A pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital named Dr. Benjamin Carson created some controversy in Washington this week when he advocated for a number of conservative reforms — on the same stage as President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. This Sunday, a panel on CNN’s State of the Union discussed whether it was appropriate for Carson to use the forum of the prayer breakfast to promote his ideas on the free market approach to health care and a flat tax code.
During his speech, Carson linked the biblical principle of proportional tithing to a flat taxation system.
Former Republican senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said that the incident reminded her of a National Prayer Breakfast she attended when Mother Teresa railed against abortion in front of an uncomfortable room with the Clintons.
“I think his other point, his main point, was that political correctness has just gone beyond bizarre,” Hutchison said. “I just thought it was a great message.”
Crowley then asked Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky if she found “anything offensive” in Carson’s speech.
“I think that there is a political correctness that he was trying to use to appeal to a conservative audience,” Schakowsky said. “I think it’s really not really an appropriate place to make this kind of political speech and to invoke God as his support for that kind of view.”
Schakowsky then said that Carson’s message displayed an “empathy gap” between where the American people are and where Carson and certain members of the GOP want the country to go.
“We need to have an economy that works for everyone,” she concluded.
Watch the CNN segment in the video below.
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