides his obvious surgical talent. 1) a massive hospital support system that he simply stepped into and 2) the god-like respect that a surgeon gets. Once out of that system and on his own his ignorance of all non-surgical matters and his apparent arrogance has caught up with him. He really should just retire and disappear from the scene if he want to keep even the barest thread of respect from anyone at all.
2
Like so many of Trump's appointees, Carson is simply clueless.
3
"the decision to replace the furniture was made in the interest of safety rather than redecorating.' WOW - shouldn't Ben Carson at least receive an "A" for originality in his justification for redecorating?
3
Ben Carson and Donald Trump are Birds of the Same Feather.
The Trump Administration is dispelling the myth that a cabinet made up of Millionaires would result in better Stewardship of the Taxpayer's money.
1
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of people are praying to have a roof over their head any given night. Future generations will be looking back to now in disbelief.
3
Your wife picked out the dining room set. You "both were unhappy about the cost." But you did not shop around for a better price? Fine. Just pay us (the taxpayers) back the $31,000 plus tax and the set is yours. You and your wife can take it with you when you go.
4
Having worked in HUD's Section 8 and Public Housing programs We had to stick to a budget, why doesn't the Top Man have to also? When was the last time He even looked at a Public Housing facility? He needs a tour of some of the Housing Projects that misuse money and the needs of the poor are not being met.
2
Historically, Americans have generally been forgiving of an 'error' made by politicians (and others) IF they admit to it and apologise. it's the lying about what occurred that invariably gets people into serious trouble.
2
The dinning room furniture should be shipped to the Carson home where his wife can enjoy it; the bill should be paid by Ben Carson. This is inexcusible, all institutions have limit on capital purchases including major hospitals where Ben Carson work. I do not believe he didn't understand that. He should PAY for it.
3
People show their true colors in crunch time. They either step up to take responsibility or attempt to throw someone else under the bus. Preferably not a family member. But that didn't stop this guy.
2
Good Old Boys' trick. Blame it on the wife.
The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren have turned OUR white house and governments at every level into a corrupt cesspool.
5
Bottom line:
Secretary Carson heads the department and holds ultimate authority. Also ultimate responsibility. Federal procedures were violated, by his own admission he involved non Fed staff in purchase.
Secretary Carson is accountable for the failures and any laws broken regarding purchases including negative impact on staff punished for not playing along.
6
" Women be shopping ". Classic. Good try, but FAIL.
7
What a stand-up guy, blaming his wife.
11
As the son of a long-married couple, I can attest to the father's complete and utter abdication of the role of decorator. Throw cash at Mom and let her decide is standard operating procedure for most couples of a certain age.
10
This is true, Ed, in private life. This article involves a public procurement with taxpayer funds. Huge difference, both legally and politically.
2
That's fine if it's your own money, and your own house.
Not at the office, with OUR money!
3
I do not think Carson is of that age of throwing money at this wife and letting her made the decorating decisions. I think it is going out with the 80 year olds and he is not quite that old. This comment is grasping at straws and letting Mr Carson blame a woman/wife on his governmental move that went wrong. I bet Mr Carson cheats at board games.
2
$5,000 isn't a lot but you can get decent and solid furniture for that price. I do understand that he might want something nicer for his office but I don't understand why a wealthy man like Dr. Carson, doesn't just acknowledge the $5,000 limit and contribute his own funds to buy a table for his office and donate it to the government when he leaves. It isn't brain surgery after all.
10
Too many department heads, advisers, and hires of the Trump administration apparently neglected to read the regulations detailing spending caps, gifts from foreign entities, etc.
One would think that, in self defense, they would all sit down today and ask the lowest-ranking clerk available in the office to bring in the binder with the appropriate regulations which apply to all government employees. Upon taking his/her job, that clerk had to read them all, including the ones about spending government money, accepting gifts from domestic and foreign entities, and, yeah, those pesky ones about security, too. It's time for the department heads read those regulations.
The excuses we are hearing are staggeringly insulting to the American people in that they all boil down to one excuse: The Rules Don't Apply to Me. I'm Special.
7
I wonder if he also left medical decisions to others? This administration is lobotomizing the nation.
9
One may only assume that Dr. Carson is so smugly certain of his own personal relation with his own personal Jesus that he figures this sort of obvious lying is perfectly okay.
How he 'splains the 31 grand to the man who spoke about camels and eyes of needles, I have no idea.
7
In my part of the USA one can purchase a house for $31,000.
7
Another pathetic excuse for a man. Blame his wife for his elitist taste in spending taxpayers' money on goodies for himself? Suppose next he'll be claiming that she decorated their home with all the worshipful displays to the lord Ben. But this is not a man familiar with truth or humility.
4
Defends? That's his excuse. Everyone in this administration would do well to look up the word accountability.
3
Lawyers advise inviting Carson's son to participate in HUD meetings "could" be seen as a conflict of interest - it could? Really?!
10
Better excuse: The set had to made extra tall, to keep diners' feet out of the rapidly rising swamp.
7
Let's be a just a little rational here. The FEDS waste billions every year. Carson has admitted his mistake. He explained it. He's new to all this. Let's see if he can deliver policy and let's talk about policy and not dining room sets. What a bunch of babies comment here.
He's new to this? He explained it? (Three times in different ways, of course) That is the level of competence you expect from a cabinet level official? That is Bush league.
1
My wife did it. We found the scapegoat at last.
2
Yes Mr. Carson should be relieved of his position. Not because of an ultimately trivial booboo on the table, but far more importantly because he knows nothing abut the area of oversight that HUD commands.
6
My dear colleague Dr Carson: You don’t blame the nurse or the resident when your surgery does not turn out the way you had hoped. Neither your wife for using bad judgement. You are the captain of the ship in the OR and hopefully you respect and value the multidisciplinary efforts of your team. Your wife didn’t sign the authorization for the desk - you did. Don’t blame her. The responsibility falls to you, sir. We Americans hope this is not an example of your performance as a Cabinet member.
1
Our "stable genius" president (although clearly not of all the people) really knows how to pick 'em--Carson, the gold-plated Manuchins, the high-flying Dr. Price (remember him?), and let's not forget EPA Secretary Pruitt's $25,000 telephone booth for his office.
And while Trump and the Republicans congratulate themselves for their tax cut for the rich (billed as a middle-class tax cut)--which they are determined to pay for by cutting research and social programs for millions of Americans--how much is Trump's travel to his Mar-a-logo Florida resort and security protection costing taxpayers? Plus, let's not forget the cost of protection for his wife and son who chose to live in New York rather than White House.
see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/17/how-much-is-d...
And don't count on this carefully hand-picked Trump-adoring cabinet to take responsibility for their actions or to hold themselves accountable. It's the wife's fault?
So much for the wealthy business class knowing how to run a government or to care whit about how they spend "the people's money."
Newsflash: The business of government is not business; it is administrating the government for the good of the people and the country.
Guess who the Trump regime thinks government is for?
4
"The business of government is not business; it is administrating the government for the good of the people and the country."
That's so old school. Now it is the business of government seeing how much government funds can be diverted for personal benefit. Time to get with the program!!! :-)
One flaw runs deep through the Trump administration- hubris. They are too unwilling to ask how to manage any issue should they appear unqualified and unknowing . After all, they were meant to drain the swamp and be unaccountable. The results are in.
1
Dr. Ben Carson is afflicted with an ailment; actually several: He's a liar- but not a good one. The other ailment; The *Me-Too* syndrome. Lying about something as simple as purchasing-replacement furniture and getting approval to go over a decidedly small budget. The me-too syndrome of believing he could get away with flaunting spending indulgences like his "peers":
E P A's Scott Pruitt and the $43,000 custom soundproof [superman]phone booth;Tom Price's private airplane rides on taxpayer's dime and Steve Munchin & Wife's million dollar rides to see an eclipse.
Mr Carson should have realized being the lone minority in the Trump Cabal would bring more scrutiny over questionable spending than the other freeloaders: They didn't lie about their loose spending habits; he did.
2
As another site (Slate, maybe?) put it, he used the 'ladies be shopping' defense.
Forget the latent sexism in his blaming his wife. Couldn't he at least had given her a maximum amount that we the taxpayers would be spending?
1
Lame. But reflects the kind of husband. No woman should suffer a husband like that. I would be afraid of him a life or death danger. Do they even go boating?
That is their business. Right. What is everybody's business is if treats his wife like this what should the rest of the American expect? What about the GOP which certainly approve misconduct?
31,000 dollars for a dining room set. You have got to be kidding me. Besides the lame excuses the fact that someone thought this was an acceptable purchase is criminal. The public is getting robbed.
4
Who among us hasn't lost a friend or loved one in an tragic dining room set accident?
79
"...Carson, who repeatedly told committee members that he had no knowledge..."
A status that all the cabinet secretaries can claim...
1
Why is this being discussed over and over - his budget was $5,000.00 and he spent $31,000.00. Ben Carson, out of his own pocket, owes the US $26,000.00!!
4
Fine, he let his wife pick a dining set. But the allocated budget should have been $5,000.
1
Dr. Carson, you and I were classmates. I, along with many of our peers, are embarrassed that we are tied to you in any capacity. You should be embarrassed for your sense of entitlement. Your sense of entitlement, because of your early history, does not give you "a Mulligan". I was abandoned by my parents when I was in the seventh grade. You weren't. Yes your mother may have had a job that wasn't respected. Regardless, she, like many of the foreigners that you and your president detest, were willing to sacrifice anything to help their offspring realize their potential. Mine could give a darn. You may feel entitled. However, if you don't extend the same opportunities to let others achieve their aspirations , then you have failed yourself and them. If you use the governmental resources to enrich yourself, then you have robbed the people who would have been helped and could have then supported you to make you more successful.
4
Must be a pretty nice Set. Overstock.com. A grand. Only has to last another 3 years anyway.
What would men do without wives and secretaries to blame?
3
I'd darn sure leave it to my wife, too. And she knows never EVER to leave it to this Beave to shop for anything, either.
However, I just can't imagine her buying a $31,000 dining room table ... a cute car maybe [after having negotiated it to one half the asking].
And I'd get the bug I had in college.
And yet, I'm sure I am not alone that I would prefer Carson to our current president...
1
Known for his supposed integrity he ignores good rules and throws his wife under the bus. If we can't trust him (oops, his wife) with a $5000 budget how can we trust him with HUD's budget?
2
Standard DJT administration stance, "it's not my fault".
2
Is this an example of Trump hiring "the best people"?
1
Carson should have to have a news conference in foyer of his home with his Jesus pictures behind him and his hand on a bible. If a guy is going to throw his wife under the bus for a mere $30,000, how quickly will he abandon any perception of working for the agency where he can pretend he is competent to oversee millions of dollars? I will credit him with his past medical achievements, but he needs to quietly into the night to his home where he can buy all the $30,000 dining room sets he wants. He might want to commune a bit with his Maker as well to purify his soul.
And this guy was a serious candidate for US President.
1
The good doctor is lost at sea. He and the family need to move on before he is fired.
In the words of my father "putting on the dog" always gets you in trouble.
This may be a relatively small example of corruption compared with the other crimes of Trump and his gang, but it may also be a new low: blaming the wife.
These people truly have no shame.
We didn't hire his wife. So, even this was a lousy lie. There needs to be regulated. Government servants, employees of the American people do not have the right to spend our money this way.
Wasn't a certain Mr McCabe fired for lack of candor? Perhaps if instead he blamed his wife, he would not have been terminated.
What is fascinating to me is that, supposedly, Ben Carson was a highly regarded neurosurgeon prior to his job in the Trump administration.
I am a primary care physician and, throughout my training , neurosurgeons were felt to be a step above in terms of their length of training, meticulous and fastidious work and their knowledge.
I am stunned when I see Dr Carson testifying on TV; he mumbles, he is ignorant of the facts and he appears clueless..
As this article implies, he also tries to muddle with the facts when he has clearly done something wrong.
I think it would be fascinating to hear from some of his former patients and colleagues to hear their perspectives on his behavior now.
