Ben Carson Tells Off Maxine Waters for Lack of 'Basic Manners' - Report
Rep. Maxine Waters issued a letter attacking President Donald Trump for his supposed “shamelessness” in response to the nation’s homeless crisis.
“Your shamelessness knows no bounds,” the California Democrat wrote in late October. “From day one of your presidency, you have attacked our democracy and now you have set your ire on the 550,000 Americans who on any given night experience homelessness.”
The congresswoman slammed Trump for defunding certain Department of Housing and Urban Development programs, actions she claims will increase homelessness in the United States.
Although Waters demanded the president answer to her insults and insinuations, she likely didn’t expect a scorching response from HUD Secretary Ben Carson.
“Shamelessness is a career politician of 30 years laying blame,” Carson shot back in a Monday letter, Politico reported. “Shamelessness is allowing more than 55,000 Americans to live on the very streets they represent.”
Waters’ district covers a portion of Los Angeles, a city that has struggled with a homeless population since well before Trump was elected president. While politicians turned their attention away from their own districts to combat the president, the problem spiraled out of control.
The packed and unsanitary living conditions in many of the city’s homeless camps caused a resurgence in diseases more closely linked with medieval times than the modern era.
According to the HUD secretary, a “logical solution” exists, but Waters and others remain a barrier to the common-sense answer.
“I have sent multiple letters to your office and requested numerous meetings, but each time you’ve refused,” Carson wrote in his letter, according to Politico.
“Basic manners elude you and it seems that instead of producing results, you’re more interested in producing cheap headlines at the President’s expense — like a true career politician,” he wrote.
Waters’ letter failed to mention Carson’s attempts to reach out to her.
Although the two could work together to ease the burden homelessness is forcing on Los Angeles and its residents, it appears that Maxine Waters simply isn’t interested.
Waters aims to address the homeless problem with her Ending Homelessness Act of 2019, a bill that focuses on providing more funding and housing to get people off the streets.
Homeless families sleeping on the streets; children sleeping in cars, trying to go to school ea. day; and seniors, 70 & 80 yrs old eating out of trash cans. Yes Trump, this is a disgrace. It’s shameful for the most prosperous country in the world to tolerate this! Support HR 1856 pic.twitter.com/9EJpmJKMYU
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) July 3, 2019
Those with even a small amount of knowledge about the homeless crisis understand that it isn’t simply a problem of housing access, but a mix of financial, criminal, drug and mental health problems that contribute to the massive numbers.
Waters’ bill fails to address these issues.
Perhaps if the lawmaker were to begin cooperating with the Trump administration rather than fighting it every step of the way, the homeless people in her district would soon have a way off the streets.
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