Kerby Anderson

Donald Trump has made some rather unorthodox picks for his cabinet. Perhaps that is to be expected in light of what he said on the campaign trail. But I still was not prepared for his decision to tap Dr. Ben Carson as his next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Months ago I suggested to my radio audience that if Donald Trump was elected president, he would likely pick Ben Carson as Surgeon General or perhaps pick him as the secretary of Health and Human Services. Picking him to head up housing and urban development didn’t seem like the right place for his gifts.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee once tweeted that Ben Carson’s best qualification was that he once lived in public housing. That is not true. But it might have been true, if it weren’t for Ben Carson’s mother. Armstrong Williams tweeted that she worked three jobs at a time to keep them out of public housing.

It is true that Ben Carson spent his early years around people who lived in public housing. And in his testimony last month said that he “understood what housing insecurity was.” His rags-to-riches experience will help him sympathize with the millions of Americans who utilize HUD programs.

Of course, he also brings his expertise from serving on the corporate boards of Kellogg’s and Costco. And we shouldn’t forget the time and effort he put into the Carson Scholars Fund that awards students who excel academically and are dedicated to serving their communities.

Dr. Carson has said that government often counts success by the number of people in public housing. He says we should count success based on the number of people we get out of public housing. He will have a $32 billion budget. He might start by asking, if the government gave you $32 billion to deal with poverty and housing, would you use it the way HUD currently uses it?

I am eager to see how he would answer that question.