Can you imagine having a brain tumor, sitting across a desk from Dr Carson and agreeing to have him operate on you if he acted like this?
Has he always been like this or has he had some neurological event that has wiped out half his brain function, thus qualifying him to serve in the Trump administration...
Perhaps the New York Times could do an article on his previous life to give us some insight..
4
Imagine if this guy had stuck it out and been elected as president! Oh well, there's still 2020...
1
YogaGal, I doubt Carson would be war-baiting Kim, kissing Putin’s posterior, destroying every Cabinet Department, making enemies of our allies, sticking it to the states he didn’t carry in his tax bill, and we wouldn’t be wasting money building a useless wall. Carson would have been clueless not destructive like good old Don.
I am still surprised that Trump would choose such a lightweight non-thinker as part of his cabinet. I wonder what Carson has on Trump???? I can think of no other reason.........
1
Mr. Carson left it to his wife and Mr. Tillerson took the job in the Trump administration because his wife told him so......very convincing.
2
Denial, blame, and unrepentant ignorance remain the constants of the Trump Presidency and his Administration. However, Dr. Carson is excelling, even in this highly competitive class.
The again, denial, blame, and unrepentant ignorance ain't brain surgery!
1
Frightening to think that this guy was actually operating on people's brains. It takes a very upstanding person to throw his own wife under the bus, although it does seem that she belongs there.
1
"I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said.
Cluelessly exhibiting his cluelessness.
1
WOW - can't believe Carson used that old ‘I Left It to My Wife’ excuse. I bet he blamed the family dog for eating his homework too.
2
Look, his wife was the duly appointed representative of the American people, right? Why shouldn't she be involved in the responsible stewardship of their (the peoples) money, for items both small (dining room sets?) and large (multi-billion dollar projects). Dr. Carson is merely confirming that he is utterly and completely incompetent and unsuited for the job, why not let his wife, or cousin, or kid, or golf-buddy, make the decisions? Besides, it is pretty obvious that the Russian president is making the decisions for the Oval Office, so what is the big deal about office furniture?
1
Ben, Oliver Sacks likely would have dedicated a book to you:
"the man who mistook his wife for a dining set"
2
I find it interesting which articles are allowed comments and which are not. Big surprise that this one does. This is not a situation of an out of touch republican but an out of touch wealthy person who probably thought a $30,000 dining set was within reason because they know people who have spent over $50,000 on a set. There are and have been just as many wealthy democrats who have spent what us common folk would consider outrageous. Many of the left leaning, liberal democrats who read this paper and check their time on a $14,000 Rolex while walking into a $90,000 Range Rover on the way to their stables walk right past homeless people who ask for a buck.
1
You seem to have missed the fact that the money spent was taxpayer money.
3
Time to go. Carson, Mrs. Carson and Junior.
1
A stand-up guy says, "I'm the leader. I accept full responsibility for our mistakes." A moral coward says, "I'm just the husband. My wife did it!"
2
Dear Dr. Carson,
With all due respect, you are doing the peoples' work now. Public service means you are accountable to the citizens of this country. You were appointed, not your family. I don't think you quite understand the magnitude of your duty to the American taxpayer. Of course, I would never have chosen you for any job in the federal government. As someone who is loathe of the federal government in the first place, you are an insult to the millions of public servants you so scoff.
Carson denies knowing about it, '— despite the release of emails between top aides discussing how to justify getting around the cap.' Liars and thieves, the Trump administration is populated by liars and thieves. But the hard core trump supporters and GOP enablers think it is OK because they think they are getting policies they want. They are getting policies designed for self aggrandizement by liars and thieves (and oligarchs).
1
Threw his wife under bus, backed up the bus and ran her over.
Yet another class act from the Trump administration.
A man with zero experience running a large agency, has zero experience in urban development or public housing - other than that he grew up in public housing, so fits the perfect stereotype for the only black member of Trump’s cabinet or senior White House (Trump takes the “White” portion to heart) staff.
2
"I left it to my wife...?" No one elected nor appointed your wife - a defense of non-defense.
1
This is the man in charge of HUD? What a waste of time and hope for anyone who really needs the services of this entity.
1
And this guy ran for president?? I can just imagine if he'd been elected and started a nuclear war with North Korea.... "I dismissed myself from the decision to launch. I left that to my wife. I'm not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how things look."
1
The Trump line-up of hopelessly incompetent Cabinet appointments is all part of Trump's "Deconstruction of America" He has assembled the worst Cabinet in American history and Carson is but a mere sideshow in this enormous Clown Show Circus called the Trunp administration. Trump has filled each Cabinet position with individuals who have personal agendas against serving the public interest. Betsy Devos, Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross..the list goes on... ...its all of a piece. Gross incompetence and greed ..that is today's Republican leadership across the board. What better way to deconstruct the US Government than massively cutting budgets for all agencies and services. Our nation is now an international laughing stock. The Chinese and the Russians have never been happier...but the super-rich oligarchs who own and control the GOP couldn't care less. They are too busy counting the money they are going to make at US taxpayers' expense. Yes, the spirit of Steve Bannon's Deconstruct America indeed alive and well in the White House.
1
In the words on Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake." And we all know what happened to this generous queen. Nothing less than this do I wish upon Trump and all is wretched henchmen and women.
1
Carson is and always was unqualified for his position. He's now a laughingstock and should resign for the good of the country.
1
There are so many shames in this story, it is heartbreaking;
1. the young black men in this country looking for a model of success
2. the staffer who would have gladly taken a job for $31,000
3. the many lost days of work bettering housing and urban development HUD
4. a "man" throwing his wife under the bus
5. the untold dollars spent covering this hideous story and on and on...
3
Assuming that Carson was at one time a brain surgeon, do we have any idea when he hit his head and lost his mind? To have a seemingly accomplished person so deeply sell his soul to the far-right and Fox News and then appear to struggle so severely explaining absolutely anything...it really is sad. And now - my wife did it! Imagine being an even less skillful liar than Trump...
1
The "Best and the Brightest" NOT!! Also terrifying that this guy was previously allegedly to be a brain surgeon. Anyone know any of his patients? Do lobotomies still count as a surgical procedure if performed on ones self?
2
The common personal trait shared by Trump and many non-military members of his cabinet is cowardice.
Ben Carson gets hauled before a House Committee to explain purchase of the dining room set that would remain government property. I am still awaiting the instant House Committees for the excesses of the other Cabinet Members; in their cases personal excesses. The only difference between Carson and the others; he's the black guy.
“ I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said.
"Yup" - Everyone
The swamp is expanding yet. I watched a portion of Carson's testimony on video. He looked and sounded like a 6 year old explaining his dog ate the homework. This man won't accept responsibility or accountability for anything. He's a joke. How hard can it be to fire someone who is both corrupt and incompetent?
1
Profiles In Courage: "It's My Wife's Fault"
If Carson was as devoted to helpoing our country as he maintains he would immediately resign. He is in way over his head. If he is unable to make a decision about furniture how can he make decisions about use of billions of dollars that impact the poor of our country.
1
This would be a silly story if it were not for the fact that Mr (Dr) Carson has no qualifications to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. People are out to get him not because of this $30,00 dining set but because he is a Trump appointee who deserves the scrutiny he has gotten. So Saddddd!
1
Any fool knows why you are going after Carson. He is a black conservative.
What about the $180,000 that New York City paid in a settlement to three women who were asked to be photographed without their hijab?
But THAT $180,000 is just fine because it was in accordance with "progressive values".
Well, I am a New York tax payer and it isn't fine with me. They should not have been paid more than a $1,000 each. According to the Food Bank, $180,000 would provide 1.8 million meals, enough to feed a lot of people.
2
Doctors, in general, do not make good managers...Carson is a shining example of it...what a disaster...the circus that is going on right now makes HRC look like a girl scout.
If all these Trump appointees are so famously rich & successful, why don't they pay for their indulgences themselves? First class flights, $31,000 pieces of furniture...these guys are nothing but small minded crooks with little integrity!
2
Just blame it on the wife! Not cool Mr. Carson, not cool at all.
Is there a single member of the Trump team with character?
Not anymore ... any with character in his cabinet have left.
Personal responsibility, what's that. And nepotism, what's that.
He had no relevant experience for this job, was totally unqualified and has demonstrated his ignorance, lack of integrity and utter disregard for common sense and how tax dollars are spent.
He's the embodiment of trump and all of his toads. Fire him along with all of them. Unbelievable.
1
So when Deval Patrick spends $27,000 on new drapes upon taking office in Boston does it become a national story? No it does not.
By 2013, Governor Patrick authorized $9 million to completely renovate his office on the 4th floor of the old state house. Which as it turned out had another $2 million in cost overruns by 2014.
Did NYT publish that story? No.
I think Dr. Carson gets a free pass.
1
Did the oh-so-pious Mr. Carson also have another life size picture with Jesus standing behind him having his hand on his shoulder in the works to be displayed in his office?
Just wondering.....
2
The buck stops 10ft outside the front gates in Trumps White House or at least in this case, Mrs. Carsons lap
Carson makes matters worse with each attempt he makes to absolve himself of this mess. True or not, blaming his wife is a cowardly act which should earn him points with no one.
"When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing is to stop digging." - Will Rogers
Did she ever step in and do the brain surgery for him? Has he ever heard the old adage, “the buck stops here?”
Doesn't HUD have a cafeteria?
I certainly hope the good doctor carried roses home with him after his testimony!
The job's not done 'til the blame's squarely placed. That usually means some minion, but a wife'll do in a pinch.
He and his wife apparently gave plenty of thought into how the dining table would look in his office.
Not on did Ben Carson throw Candy Carson under the bus, he drove over her and kept rolling, not bothering to look in the rearview mirror to see if ol' girl was still breathing. Ben's one bad dude (and I don't mean "bad" in the "good" sense. I mean bad in its original sense).
1
Dear Mr. Carson:
You are a wonderful surgeon. Why don't you go back to surgery. That is your sweet spot.
His campaign suitably demonstrated his "abilities" outside of his chosen profession. Shouldn't have quit the day job, Ben, where you would have done some good.
Carson and the Republican party have been clamoring for years about how others should take personal responsibility and whenever they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar it's always someone else's fault.
Carson is the head of his department - full stop. If he delegates a task that doesn't mean he is no longer responsible for the outcome. Whether this is because he's a grifter, a bad manager, or both doesn't change where the buck stops.
But really what else could we expect from Ben 'I swear I totally stabbed a guy in the belt buckle that one time' Carson? He's probably only guy dumb enough to go on national TV and argue that he did really commit a crime.
"Carson and the Republican party have been clamoring for years about how others should take personal responsibility ..."
The operative word is "others;" personal responsibility does not apply to them.
Carson is one irresponsible individual. We have to be careful what we call him. He can say I'm racist if I put the blame on him and he can say I hate women if I blame his wife, which he blamed in the first place. How about just saying he is unfit for public duty.
Another despicable example of this administration's passing the buck and never taking responsibility or blame for anything. This is what we have in the offices of the highest positions in our country. Abominable people.
My grandmother lived in the Red Hook project for years. As a kid, I remember the elevators being out of order on a regular basis. HUD has mixed priorities. No money for project repairs but $31,000 for a dining set?
I don’t believe his wife’s name is on the government check he gets.
1
You know how frivolous women can be?
This is what misogyny looks like.
2
I have never understood who was in the swamp Mr. Trump wanted to drain. It seems to me the President has repopulated the swamp with his chosen alligators -- people driven by their own self interest and incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions. The swamp is now filled with finger pointers and deflectors. Secretary Carson is one of the alligators.
1
The butler did it!
1
This reads like a tired old Dagwood and Blondie cartoon, with the shopaholic wifey excuse. I suppose on top of his utter unfitness for this position, nothing else should even bother to make me angry, but a man who throws his wife under the bus and trots out a hackneyed stereotype of women in the process is a disgrace.
Another in a long line of honorable Trump employees. Throwing his wife under the bus. Shameful.
"Only the best people." What a joke.
Perhaps it was Ms. Carson who was the brains behind his successful brain surgery practice.
Notice the five words you don’t hear coming from this guy’s mouth: “I’ll pay it back.”
