Dr. Ben Carson stated, “I’ve asked my staff to reach out to all these staffs of all the other candidates and let’s talk about a different type of format”on Thursday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
Carson said, “Well, I think the debate last crystallized the fact that these gotcha type questions are not very helpful in terms of helping the people to understand who candidates are and what their policies are, so I’ve asked my staff to reach out to all these staffs of all the other candidates and let’s talk about a different type of format, perhaps something where you have two, three, four, five minutes to talk about your policies, about your tax policies, about other kinds of things, and then be questioned about them. That kind of information would indeed be very helpful to the populace.”
He added, “this was so bad that I think even the RNC will recognize that that was a mistake, and maybe we need to be looking for a better way to do this. A way that will advantage us rather than advantaging the other party.”
The discussion then turned to Carson’s tax plan, and whether a 15% flat tax rate was high enough. Carson stated, “if you look at the amount of taxable income, it’s going to be right around 18 trillion, and if you take 15% of that, that’s 2.7 trillion.” He further pointed to the 15% capital gains rate, and said it would be accompanied by cost cutting.
Carson added that it’s good to have “wiggle room, but I want the wiggle room on the other side.” He then pointed to “massive inefficiency” in government agencies.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett