Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson unleashed his strongest attack yet on Obamacare on Friday, saying that President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement was “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”
“It is slavery, in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government,” Carson, who retired in May from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said at a speech at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington. “It was never about healthcare. It was about control.
“That’s why, when this administration took office, it didn’t matter that the country was going off the cliff economically, all forces were directed toward getting this legislation passed,” Carson added, with his comments drawing much applause from the event’s 2,000 attendees.
“Why did they want to pass it so badly?” before answering with a comment from Vladimir Lenin. “He said that socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a Socialist state. That’s the problem.”
The summit, which ends on Sunday, is sponsored by the Family Research Council, the Washington-based Christian right-leaning think tank that the Southern Poverty Center has labeled an anti-gay hate group.
Other sponsors include such nonprofit organizations as the Heritage Foundation, the American Family Association, American Values, and Liberty Counsel Action.
Among those speaking on Friday included Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Others included House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