Time Ben Carson needs to resign
Carson is a disgrace. During the campaign he was touted as a brilliant doctor - and then said he does not believe in evolution. I would not let him proscribe an aspirin for me.
And now he sits all day as one of Trumps' best and brightest - sits at his desk wondering what the initials HUD stand for.
He along with Devos and Mnuchin and the other inept members of the "best and brightest" team should be tossed out into the trash bin of history.
1
I feel that the reporting on this regretful and shady story is still taking away from the ink that should better be used on what is going on in the Secretary's department and how it affects the people who HUD serves
1
Dr. Carson, Profile in Courage.
Act I, Scene I (Gifted hands trembling)
“Honey, come quick! The delivery truck with the $31,000 dining room set you decided to buy...oops what are you doing under its wheels, honey?”
1
Oh. On tax payer $. Is she too high maintenance?
Man up Carson and tell the truth. Instead of saying you left the table decision to your wife, show some intelligence and backbone. Admit you made a huge mistake on the table debacle. Finally, do the citizens of the US a favor and resign. You are not a housing director.
This is what happens when a dunderhead like Carson is appointed to a position of responsibility.
Left it to his wife? Wow, I wish I could say something like that about a work related problem without getting into some deep trouble . . . I think Ben's gonna be sleeping on the couch for a while.
Invitation to your son may "look funny" and you don't care how it looks? Of course you should care about appearances, especially when you seem willing to tip the odds in favor of him for generous government contracts. The real problem is why people writing in to The Times have to tell you about this illegality?
And this guy heads an important government agency. He is such a poor liar that he obviously needs to be replaced by a better one since lying and sycophancy define the Trump presidency. Good job Senate for confirming this man. High quality advise and consent.
Mr. Carson, you're fired. Candy you're fired too, and the both of you take your wretched behavior and your opportunistic son with you.
1
Can you just image if he worked for Clinton. Maybe in that case he would blame it on Jesus, who talks to him twice a day. Or perhaps Moses, who lives in Texas somewhere. FIRE HIM.
I'm confident that, good "Christian" that he is, Dr. Carson also blames Eve for everything that is awful in this world.
1
So what were Carson's qualifications for the job? In the American TV show, "The Office," whenever the word "urban" comes up in a sales meeting, Michael, the stupid manager, points to the only black salesman and says, "Stanley, you can help us with this."" Stanley always protests that he has always lived in the suburbs.
One suspects that Trump, ignorant of what HUD does, but knowing it has the word "urban" in it went through the same thought process as Michael.
Wait...and many of the GOP wanted this guy as commander in chief???
I saw him on CSPAN last night as well. The entire time Carson had this weird smirk on his face. I wouldn't want him operating on my brain!
Proving he is an appropriate cabinet member of the Trump administration, Ben Carson deflects blame... Onto his wife. How chivalrous.
The last time I looked Ben you were the head of HUD not your wife so costs that are incurred during Your watch is Your responsibility. In other words literally the Buck stops with YOU!
It raises a question of how bright you have to be to become a brain surgeon.
This stumbling administration, though we may all end up in a concentration camp, is reminiscent of an old black and white gangster movie.
I thought he had been married long enough to know not to put blame on his wife in public... I hope she makes him pay for it... honestly: you ran for president and you blame things on your wife! Grow up!
This is like Adam blaming Eve for "making" him eat the apple.
I'm Donald J. Trump, and I approved this excuse.
Mr Carson? Just another one of the inmates running the asylum.
1
Dr. Carson seems to have lost his integrity. Blaming his wife is a feeble end to an ugly little story.
It reminds me of when Adam essentially said, She Made Me Do It, when questioned by God about the whole Apple-Gate scandal.
How embarrassing. From brain surgeon to Trump-stooge. Taken down by a dining room set.
Schadenfreude? You betcha.
1
He hit the trifecta, coward, thief and incompetent. These three qualities seem to be the requirements for being on team trump.
1
So, I have this big government budget and hey, the wife is getting bored playing the Washington game with all of those funky stupid politicians’ wives (she’s not into politics anyway) so just as kind of a make-good and basically to keep her off my back I say, “Honey, why don’t you redo the office for me? You have the time and it is not on our dime, so go to it and enjoy yourself... it is the government and, sure, we are supposed to be starving the beast, but no one will ever know... I’ll cover it up in some rehabilitation project for low-income housing or, well, something.”
All Trump's cabinet appointees are scammers, now living high off the hog on taxpayers' money... Unethical as he is...
How can a supposedly "brilliant" doctor act like such a fool at every single turn?
We have a 20 trillion dollar national debt--half of it being the responsibility of Barack Obama. Not a peep from the NY Times about this economic travesty--but a series of stories about a dining room set purchased by Ben Carson?
When Conservatives point to the suffocating bias of the Liberal media--this is what we point to.
1
"We have a 20 trillion dollar national debt--half of it being the responsibility of Barack Obama."
At the risk of the obvious, every dollar of the national debt is the result of Congressional appropriations in excess of government revenue. Place the blame on Congress, both Democrats and Republicans took their turns. The latest tax bill will reduce government revenues further, accelerating the increase in the national debt --- Republican Congress and Republican President.
2
Another cowardly member of the Trump administration. Trump: "Nothing but the best." "You're going to be tired of winning." What a barrel of clowns.
1
Carson blames his wife? Hey, what a stand-up guy we have running HUD.
A dining table in a Government office? Are there servants' quarters and a dumb waiter too?
1
Behind every great man stands a woman proudly posing beside her dining room set.
Over and over again, Carson convinces me that brain surgery must not be difficult at all.
What a gentlemen, blaming the wife, on official business no less!!
Unless his wife is a brain surgeon, she probably is unqualified to make any decisions about the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Must have been bring your wife to work day.
Who brings family members to work? What an incompetent.
Another one of trumps corrupt best and brightest..and this guy operates on people?
Ben Carson came across as zonked and inarticulate when he campaigned for the nomination and still is not able to make much sense when he speaks in public.
1
Calling SNL! Please, please please run with this one!
1
Ben, not only is that a lame excuse, you are still legally liable. * smh *
Another example of a brave Republican male, seen hiding behind his wife’s petticoat.
And could you imagine this guy as president?
Astoundingly lame.
Does it really matter?
And his dog ate his good judgement, I bet.
Carson offers something that this administration has been sorely lacking: comic relief. Would you really let this guy operate on your child's brain?
2
Note to Ben: a man at the head of a federal agency does not use his wife as an excuse for anything. That assertion may get you through the moment but it is a confession of cowardice. Why don't you muster what little self-respect you have, admit you fell short and try to move on?
2
I just thank my lucky stars I never needed neurosurgery from this man. *whew*
1
Another hypocrite in Trump's cabinet of hypocrites. Is anyone surprised?
Well, that’s incredibly feeble.
The world's goofiest brain surgeon?
Physician, heal thyself.
2
Ben, your excuses are stupid and you are obviously an ethically challenged liar. Your gifted hands are your only gift. I suspect you were more of an excellent technician than surgeon. In any case, your current appointment is an insult to the USA.
2
"I left it to my _wife_."?!?
What a cop-out.
If I were her, I'd be seriously upset for having to take the blame for his lack of responsibility. So much for loyalty - that's super bad karma, Mr. Carson.
Throw your wife under the bus much? What an appalling lack of character.
3
Eyes wide shut.
Totally against the Trump presidency, but $31K for office furniture is a nothingburger.
1
You know, I get sick and tired of the times when wives/secretaries get blamed for problems or mistakes. I've seen this in many instances and it usually is a case of "I screwed up, so let's blame it on (_____)." you fill in the blank.
An example of a person who is academically smart, and applies that smartness to a profession with success. But his intellectual capacity, another muscle altogether, as expressed in inquiry (curiousity), values, wisdom and aligned action, he's terribly unconscious.
Which is why humanity requires both an education and a parallel path to teach us how the world works existentially.
What it means to be fully human.
4
I bought a dinner set for $350 from Macy's last year. It works just as well as a $31,000 dinner set, Dr. Carson.
7
Just can't believe this. And the guy is a medical doctor? Gees! I don't even want to go to the doctor any more. My wife can diagnose and prescribe for my serious ills and health problems, or maybe my next door neighbor. But wait, somebody just told me this guy ran for president "as a Republican"....well at least that is something I can believe and understand.
3
We heard his boss's views on women with the Access Hollywood tapes. Now he throws his wife under the boss. We know one thing about these guys- Chivalry is dead. Another "traditional value" bites the dust in the party of "traditional values."
9
I would guess that a retired neurosurgeon could well afford to donate a dining set to the department he heads. How about a little generosity on the part of the Carson couple?
3
That darn wife of his! Amazing she had time between soap operas and laundry to buy the furniture!
Thanks for taking us back to the good old days, Dr. Carson! Is this what Trump meant by Making America Great Again?
3
WOW! Does this very limited Trump choice carry me back to the days when it was not My powerful male fault but SHE WAS THE ONE WHO MADE THE DECISION! There are any number of aging females who have heard this song before! Again and again and again!
1
Neurosurgeon with a lapse of judgment and rambling conflicting discussion. This is definitely not the neurosurgeons I know. Clearly, Carson is out of his league when it comes to a cabinet position. Just another Trump administrator, leading the department to failure.
Blame the wife - like that works in this era?
4
Carson is so clueless, his wife and son travel with him to literally tell him what to say and do next.
People acquire money (think Martha Stewart, the Clintons, Leona Helmsley and on and on) and they lose touch with how most people live, particularly the poor. They become used to travelling, buying fancy cars, houses...In fact, they don't even want to think about how most people live. They exist in their own little greedy, myopic world with other rich people.
4
Not surprising. Another Republican who railed against government spending, getting the biggest pot he can, to dip in the public trough.
5
This is further proof that Carson doesn't belong in this position if he cannot take full responsibility for his department. Drain the swamp!
4
The top ranking govt officials have staffs, qualified people, experienced with the bureaucracy. Why do they insist on not utilizing these resources that are right there and instead go to family who is neither qualified or approved by Congress (applies to the President too). Highlights what a terrible job they will do running their depts.
3
"...I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said."
Ben, it doesn't take a lot of time. 5 seconds is more than enough.
7
"...it was Mrs. Carson, he said, who “selected the color and style” of the furniture, “with the caveat that we were both not happy about the price.”
So, she added the "CAVEAT" that they "BOTH" were not happy about price... but she (THEY?) decided upon it anyway. Got it.
Oh, and how could he have been unhappy about the price if he "dismissed" himself from the process?
He's lying.
7
"Don't blame me. My wife ALWAYS decides about the furniture." -- Ben Carson
So lock BOTH of them up. See if she likes THAT furniture.
4
Dr. Carson, blaming your spouse for a bad decision is a very bad idea. Just ask any guy who's been divorced.
5
Lying is standard with this group. Maybe HUD should be left to someone more responsible and capable. Not even maybe.
5
I wouldn’t let this doctor operate on my hamster. He seems quite befuddled by everything. And not a mensch.
4
Trump spends about one hundred times that amount every time he goes off to Mar-a-Lago to golf and get advice from club members on national policy. Rumors abound that Trump is looking for a conservative Republican who lives in a house to replace Carson. It may take a while to go through the applicants.
1
Which one?
Nepotism?
Kleptocracy?,
Cronyism?
All of the above?
3
As an educated black woman, I once had so much respect for Ben Carson as a world renowned neurosurgeon. Today I find him disheartening. I don't know what happened. How could someone who came from nothing and worked so hard to ascend to the highest levels of scientific achievement behave in such an unintelligent way? His performance on the campaign trail often smacked of policy ignorance, and he willingly accepted Trump's HUD cabinet appointment, a position for which he was grossly unqualified and from a grossly unqualified boss. Now he's abusing funds set aside for the most vulnerable in society and blaming his wife for it? He's lived by the Hippocratic Oath his entire career, but seemed to easily fall in line with the corruption that's plagued the whole of this administration. Carson needs a brain specialist because he must have bumped his head! Sad for the black community to see his wonderful accomplishments reduced to this.
117
"He's lived by the Hippocratic Oath his entire career...."
Now in public office, he switched to the Hypocritic Oath. More suitable, ya' know?
4
two words: gravy train
When in medicine Carson had two things going for him besides his talent. 1) a massive support system that he simply stepped into and 2) the god-like respect that a surgeon gets. Once out of that system and on his own his ignorance of all non-surgical matters and his apparent arrogance has caught up with him. He really should just retire and disappear from the scene if he want to keep even the barest thread of respect from anyone at all.
Let's assume his office needed a new table and chairs for group meetings. Let's assume that sometimes, that involves eating lunch. Ok, so with those givens and a desire to keep the office budget within limits, one can designate someone to shop. I believe there is a Congressional office that oversees such purchases and sets limits to how much will be spent. I read that any office expenditure over $5,000 must be approved. Carson didn't seek approval. He, according to his own admission, turned the shopping over to his wife who went overboard on the tax payer dime. I know furniture. Where on earth does one buy a dining table for $31,000? It had to be custom made out of rare wood. Are we to believe he didn't ask how much it cost? Obviously, he didn't care and felt entitled.
8
While not defending Carson, it’s easy to spend a lot on a little. My wife (and I) spent $12K on a Stickley love seat, sofa, coffee table and one of those easy to get out of date technology cabinets. And that was maybe 20 years ago. Took me a year or more to pay off that bill. So $31K on a big table and chairs, yes. Should he have done it, probably not, at least not the way he (she) did it. And the furniture would stay with HUD. But with all the budget cuts, etc., Carson was not sending the correct message which, as a political/presidential appointee, he should. Unless, of course, this was his (her) message.
I hope this isn't what Trump meant when he said he would only hire the best people
7
I do hope his surgery had better outcomes than his explanations.
Next, we don't have a budget to deal with the newest pandemic because the dog ate the laptop?
3
I did not realize we hired Ben Carson's wife to make decisions about the expenditure of taxpayer funds.
16
Why don't you see it? All of 45's appointees are wealthy, if not obscenely so. To them $31K is normal for a table, flying first class the norm not exception, having not a clue as to how the vast, vast, vast majority of the people they supposedly serve, really live. So don't be so hard on them. They are simply living in their own perverse world at -- again --- our expense.
20
"I left it to my wife."
THIS, from a man who constantly repeats the "personal responsibility" mantra.
17
That excuse was the smartest thing Carson has ever said since entering politics.
2
First Carson denied any knowledge whatsoever about the purchase of the dining set citing it was his staff. No one believed that flimsy excuse.
Now, it's my wife's fault.
Can anyone in this entire administration go one day without a lie?
I know the character of an administration starts from the top setting the example of what will be tolerated.
It seems everyone lies while they spend copious amounts of money on office furniture and unwarranted first class travel and military jet travel.
This administration is rotten to the core and it starts with DT.
8
It is typical of many doctors behavior. Someone else is always paying the bill, like insurance, so they don't care what anything costs.
2
Carson is perfect for the job in Trump's organization, err government: Self involved, unwilling to take responsibility for a dumb decision (wifey can spend taxpayer dollars - no cost too high, of course), multiple explanations of who was responsible for this decadent decision (wasn't him though!), unaware of the price tag, blaming the wife. Additionally, his smug response to this entire episode belies the ethics of his position - which at least requires him to be very careful about spending taxpayer dollars as the head of an agency purposed to assist poor people who have difficulty affording housing for themselves. While his boss could not care less about Carson's problematic ethics, Carson now knows (maybe) that he can be called on the carpet for bad press that most importantly might have an impact on the President's core following. The swamp is overflowing thanks to Carson and much of the President's cabinet, and let's not forget the most significant contributor to the whole muddy mess, the role model for his Secretaries, the King of the Swamp himself - The Commander in Chief.
6
What has Ben Carson learned about economic and physical oppression by The Greedy and the Destructively Aggressive?
2
This opens up a can of worms in my mind but it probably won't open it up for the people who should have control over this kind of wanton spending of taxpayers' money.
2
To all the professional at HUD who work hard to ensure the agency achieves its mission, sorry you have to put up with this nonsense. To all of the cities and individuals who depend on HUD for helping to create fair and sustainable housing development plans in their communities, sorry we have a president who thinks so little of this issue as to appoint someone with no housing development experience as its head.
8
Have you ever seen photos of his house? Incredibly luxurious, and I must say bad taste. Just Google Ben Carson home photos. Large photos of Mr Carson all over the house.
5
What Carson doesn't know and understands about being an executive is a lot, especially about responsibility. He seems not only inept but immature. Like so many of Trump's appointees, what were the metrics used to qualify these people? This administration is like a ship adrift.
1
"I left it to my wife".....priceless or another "Marie Antoinette" in the making?
How grossly out of touch Ben and Candy are. For that matter, so is this administration. But that's another story. The Carsons ARE the 1%'ers. I do not begrudge Ben Carson of that which he earned from his successful career.
But the department he has been "given" to oversee serves people, who for the most part are just getting by.
Habitat for Humanity has resale stores all around the country that could have furnished his office easliy.
What better statement than that, to furnish Ben Carson's office while serving the people he was appointed to lift up and out of poverty.
6
Mr Carson ran for president, and, perhaps, thankfully lost. Subsequently, when offered a job by Mr Trump as head of a major gov Department, he declined on the grounds that he lacked management skills to run a big organization. I presume, perhaps, Mr Carson saw running the nation is somehow a smaller job, if you follow the logic. Of course now he does head up the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, with gastronomic difficulty. It appears, with his family dining room set fiasco, that Mr Carson wouldn't be capable of even running a furniture store.
3
You think that $31K for a dining set in an executive office is pricey? You should see the invoice for the credenza, rolling chair, filing cabinets and computer desk in my dining room!
3
Would you be fired if you allowed you spouse to make expense decisions in your workplace? And on top of it decisions that ended up being significantly out line in terms of corporate rules and reason?
4
Why, would anyone believe that someone in this administration would take responsibility for anything?
31K for a super nice table with twelve chairs is really not that expensive. Why not just say I liked the table and chairs?
2
The iceberg of spending money that one does not earn is huge, and threatens the financial stability of every government and all people Until things like this really get addressed consistently, on all levels and locations of municipal spending, taxpayer money will be wasted everywhere, everyday. "Mr. Carson, who repeatedly told committee members that he had no knowledge of the $5,000 limit imposed on cabinet secretaries for redecorating their offices — despite the release of emails between top aides discussing how to justify getting around the cap."
1
Living high on tax payer money is the one thing that Trump appointees have in common. Not integrity, not national pride, not humility, and not compassion. Just good old-fashioned money grubbers.
7
Blaming his wife for something that he is responsible for, gives us powerful insight to Dr. Carson’s character and ethics. His unstable stories also indicate a lack of veracity.
3
Sorry, but I can see that Carson's "I let my wife handle it" excuse just might be valid.
When have you ever heard the CEO of a public company blame a mistake on his wife? Like a child blaming his sibling for a vase that was broken.
I said valid, not right, or excusable.
Following the model of the President he works for - Carson lies repeatedly and demonstrates by word and deed that the conflicting lies he has told are all true. Republicans have apparently decided to meet these lies head on with the great tool of universal silence.
Did something happen to Ben Carson along the way?? By most accounts I read, he was a brilliant surgeon. Surgeons are by definition are smart take charge individuals. But he bumbles along so badly seeming to lack even common sense it just doesn't connect. (And I am not trying to be mean or political)
2
Mrs. Carson could have spent $31,000,000 on furniture and not done as much damage to HUD as her husband. Sometimes people are very talented at one thing. Carson was, by all accounts, a fine surgeon, but his time as head of HUD is embarrassing for everyone.
1
I have never made an income of $31,000.
5
All of these extravagantly-spending Trump appointees are millionaires or billionaires. Why don't they just pay for this little stuff out of their own pockets? That would be a story in itself. A positive story - for a change.
1
He's treating HUD as his castle. My wife does the decorating, my son helps out with the chores.
3
The problem that we see in Trump, Carson, and his other appointees, is that they approach government and their jobs as if they were the owners. Unfortunately not owners in the sense of care taking of the firm and fiduciary responsibility, but rather in the sense of a fiefdom where might makes right and family having proxy is the norm.
For many owners (as they are writing comments to defend Carson have shown) they would see nothing out of the ordinary in having their wives speak for them on matters of company business and therefore can't understand why it is a big deal at HUD. In their business no one dares to criticize their wife or kid.
Whatever the excuse, the scrutiny over $31,000 for a dining set, say a table, 8 chairs and a sideboard - is an acceptable price to pay for high-end American made furniture from Thom Moser, in Maine. Was Mr. Carson expected to shop at Bob's Furniture Showrooms?
So many other fish to fry...
1
Yes. Fish such as Housing. How many poor senior citizens are close to homelessness because rents are higher than their Social Security checks? What if it was your mother that depended on HUD for help keeping a roof over her head? Would the $31,000 dining room set seem like a more important "fish to fry"? And to lame it on his wife - this is acceptable to you?
Ok, he bought a fancy mahogany table which is probably a very tiny fraction of the cost of the fancy custom mill work with fine woods found in court rooms and judicial chambers around the country. How about coverage on how he's doing with HUD issues? Thanks.
3
$31,000 has bought a lot of press. Do no harm?
I'm guessing that while Carson's wife was busying herself with lavish spending on redecorating the HUD secretary Carson's office, the HUD secretary himself was busying himself with the work of cutting housing support for the poor.
2
Personally I think the cabinet secretary should have a nice office. And I'm a democrat.
1
Just imagine. That's his story, and he's sticking to it. One can only surmise that Carson has grown tired of the stressful charade of pretending he can run HUD; and would be more than happy to go the way of Price, Tillerson, Porter, Cohn, 'The Mooch,' Hicks... I'd include Flynn, but surmise Carson would prefer not pleading guilty to a felony to avoid a long stint of free room and board at Club Fed.
Perhaps he could write a book after a brief interlude as a private citizen. Lordy, that would be duller than dirt, and on remainder tables after the first printing!
7
...or at least his story-du-jour...
But not before Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress 'n them sent it to No. 1 on The Times's nonfiction bestseller list through coordinated bulk purchases.
Throwing your wife under the bus? A new low even for politicians.
12
This man is not bright; being a surgeon does not in itself make one smart or wise. It just means that he is a capable technician, no better than a good plumber or auto mechanic!
This excuse is on the level of "My dog ate my homework!"
Does he really think that people are that stupid, or is it that he just doesn't care about what people think?
10
Didn't the Bible have a story about a man who blamed his wife for eating the forbidden fruit instead of manning up to his guilt? Benjie, you're doing a heck of a biblical job.
10
This surgeon seems to play fast and loose with his stories. Next doctor please!
7
"But emails released under a Freedom of Information Act request last week seemed to contradict that account.."
"Seemed" to contradict...?
Why is it so hard for NYT writers to state a fact; as a fact? What Ben Carson stated WAS a contradiction of what he previously stated- and a contradiction of statements put out by his office. Stop hedging when it comes to publishing the truth of a matter.
16
They have to hedge. Gotta maintain access for Maggie Haberman! Geez, I thought everybody knew that!
1
One question....Why on earth does the office of HUD need a dining room set? Do they host dinner parties there? Sure as heck hope not because we'll being footing the bill for that as well.
15
In a cabinet full of unfit ignorant idiots, Carson must take the cake. Like Trump, he is clearly out to self enrich at taxpayers expense. Putting his wife under the bus shows how low this low life can get. He may be a brilliant pediatric brain surgeon, but he has no business in a leadership role in our government. The damage he and his co-cabinet officers are doing will take years to unravel after Trump leaves office (on his own or otherwise).
14
To quote the philosopher Buffett,
"But I don't think that I would ever let 'em cut on me"
Words to live by...
I find it difficult to respect a man who would throw his own wife under the bus.
11
Ah, it's the old "you know how women are" trick, Chief.
8
Apparently, if you needed someone to cut into you skull, Dr. Carson was among the very best. Anything else? Not so much.
This ain‘t brain surgery Ben!
7
Playing the blame game. What else is new. It's either Obama or the wife. So lame!
7
Please Dr. Carson, do what you do best and go back to helping people with your hands.
5
What a surprise! Another hypocrite in the Liar in Chief's cabinet. This guy won't even take responsibility but blames his wife and staff for his frivolous spending that shows complete lack of common sense--classic!
13
That's not hypocrisy. Kick down and blame a woman is SOP in this Gilded House.
It is hypocrisy to say that funding for housing projects needs to be cut because they are frivolous and then spend that much on furniture.
Ben Carson, what a man. Throw your wife under the bus to get yourself out of a sticky situation. You had Helen G Foster demoted and transferred for speaking out, you called her a liar. Does she get her old job back now, with a formal apology?
Is this how you conducted yourself as a neurosurgeon? Did you blame a nurse, surgical tech, surgical resident, your surgical assistant, or anesthesiologist when something went wrong? Anyone but yourself?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/us/ben-carson-hud-furniture.html?acti...®ion=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article
12
I hope he checked with his wife BEFORE he threw her under the bus.
Trump's appointees are a "small government" Republican dream. Appoint do-nothing morons and drive the departments into the ground through incompetence of the upper echelon and demoralization of the staff.
8
This guy is a joke. Can't speak can't think, and blames his wife!
11
nothing like throwing your wife under the bus, dr. carson. i can see you have learned your lessons well from your dear leader.
4
Prison Industries employs inmates to make furniture which costs less than furniture on the commercial market. When I worked at Department of Justice we were required to purchase office furniture from them. The furniture was well made and served its purpose. Maybe they make dining sets also, or would take a special order. I'll bet it would meet the cost limits.
14
This administration is full of people who actually think $31,000 for a dining room set is a bargain. After all, Trump has a gold toilet. He’s probably wondering what the fuss is all about.
12
As I read my daily NYT I am starting to wonder when it will publish the "if it wasn't SO SAD - It Would be a LAUGH RIOT.
Just Today!
Carson blames wife - no whining Mrs. Carson
Melania blames bullies - no whining Mrs. Trump
Trump praises Putin - no whining Kim
OK teachers want pay increases - no whining conservatives
Ryan and McConnell - defy President - Just Kidding!!!!
10
Wow. Carson threw his own wife under the... Dining Set?
6
Typical pompous response. How many homeless hungry Americans can $31,000 feed? The swamp seems to be overflowing.
12
Ben:
Your response is cowardly and inexcusble. Your wife can spend her own money or your money, but ot MY (taxpayers') money to fulfill her dream. This is MORAL corruption committed by her and now you.
15
If only this were the most atrocious outrage of our benighted federal administration, but it *is* piecework in the overall pattern.
At this point, both a porn actress and ex Playboy playmate are evincing more personal responsibility, honesty and courage than any current Cabinet member, GOP Congressman or White House staffer.
20
Ha, ha, threw his wife under the bus. What a stand up guy, eh?
8
NY Times: Only your team would focus on the purchase of a table. Where were your folks when Michelle Obama decided to stay an extra day in London with her girls to shop? The Air Force had to send an empty 757 with crew and security costing the taxpayers close to 1/2 million dollars. Talk about abusive!
@Rowdy Stuart, Florida
Disproved long ago. The zombie lies never die.
14
First of all your story isn't true. Next of all, if that kind of thing bothers you, then you must be foaming at the mouth at Melania's six figure spa day trips.
Typical male chauvinist: blame it on his wife!
5
You were appointed, no one else. It’s your responsibility. That’s so completely pathetic that you’re throwing your wife under the bus.
8
He is way in over his head and drowning fast. His friends and family should counsel him to resign to preserve his great medical legacy. He constantly violates the "Rule of Holes" - when you are in one, stop digging.
10
Why does a government office need a dining table? Aren't there many private cafeterias for these people to use? I can understand that they might need a conference table... But all the reports refer to it as a dining table, as if Carson plans to hold many elegant dinner parties rather than conferring in his office.
8
I was thinking the same thing. I large table for conferences, I could see. But a hutch? Why is fine china being displayed in a HUD office?
3
Trumpisitis: A condition whereby that person never takes responsibility for anything, but passes the blame to others. It is mildly contagious.
Trump: Absolutely fake news.
Carson: My wife did it.
13
Imagine. A brain surgeon without a brain.
88
... or a heart, or the mid-section equipment needed to own one's mistake.
But plenty of greed.
2
The three components of accomplishment:commitment, competency and systems. That's poor leadership. And if you and your wife do not have good communications and alliance on being conservative in your spending than clearly this man is not good at building coalitions, collaborating or distributing power. It simply tells us he doesn't care and will throw even his wife under the bus when an error is made. Real leaders are accountable for what they over see.
30
Who knew that buying furniture could be more complicated the brain surgery?
81
Brilliant.
1
Isn’t that more throwing his wife under the bus rather than defending the purchase?
“I told the woman to buy a table, and she was out of control.”
53
And Carson's wife blames the serpent.
81
The Republicans used to supposedly stand for small government. Now Trump's cabinet stands for first class flights, 31,000 dining tables and an atittude that says they deserve it. How hypocritical of them.
70
It's possible both to stand for small government and to buy big tables! THE BIGGEST TABLES!! BIG TABLE-Y!!!!
1
I admire a man who takes a firm stand---right behind the missus. You know he's going to pay for that when he gets home. Uh oh.
His stance however is among the egregious moves he had made.
Didn't know and didn't ask about standards, limits, purchasing procedures?
Lied that he was 'unaware of the expenditure.'
Has his wife and son involved in HUD activities?
My sympathy goes to the professional staff of long standing at HUD who must do their best for our country while these folks are wondering around with the checkbook in their hands, so to speak.
38
only a doctor could make this excuse
22
This is a drop in the bucket. Go after the Trumpies who use government planes and money to take needless sojourns and vacations with their spouses.
31
Why not go after ALL of 'em?
1
really? And who was it who made off with china and furniture from the WH after their term? Does tha name CLinton ring a bell?
Good point. But while you’re at it, grab the flight logs for Obama and his band of merry men (and family)!
1
Right, blame the wife. Can't any of these men own up to responsibility?
31
Genesis 3:12 - “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” It seems the name of the game for Dr. Carson, is to blame without shame the woman God gave him.
17
So let me get this right... he blames his wife!?
1 - The woman who is not a cabinet director.
2 - The person who is not accountable to maintaining the budget.
3 - The person who cannot and should not speak on his or HUD’s behalf.
4 - This isn’t even her office.
C’mon man!!
Do not forget any of the utterly embarrassing and extremely telling examples of true incompetence, shown by this administration when election day comes.
Vote them and those who support them out!
63
“I left it to my wife.”
Shouldn’t he have left it to the procurement office?
31
He demoted the person responsible for procurement after she refused to go over the $5000 limit set by law. She’s currently suing.
2
Can't Dr. Carson find a resident, intern, medical student, or nurse to blame?
30
Only a coward hides behind his wife.
39
"I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said. That's OK, doc, no one else in this administration does either.
42
Says the guy with the painting of black Jesus standing behind him with His hand on his shoulder.
What DOES this guy spend time thinking about???? What does Betsey Devos spend her time thinking about? Trump? Pruitt? Do these people spend any time seriously thinking about anything?
It's also the perfect qote for the "accidental" exhibitionist: "I left it to my lover. What, it still stuck out in public? Well, I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks."
Nice stand-up guy. Funny how Trump's " all the best people" simply point out how a small leader attracts small men.
47
When he fears his hires are better people than he "sees" himself, he utters the famous line we all know. This is why Kelly will soon be gone.
Apparently brain surgery is not rocket science, after all. One might expect hubris from a surgeon-turned politician, but such befuddled incoherence? Is this someone capable of running anything, much less HUD? I don't think so. He should be fired twice: once on the (lack of) merits, and again for wasting taxpayer money on himself so frivolously.
45
Well, obviously the man should be thoroughly flogged and unceremoniously cast out of office for spending as much on a dining room set for his office as the U.S. military spends for a couple of toilets. And his wife -- my, oh my -- she should be sentenced to thirty years of hard labor listening to Democratic nominating speeches for her sheer chutzpah!
Carson, like a number of Trump appointees, has no political radar whatsoever, and that's an unfortunate side-effect of Trump’s desire to "drain the swamp" of usual suspects, who have VERY well-developed political senses. That Carson thought he could be elected president was absurd.
But the Carsons have a net worth of about $30 million; and, in a normal year in which Ben Carson is NOT HUD secretary, he makes millions in speeches and appearances – and he will again. If it were me, and I knew that this would be the pinnacle of the public service I would provide in my life, I would have paid the $31,000 myself and left the dining room set to the office once I vacated it. That would be the end of the absurd pretext that Carson should be pilloried for a measly $31,000 dining set for the secretary of a department with an annual budget of something north of $40 billion.
But clearly, even the media and certainly liberal watchdog groups occasionally enjoy lynching an uppity black man who happens to be a Republican.
4
Mr. Carson is not being "lynched for being an uppity black man".. He's being pilloried for breaking the established rules of office, also known as "the rule of law".
4
What a disgusting comment, and your use of "lynching" and "uppity black man" are nothing short of race- baiting. This is coming from a woman of color.
Regardless of the size of the HUD budget, spending 31k of taxpayer dollars on a new dinning set is irresponsible and an abuse of the public trust. This is not a partisan issue, or if it was, it would have fallen squarely in the camp of formerly-known-as-Republican fiscal outrage.
Furthermore, c'mon. Where have your standards for America gone? No, there is not a First Lady of HUD who is charged with redecorating, nor should First Children be allowed to serve their own business interests as an extension of their parent's public office. These were once standards we held as a country, let us remember that.
You're right, Dr. Carson has very deep pockets; he should absolutely pay back the 31k. He is able. The gesture would speak to his self - made wealth, sense of moral rectitude, and perhaps a sense respect for the American taxpayer. Do not infantilize Dr. Carson by stripping him of personal responsibility.
10
Taken out of context the dining set kerfuffle seems a bit much. Taken in the context of Carson’s general incompetence, constant attempts to redirect attention and family involvement in HUD affairs then its a different matter. Like his boss the Donald Ben Carson likes using his position for a little family enrichment and influence. Everyone who’s been in government knows there’s a process for replacing equipment including office furniture. First off you don’t get to delegate it to your spouse or another non staff individual. Then your staff does their jobs and stays in budget. Its really not that hard you know, especially for a brain surgeon. Finally Trumps appointees are either generally incompetent or swamp creatures of a different sort, or a bit of both. His race on the other hand is irrelevant except to provide Trump with his “African American” for cabinet and other photo opportunities. A bit cynical perhaps but fits Trump and the republicans approach to race and gender based staffing. Sad
2
Maybe brain surgery isn't all that complicated after all.
40
exactly
Ben Carson may be a brilliant surgeon. But I'll tell ya what - given his demonstrated tone-deaf cluelessness there is *no way* he'll ever be cuttin' on me or mine..!
1
Human brains are all pretty much alike.
Ben, you have learned too much from Trump or maybe you learned the blaming game earlier. No matter what, the buck stops with you!
17
When will we drain this swamp
16
Oh yeah, blame the wife, always a good move.
24
Pathetic. "The devil made me do it' flimsy excuse (insert: wife). A neurosurgeon, no matter how brilliant, has no business as the head of HUD, other than to perform the mission of the Trump/Bannon plan: starve programs until they die.
22
Wife meet bus. How gracious of you Ben.
32
Wow. Throw your wife under the bus? I knew he was unqualified for his position and would deprecate the poor, but . . . a new low for cabinet members in this administration, if there could be such a thing?
23
He delegated the expenditure of public funds to someone not employed by the government, with zero oversight?
How stupid and irresponsible is Mr. Carson going to claim to be in order to avoid admitting to knowingly squandering taxpayer money? While simultaneously admitting he knew and was appalled.
Honestly, Carson is only marginally more intelligent and trustworthy than his boss.
27
Guess we now know who "wears the pants" in the Carson household.
15
When in doubt, blame the wife!
17
Nice move, Ben. Throw your wife under the bus. I guess you never read Harry Truman’s .motto, “The buck stops here.”
16
Truman was a Democrat. Surely you can't apply a rule such as that to a *Republican*?!?
When Carson was only a world renown neurosurgeon and write his inspirational book "Gifted Hands", he seemed such an honorable person. I remember the first interview I saw on television with Carson and his very quiet, though highly educated wife, Candy. They seemed so dignified.
What in the world happened to these people?
His wife is not a federal employee and has no place at HUD making decisions or directing staff to do anything. Suddenly a quiet, well educated couple look as greedy and selfish as that Hollywood couple running around at the United States Treasury Department.
41
Sometime after dropping out of the presidential primaries and becoming the Secretary of HUD, Ben Carson said he wasn't qualified to run a federal agency. He was right.
45
It should not matter whether Carson even knew about the purchase, much less whether he made the purchase decision. Any expenditure of $31000 for a dining set is per se an outrageous waste of the public's money. Therefore, anyone making such a purchase is clearly wasting public funds.
Even more outrageous is that far more than $31000 of the public's money will be spent paying chefs and waiters make the meals which will be served on the dining set.
The swamp is alive and thriving. It has been under Democrats and Republicans alike and it will continue to do so because they are all selfish and corrupt.
17
Dr Carson, are you saying that your wife has poor judgement, or, that you abdicated your simple and basic responsibility to review expenditures made? Perhaps you’re suggesting that your wife is irresponsible. Or, you’re saying that you failed to communicate the spending policy? Actually what you said is clear: you are unfit for your position.
22
To anyone who has ever been under this man's medical care should immediately check themselves in for a thorough exam. It seems he can't tell an office from a waiting room nor his wife from a government employee. Who knows what he might have done poking around in your brain?
20
Well, it is a woman's job after all.
4
What? Brain surgery?
Pretty clear Carson is a neurosurgical savant...because he's doesn't appear to have the sense to come in out the rain.
15
Fess up, Dr Carson. After all, it's not brain surgery.
5
If the emails hadn't come out, Ben would still be denying it happened.
This is another reason why the Democrats must win at least one house in November. We need the committees to be chaired by Democrats who will exercise oversight on the Executive branch. If the Republicans win both houses, they'll destroy the remaining constraints on their power and that will be the end of us.
15
Throws wife under bus. Trump's deplorables go "Yup, caint trust them wimmin"
21
Blame the wife. Classic.
14
Blame the wife. Classic.
5
Carson: true GOP style, and classic. After all, it's just a silly Woman.
Dear Ben ...
As Harry Truman put it, "the buck stops here." Put another way, as the Secretary of HUD you are accountable for whatever, good or bad, that happens in the Department. That is what leadership is about.
11
If I remember correctly, Ben Carson initially said he felt he wasn't suited for a post in the administration. He then accepts a position he clearly wasn’t qualified for and repeatedly proves it.
I have a question. When Donald Trump says he hires only the best people, how does he define ”best?” I mean, what are they the best at? Spending taxpayer funds? Undermining their own departments?
Let’s face it: these questions go right to the top.
19
Ben Carson just can't get it that he is a public servant a federal WORKER, an employee of the people. He doesn't get it that he reports to the public. Being a nobody is tough.
13
A guy with no history of public service is supposed to be entrusted with safeguarding public funds! No wonder Republicans don't trust government... they themselves make lousy government officials.
I wonder how many of his brain surgery patients are now asking themselves, "How could I have ever trusted that man to cut my head open? I wonder if he left anything in there?"
15
Did Dr. Ben Carson blame his wife for the surgeries he botched, while claiming credit for those that were successful ? He seems to be just that type.
15
Everyone has said everything.
Can't say that this is much different from Nancy Reagan's expensive redecoration of the White House--but, well, hate her or love her, Nancy Regan at least had standing to impose her (expensive) will on the White House, and she actually had good taste.
That Ben Carson and his spouse apparently expect the same exemption from scrutiny (and taste) says much about the current government.
--I mean, back in the day, the HUD Secretary would probably have a budget of five bucks to change the letterhead and office-plate.
7
"While the public criticized the costly redecoration, she actually secured most the $1 million budget from private donations instead of government funds."
Nancy raised the $$ from private sources. The Federal budget was not charged.
1
So tired of these people.
33
Throws the wife under the bus to save himself. Nice!
15
"Gifted Hands" Dr. Carson enjoyed 25 years of PR gold in Baltimore. Much generated by his erstwhile employer Johns Hopkins Hospital. Political Right clutched him to its scrawny bosom b/c he's a High Profile Black preaching self-help. Both conveniently ignored off-the-chart religious claims. Mrs. Carson has had very public role as his handmaiden. See Baltimore Sun archives for details. Retired about age 60. Believes his own publicity. Carson family can do no wrong in Baltimore.
13
The fact that this fool Carson made it to the debates made me incredulous enough, and his subsequent appointment by the evil clown president came as a bigger surprise. The furniture is the least of our worries...
22
Whoa! Leadership fail. Blame somebody else. Especially if a woman can be scapegoated.
I’ll just say it: Republicans, in the aggregate, are a bunch of sniveling cowards who don’t respect women (maybe not misogynistic, but clearly disrespectful)
6
"Leave it to the wife" who has no official role in government? Is this the new catch phrase in DC??
11
Left it to wife and staff? And noone in that pathetic greedy Kardashian-like group knew it was wrong? Or are we the 'let them eat cake' crew?
6
Of course, it was all Eve's fault.
11
Doesn't he have a pet?
2
I left it to my wife "and she is corrupt." Not a good excuse Ben. Disgusting, low level corruption. Way behind many of the other people Trump has chosen.
11
It's hard to believe he used to perform brain surgery.
22
When Carson is eliminated will Trump elevate the wedding planner?
And on the wife nonsense- I don’t remember her being nominated for any position. Carson is a coward
14
Ben Carson said "I dismissed myself from the [redecorating] issues.” But you cannot dismiss yourself from responsibility for what happens in YOUR OFFICE! You are the Secretary of HUD! Act like it! The buck stops with YOU, Ben Carson.
17
Overpriced, extravagant furniture fits into a cabinet with its drawers stuffed with special interest money, all floating in a swamp that's backfilled with toxic Russian waste products.
16
Just another Trump clone: " It's not my fault. I didn't do it. Someone else is at fault. I'll trash my wife. Oops, it was my nurse's fault."
12
Good, neurosurgeon, poor thinker, worse administrator.
Time for Carson to quit and go back to something at which he is excellent, not incompetent.
6
throw wife under but, a surefire way to marital bliss.
gallantry not your strength, is it? I mean, he could have said: sorry it happened under my watch, it was wrong, here are $31,000 to reimburse who ever needs reimbursing, and be done with it. I mean for Carson that is petty cash. but alas...
5
"Mommy made me do it" is his excuse? OK.....
His incomprehensible responses and laconic affect made me look a little deeper into his claims of being a "brilliant" surgeon, separating conjoined twins. Not even a 50% success rate. This fellow is as much a "brilliant surgeon" as his boss is a "brilliant businessman." And performing surgery does not qualify one to run a complex branch of government, where one must understand deep, complex concepts like "a budget."
11
This is draining the swamp? Carson's expenditure of our money for "safety reasons" and I didn't do it plus the Pruitt's airfare and the doors for the Interior Department a cool $139,000. Soon there well be no money for anything except lining the pockets of these most excellent appointees.
5
dr. carson has established without any doubt in my mind that he should resign his post. he is another person chosen by this president who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions or inactions and then tries to make questionable reasons for his failures. he should go home and sit in his own dining room furniture.
9
A doctor blaming his wife for something he's clearly responsible for? What's next - botched surgery, "Opps, it was my wife?"
What normal, full grown man does something like this. I don't think "the dog ate my homework" has been an acceptable excuse for generations now.
Until Carson resigns or is fired, give him a folding chair and folding card table for his office furniture. I'm sure he and Mrs. Carson can get a 'good price' at a local thrift shop.
Has he committed perjury? Can he be charged criminally?
8
I guess this is what leadership looks like today. Blame someone else no matter who they are. Personal accountability has gone away along with truthfulness.
7
He is lying.
6
Uses my profile in courage; blames the wife...
3
“...I figured I’d throw my wife under the bus...”.
Dr Carson can't think and make decisions on his own? Did he not like what was already installed in his offices before he took the Cabinet position?
His wife does not work for him............. um, ..........
2
Ben...you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but this is ridiculous. The dog didn't eat the homework and your wife isn't responsible for spending taxpayer dollars. You are. If Hillary had said Bill was responsible for in-home security of her server, you would have levitated in anger and disgust. If you left a surgical sponge in a pateint's skull, would you have blamed the nurse?
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to recognize a whopper like this one.
8
Oops - he thinks "Happy wife, happy life" doesn't apply to throwing wife under the bus!
2
Little known fact: Carson let his wife do all the brain surgeries. He just stood around and looked important. I wouldn't let this guy operate on a hangnail.
6
He apparently doesn't even know that's worse. You shouldn't order your staff to break the law and fire those that don't, but you definitely shouldn't empower your wife to do it for you.
2
I recently lost my job at an extermination company which lost the servicing contract for a dozen of Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters due to lack of funding. I regularly billed DHS about $8000 for our monthly services. Once DHS did not renew our contract, I was laid off. Now I have no work, two kids and a spouse to take care and rent to pay. This guy who gets paid from my tax is spending lavishly on the wishes and whims of his wife. What am I suppose to tell my wife and kids who are also reading this and asking questions. Can this guy give me a job? Can he pay my rent? Can he give us some food? We do not need his Dinning set, only food and a decent job.
19
"The buck never ever stops here"--the Republican mantra
13
Just goes to show how useful wives can be at times. Someone to throw under the bus. Everyone needs one.
6
Carson - another fox in the hen house. Wonder whom he'll be replaced with - has to be someone who "looks the part."
3
His wife did it! What a man, to place all the blame on the little woman who just can't resist a good buy, even if it is dining set for a mere $31 Gs.
5
Drain the swamp? The only people who have been drained out are the good ones! Ben Carson has no business being HUD secretary, as much as DeVos is the Education Secretary.
12
They have forgotten the oath under which they serve...
"Government BY the people and FOR the people."
That money is given to them to use BY hard working people...to use...FOR the good of hard working people.
7
I read someplace this was a brain surgeon. If Mr.Carson was so adept with a scalpel and skull saw, why didn't he just get a claw hammer and pull the nails out of the offending chair?
Really, this character sounds like the kids who say the dog ate their homework.
7
Well I hope Mr. Carson bought himself a nice bed for his office too. Because that's where my wife would make me sleep if I tossed her under the bus like this...
13
Seriously! He threw his wife under the bus. That's how he demonstrates cabinet level leadership.
9
"Book 'm, Danno."
Let's just end the hand-wringing about this bum and have either the IG or the Committee make a criminal referral. Undisputed facts and this guy's own admissions establish three violations of the Anti-Deficiency Act, which, in pertinent part, prohibits:
• making or authorizing an expenditure from, or creating or authorizing an
obligation under, any appropriation or fund in excess of the amount available in the appropriation or fund unless authorized by law. 31 U.S.C. 1341(a)(1)(A).
• involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have
been appropriated for that purpose, unless otherwise allowed by law.
31 U.S.C. 1341(a)(1)(B).
• accepting voluntary services for the United States, or employing personal
services not authorized by law, except in cases of emergency involving the
safety of human life or the protection of property. 31 U.S.C. 1342.
• A knowing and willful violation of the Antideficiency Act is a
Class E felony. 18 U.S.C. 3559(a)(5)
• Punishment may include a $5,000 fine, confinement
for up to two years, or both. 31 U.S.C. 1350
12
If you keep repeating a lie, eventually everyone forgets what the truth is. At least that's the way it works in Orwell's Oceania and Trump's America.
Freedom is slavery.
5
Hopefully Mrs. Carson will not be allowed to design any restroom alterations. Whirlpool bath? Sauna?
3
I always wondered what sort of internal massinations supposed christians like Carson go through to justify their actions. One can only conclude that, like many white evangelicals who support Trump, Carson is simply CINOs (christian in name only). Carson, again and again you're proven to being a lying fraud.
4
Not content to violate ethics rules, he has to violate the Hippocratic oath by throwing his wife under a bus.
8
What is it with the trump Cabinet's wives wandering around as though it is a perennial "Take Your Wife To Work Day"?
They buy furniture, they show off the hubby's signature on money, they create reasons to travel to nice places on the Government's dime. They should be escorted out the door and told to call if they need to speak with their spouses.
16
I just can't wait to vote!
20
This would be funny if it weren’t so disgusting and painful— Ben, resign and pay back what you wasted of the taxpayers’ money, and time spent in office helping to ruin our government.
8
Way to throw his wife under the bus. I bet they have a great, loving, and mutually supportive marriage, the kind that every woman dreams of.
5
"If I only had a brain..."
Oh the irony of the brain surgeon acting like the scarecrow.
14
Make no mistake. This is exactly why some people get into politics--so that they can have access to tax payers money and spend them to advance their own agenda and swim in luxury at the expense of hard working people.
13
Hey, everybody! I believe that the buck always stops with.....well, my wife!
9
If Ben Carson doesn't know what is going on with the furnishing in his office, how can he direct HUD? Thousands of people in Puerto Rico have no home, no job and no place to go but Carson can sink $31,000 to put a dining room in his office. Why can't anyone in the Trump administration take responsibility for their actions? Carson became a hero in neurosurgery for a rare twin separation but nobody talks about what happened to the twins and their family after things went horrible wrong after the surgery. I think Carson will do the same with HUD.
11
From the "When You're in a Hole, Stop Digging" Department: “I left it to my wife, you know, to choose something. I dismissed myself from the issues.”
12
Honestly, he could be replaced by a head of cabbage and it would be an improvement,
26
I am indeed impressed that he used his skills as a neurosurgeon to perform a lobotomy on himself.
32
This sanctimonious hypocrite tells everyone that they need to accept personal responsibility for their affairs. Another Republican example of "Do as I say, not as I do."
18
Here's an idea: lock her up!
15
Why is his defense not a surprise to any married man that is not a tyrant to his wife? Ben, I feel your pain.
A person whose attitude toward ethic issues is reflected in the statement "I'm not a person who cares about how things look", should start caring about how things look. Ninny.
12
Ben Carson has been a flagrant embarrassment ever since he ran as a candidate for POTUS. He is Trump's African-American and makes me miss Herman Cain, Mr. 9-9-9.
6
If you think this is bad, you should ask to see the bills for costs on all of our navy ships- $600.00 toilet seats (back in the 1980's) among them.
2
It's only 25% of silencing one porn star.
1
Too much real to concern us, let Ben be!
1
A brain surgeon without a backbone. What a man.
16
I'm not big into fools running HUD.
14
Dr. Carson: why not just admit you made a mistake? Or like that other governmental grifter, Trump, you never make mistakes?
8
POTUS and his hand-picked gang of pocket-pickers. Someone better take an inventory now before all these cabinet members go out the back door with anything that isn't red hot or nailed down.
7
What was he thinking? He could have blamed his intern.
7
So, is Ben Carson's next excuse... "The Devil made me do it...!!!", as Flip Wilson used to say?
3
Wonder wives! Ben's old lady is managing his office and it looks as if the State Department will soon be under the gentle ministrations of Mrs. Pompeo who has been running interference, apparently, over at the CIA. Does no one wear their own pants anymore except for The Donald?
1
Apparently Trump's pants are often off.
11
And they let this guy operate on people?
9
Only the best people. And their families.
7
I'm not sure whether to be satisfied or shocked at the fact that Dr. Carson has lived up to my expectations of have grossly inept he would be. It likes expecting something to taste bad and finding out that it sure does.
13
The same Ben Carson who said he was robbed at gun point 30 years ago at a Popeye's restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland. No matter that Popeye's, founded in 1972 in Louisiana, didn't start franchising until 1976 and it took over ten years to develop 500 stores in southwestern USA. No matter that Baltimore didn't even had a Popeye's franchise 30 years ago.
The same Ben Carson who Claims he performed 17,000 surgeries in his career. If his career was 30 years long that means he performed 566 operations per year. That's impossible! However, I wouldn't doubt that this claim is based on the number of insurance claims he filed.
27
Wow..Is he actually lying about his surgery credentials, and that is why he needs to try to get money from graft by becoming a politician???
That should be easy to check - how many surgeries a year did this shyster perform, and how many did he bill for? Seems pretty logical that he lied about something for insurance rebates. I had the same thing in my most recent surgery - the bill from one specialist (name deleted), no way reflected how much time she spent with me it was more than 100% inflated..
3
You mean he's a pathetic liar?
I take it that Ben Carson was able to stay awake during his defense to Congress.
7
For some reason, this jumped out at me: “If it were up to me, my office would look like a hospital waiting room,” said Mr. Carson....
What does that mean, exactly? Dismal and underfunded?
12
But plenty of old magazines!
2
Hmm, this reminds me of "the women *you* gave me ... "
In leadership, delegating responsibility does not absolve the one in charge of responsibility. If his wife had done some very wise and commendable act, he would have gladly taken the credit and accolades.
Probably the hardest thing about leadership is delegation. Not delegating is as much a sign of incompetence as delegating without taking responsibility for the actions of people you put in charge of a task. I guess then, good leadership means trusting people who may or may not be reliable, and taking responsibility for the good and bad things they do. ... Not an easy task.
6
"delegating responsibility does not absolve the one in charge of responsibility."
Absolutely correct. One can delegate authority but one cannot abdicate accountability.
The primary issue is that Ben Carson is not qualified to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, nor is he qualified to head any government agency. His inexperience, lack of ethics, and inability to assume responsibility will cost the government (taxpayers) many millions of dollars and set the Department back decades.
18
Ben demonstrates yet another epic GOP failure, right in line with his boss and the other privileged scalawags on the presidential cabinet. He is clueless about public service and only serves the wealthy for whom this dining table was apparently set. Right out of Downton Abbey with a butler no doubt. This episode demonstrates a total cultural divide, excluding the people he *should* be serving (that is, folks who are economically disadvantaged and need housing). What has he accomplished for them lately? When is he asking them to dinner?
9
Brain surgery - that's easy. Picking a dining set? I can't do that!
7
I'm glad this administration only hires people who spend a lot of time thinking about how something looks... Only the best! /s
3
This is further evidence (not that we needed any more!) that Carson has no notion of what it means to be a public servant. And to pass the buck and say "she did it"?! Adam would be proud.
9
It's convenient, for some, to have a wife to blame. I did notice she's not in the "Spa Day with Jesus" mural in their home.
3
I can't believe Ben Carson just threw his wife under the proverbial dining room set with that “I left it to my wife, you know, to choose something." statement. He should be replaced for simply making that statement. Where is your honor sir? If he's willing to blame Mrs. Carson, publicly, for anything, then who else will he blame when another poor judgement is made? If he's not willing to take the heat and responsibility for this error, then why would anyone assume he would take the responsibility when something more serious happens down the pike? I never thought Dr. Carson would resemble a coward in any way, shape or form.
9
Trump seems to favor cowardly wimps like Carson, Sessions, Pence, Sanders, Kelly, Spicer, Tillerson (until he didn't favor him, that is), et cetera, et cetera.
4
“I was not big into redecorating. If it were up to me, my office would look like a hospital waiting room,” said Mr. Carson,“
IT WAS UP TO YOU, MR.CARSON.
27
This bears repeating several times. Much like Trumpie's cry in the Twitter wilderness "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!"
Guy, that's YOUR job.
2
Honestly, with everything that's going on in DC these days, this dining set's pricetag is the least of my worries.
1
"Public service is a public trust."
Not in this administration. At any level.
8
What a stellar example of leadership.
What a stellar example of a spouse.
What a stellar example of an ethical citizen.
4
"I left it to my wife". Once again, I am reminded why I married my husband. He has always had my back in a way Ben does not seem to have for Candy.
7
A dining room table is a dangerous thing. A mishap could occur. For a person as elevated as Doctor Carson, that would not be an acceptable ocurrance. His wife is looking out for him. He has more important things to attend to, such as dismantling the agency meant to help the urban poor. For such a kingly person, $31,000 is a paltry sum.
6
What a mess, on so many levels. Maybe Mrs. Carson misunderstood what the Department of Housing and Urban Development was all about. Maybe she thought purchasing a dining room set came under the Housing part of her husband's new job.
Whenever a political official, such as Mr. Carson, flops around like a fish out of water, unable to accurately explain or get a handle on things in his own back yard, not to mention what his own family members are doing, I begin to have serious concerns about how the heck he is able to function, maintain and/or oversee key issues as HUD's secretary.
I can't believe I am writing this, but I agree with President Trump in that he should not consider replacing Ben Carson, but actually replace him before hurtful and irrevocable damage is done.
Perhaps his wife could get a side job as an interior decorator. Just a thought.
5
Kimmel, Fallon, Colbert can lay off their writers all they need is a subscription to the "failing NYT."
2
Is every man in the Trump administration, including of course Trump himself, a misogynistic jerk who believes that women are good to have around for only a few reasons: one of them being to blame your own failures/mistakes/crimes on?
9
Well, yes, it appears. But you left out one category: wife-beaters
1
Ben blames his wife! How's that (GoP) party of personal responsibility working out for you?
9
I do not see how this could possibly surprise anyone - yet another inept and clueless player in a completely corrupt and useless administration.
5
Is there anybody in this TrumpStorm that can admit a mistake?
8
Nope, only the mistakes of someone else. Actually, spending $31,000 on a dining set for Carson's office must have been the fault of Obama ... perhaps Hillary ... perhaps GWB. Anyone not in the current administration.
What a pathetic performance; blame your wife, for God's sake? As Harry Truman said, "The buck stops..." . Oh, never mind, what's the point with these people?
9
Nice job Ben, throw your wife under the bus so you don't take the heat.
Ever hear of the saying - "the buck stops here"?
8
Pathetic, just pathetic...Every member of this administration is the lowest common denominator...
6
If all fail, blame your wife not yourself. I did it too.
1
Wow! Throwing your wife under the bus. What an upstanding bunch of Cabinet members the president has.
7
Throw your wife under the bus. This is too much. No sense of personal responsibility.
5
Sure, it’s ok Ben. You got picked for a job that you are totally unqualified for.
Would you let Donald Trump do brain surgery on one of your kids?
7
What a chump; he throws his wife under the bus.
Ben Carson doesn't know the first thing about leadership which is that the buck stops with the leader.
Pathetic.
7
I wonder how this is being reported in the alternate universe of Fox and Friends. Does the average Trump voter even hear about this?
8
It will be reported as hard news, but the commentary shows and website are sure to start featuring plenty of stories about Democratic officials who frivolously waste taxpayer money. You know, classic Whataboutism.
1
Does Candy receive a salary from the government for her decorating duties?
8
Ah yes, because one cannot buy a safe table and chairs for less than $31,000.
Ben Carson had a very lucrative career as a neurosurgeon. He could have just paid the difference himself, the negative press would have vanished, and he could have sat at his tacky faux Federalist set with gold inlay in splendor. Instead he lied repeatedly and then finally threw his wife under the bus.
You’re right, Trump. I am absolutely exhausted by all the ‘winning’ your ‘best people’ are doing on a daily basis. Has it only been a year and change? It feels like an eternity.
9
Why doesn't this tightwad stroke a check and pay for this extravagance from his personal funds? He's a strange guy, clearly unqualified to run HUD or any other government agency for that matter, and there just to waste his time and the taxpayers money.
7
Watching Ben Carson perform in the presidential debates told anyone who was watching attentively that something is off. The vague rambling, the long pauses, the empty unblinking stares. Not something typical or normal. Who can know but i half suspect some sort of medication. I am glad Carson is finally feeling some heat in the press -- but that is really all this is -- some heat in the media. I dont think Carson cares so much.
9
Way to go, Mr. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development -- throw your wife under the bus:
“I left it to my wife, you know, to choose something. I dismissed myself from the issues.”
Making America great again, one step at a time.
7
He might try surrounding himself with competent staff members. Something tells me his aloofness and arrogance makes that impossible.
3
Carson is a brilliant surgeon with the street smarts of Mr. Bean. How long before he's sent back to Bootstraps University?
3
A huge portion of Dr. Ben Carson’s political platform has been to criticize the budget of politics and public assistance programs. He’s stance has often been that people receiving public assistance have no common sense when it comes to the difference between needs and wants, and that they spend the public funds/services they receive ‘frivolously’ and ignorantly. He has also contended that public officers are not held accountable to this ‘frivolous’ squandering of tax payer dollars. I won’t call the fact that Dr. Carson is being held to account for his ignorant and frivolous spending of tax payer dollars ironic, because it is a result of willful arrogance on both his part.
I heard Dr. Carson speak many years ago. He was arrogant, narrow-minded, and dismissive then and continues to be so now. And despite my short 20 minute interaction with him, I can tell you one thing for certain, he is a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks. Especially how he looks to the public. He wants to be seen as the hero. Unfortunately, he has neither the character nor the self-sacrifice to be the hero. Refusing to take responsibility for his job, his department, blaming his wife, his aids, and his son makes him look as he true is, a diminutive man.
838
Anybody that has a two-story portrait of himself with Jesus hanging over his shoulder hanging in his home, is not worth the time it took me to type this. Get him OUT!
3
You forget in your list of people to blame: the uncle, the aunt, the nephew, the niece, the grand children. Also the cat, the dog, the pig, the panda bear and do not forget the grisly bear of Secretary DeVos could also be blame.
Arrogant, narrow-minded and dismissive: that, and the inappropriate family involvement make him more than qualified to be part of the Trump administration.
1
How did Carson think he was capable of running for President?
6
Well thank goodness he's "not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” because otherwise he'd have bought a $120,000 dining room set.
But I'm surprised Trump even thought about removing Carson. By Trump standards, $31K is chump change, and the dining room set doesn't need an NDA, demand free condos, or go on 60 minutes.
7
If you have ever coached really little kids at baseball when they really have, at best, a vague idea of what's going on and what the rules are and really can barely even swing the bat, you know that puzzled look in their little 6-year old faces when you say: "Good! Now run down to first base!"
Just like that six-year old standing on first base and not sure why, Dr. Ben stared blankly at the committee, mumbling nonsense.
"The problem with the interview was the words that came out of my mouth. And the words came from my brain."
––Melissa McKinney as Betsy DeVos on SNL
7
He's denying responsibility for wasting tax dollars by saying he gave the decision on how to use those tax dollars to a person who doesn't even work for the government, and that he just rubber-stamped her plan without thinking twice about the cost.
Why would that make anything better? Shouldn't we be more worried about a person superfluously spending government money with literally no accountability?
Carson's trying to get out of a speeding ticket by saying he was drunk.
12
Is Mrs. Carson a procurement officer? Because there are rules about these things.
5
He might have, quite truthfully, shortened his sentence to "I'm not a person who spends a lot of time thinking."
11
Genesis 3:12 King James Version (KJV)
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
4
Way to go, Ben; don't assume any responsibility. Blame your wife or whoever's handy.
Wouldn't it be lovely to hear a politician just once say, "I made a mistake. I regret it. I will try to do better in the future." No qualifications or half-baked, unfelt apologies.
397
It's typical of everyone involved in this administration, starting at the top. It's always "someone else's fault" when something goes wrong, but "I did it all by myself" when things go right.
OMG! And this guy was running for president !!!!!!
Carson sounds as if his own brain is letting him down. He appears to have no sense of the impression he is making. Is there something really fundamental wrong with this man?
Why is he even buying a dining set for work? Go home (or somewhere else) to eat!
4
GSA has warehouses full of office furniture, chairs, tables etc. A cabinet secretary would have first crack at anything he wanted. There is never a need in government service to reinvent the wheel. The lovely Ms. Carson could have journeyed to the warehouse and spent quality time going through the world's biggest yard sale (where everything is free for use in government facilities). They might have found an historic table and chairs used by Secretary Samuel R. Pierce, a fitting symbol of what we're dealing with here!!!
11
I am going to venture that in any field of professionals, they meet each other and sum up the best, next-best, and so on. Among his peers, What do they think of Dr. Carson? Of course, they won't tell me because I'm not in that field. It seems he can pick apart a brain but he can't look at, determine a course of attack, and implement a policy that will help HUD recipients - if that is his passionate desire to help his fellow Americans. I feel that he can't accept kinship of his fellow humans, and has denied himself, the unity of all people. To me, he is a sad human being ...but I have meet thankfully, people in a bar that I have more respect for ... for I believe, honesty goes a long way where I come from...
2
Dear Glenn, I'm pretty sure the director of H.U.D. probably should worry about how something looks and how much it is going to cost. I say, "Make his office not too comfortable. That way he and his family will get off the dole sooner and not later." Clueless in Oregon.RAW.
5
"I left it to my wife" is not a "big league" answer. It is absurd that the highest government officials in all the land are incapable of making simple decisions ethically.
8
Just like his boss.
"The buck stops ... there."
What leaders. What statesmen. What husbands.
7
"Eve gave me the apple, and I did eat..." Man up and take responsibility.
3
He of course should not have prevaricated. And blaming it on his wife -- is rather sad. But - and I think he was a horrible choice for the position -this is not such a big deal. It is probably the cost of 5 minutes worth of protection for the President alone, on his Mar-a-Lago escapes.
1
Glad that's cleared up.
Now, where does the 31,001st buck stop?
2
If I told my employer that the reason for any charge on my corporate card was because "I left it up to my husband",I would be fire immediately.
Johns Hopkins University Hospital might want to audit Dr. Carson's old expense reports.
12
So, first he's guilty of nepotism and then he passes the buck to his wife. Did he blame the nurses if brain surgery was unsuccessful? A role model he is not, but he is a great example of Trump's "best people".
11
When I read all of this, I worry about his work as a brain surgeon! If his brain surgery work was as sloppy as his political actions, God help his former patients!
7
Congratulations, Mr. Carson.
You've passed Rule #1 of 'The World According to Trump':
When accused of anything, blame somebody else.
12
Ben Carson says "“HUD’s ethics counsel suggested it might look funny, but I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said." Then get out of government, where appearances matter, Ben Carson. YOu can't appear to betray the public trust and then say it doesn't matter. It does matter, whether it matters to you personally or not. You are the public's employee, and WE say don't appear to violate the trust we put in you. You're Fired! And also, go directly to jail-do not pass GO
9
What do you expect from the swam dwellers. More and more fiscal monkey business. I wonder when he will retire?
3
"if it were up to me..." Um, it was up to you.
Also, how about focusing on actual issues and how he is running the department?
5
Ah, leadership at its finest: "I don't know... wasn't me....ask my wife and staff. They made the decision. If it were up to me I would have choosen a hospital mint green coffee table".
4
When was his wife hired as a government procurement official?
540
Oooh - don't say "procurement". Donny'll get all excited...
love the use of procurement for its connotations. tee hee
Ryan and McConnell are increasing the US national debt by $1.5 trillion with their irresponsible tax cut for the wealthy, but Trump thinks $31K for some furniture is what makes him look bad?
4
Eve made me do it. Oldest excuse in the only book better than The Art of the Deal.
8
First the administration what to take away from Americans their health care coverage and they want to make them more sick. I guess that what they mean by making America great again.
3
This is a story as old as Adam: "The woman made me do it, Lord!"
8
This administration has created reactions that are new to most Americans. There is no precedent for this. We have seen competent people make a few mistakes, even behave less carefully than they should. We have seen imperfect, yet dedicated public servants. We have even seen really smart people make dumb moves. What is new is the spectacle of incompetence mixed with unethical behavior, corruption, malice, cruelty and ignorance happening on an hourly basis.
8
Trump and his deplorable cabinet. Everyday more reports that make our heads spin. Nothing surprises anymore. Our country and its values are being dismantled as we watch.
We are assured by the fact that our yellow topped leader gets his news from FOX four hours a day, is bored by briefings, doesn’t read much more than a tweet, and surrounds himself with people who are equally “gifted.”
This train wreck needs to come to a stop! Special counsel, please hurry!
2
According to Forbes Magazine, Obama cut thousands of EPA employees but allotted $6,000 for furniture for each of the remaining employee. One executive was allotted more than $50,000 for office furnishings. The total furniture budget was $42 million.
The EPA furniture extravagance appears not to have been reported by the Times. But there have been multiple articles concerning Carson's furniture. DOUBLE STANDARD?
You're missing the point. It's not (just) the cost, but the fact that this type of expenditure needed approvals that were never even applied for. Plus the deflection when this all came to light. It's these lapses that are concerning.
6
You left out this part of the same Forbes article: “...under George Bush, the EPA spent roughly the same amount [as under Obama] on furniture per staffer. The $813 pencil drawer? It was purchased in 2007.”
3
I believe his wife chose it. I believe his whole family thought of a high level government job to be just ripe for the picking. Obviously Carson thinks no honor and no tribute are beyond his due.
7
Helping your relatives get a job at a federal agency is not just an ethical lapse, it is a crime.
A regular civl servant would probably be fired and quite possibly jailed for what Carson has done.
11
This is where a retired brainsurgeon should get it. It is not legally your right to "leave it to your wife". Moreover, your administrative assistance should have blocked any attempt at expenditure of Federal, Cabinet funds for things outside of regulations. You can't do it and your wife, for sure, can't do it. So ante up paying the government back and either donate it to your office or take it home.
9
I'd almost feel sorry for poor Candy, having been thrown so blatantly by her husband under the nearest passing bus, were it not for the impression that she's as skilled a grifter as the rest of the characters that make up this so-called Administration. Luckily for his patients, Ben apparently didn't leave the surgeries "to his wife." Too bad he didn't stick to doing a job he knows something about.
11
Obviously not all his pistons are firing. His role shows how little Trump cares for the work of HUD.
8
Ben Carson and the rest of this administration have brought the art of lying to a whole new level. They show absolutely no remorse or responsibility for anything they do. Mr. Carson’s performance looks like he is rying to convince a thirty year old that Santa and the Easter Bunny really do exist.
I’m not sure what is worse, having our country run by a group of pathological liars, or having it run by a group are incredibly incomptetent and unqualified.
480
Or both.
6
Worse than you think. They are both, pathological liars and incompetent and unqualified.
Greg, tragically we have incompetent and unqualified pathological liars running the country.
Why is everyone upset with the good doctor? He's just following the herd, all those other cabinet-level Trump political appointees happily flying first class or leasing private jets ($25,000 per hour), putting it on their government credit card. Or engaged in insider trading. Stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
It's the Trump Administration ethic, after all. Come one, come all! They're just helping themselves, taking a cue from the great man himself, Trump now raking in the dough like there's no tomorrow, in "emoluments", as it's called.
"Emoluments". That should be spelled "immoluments", as in "self-immolation", considering what Trump, Trump's government and the Republican Party happily supporting it are doing to the US Treasury and the federal government's finances: burning through it as fast as they can, like they threw it on a bonfire. Deep tax cuts for the super-rich and big business (with a few crumbs thrown to Republican voters to keep them stupid). Hundreds of billions in new defense spending. And just think about all the money quietly flowing into Trump's businesses and overseas bank accounts while the media focuses on Facebook, whether Trump will fire Mueller and Stormy Daniels. It's an orgy.
$1-million a day? $2-million? Why, compared to Trump's haul the good doctor is scooping up chump change.
As far as I can tell, most Republicans politicians in Congress ostensibly policing this hot, stinking mess simply wish they could get a piece of the action.
16
Liar.
9
The New York Times should never overlook or neglect to report on the excesses and improprieties of grifters who have now found homes in this Administration.
11
Sir, Your wife is not an appointed Officer of the Administration; you are. The buck stops with you. Sorry.
8