“We have way too much in the way of taxes – our tax code is 82,000 pages long,” said former pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson on Fox's "The Kelly File” last night. “Nobody can comply with all of that. The government can get anybody on a tax issue, which is the precursor to a totalitarian government. We don’t want that.”
“We want a system that is truly fair for everybody, not having any favorites,” said Carson. “I want something that is flatter, and fairer.”
“And I want everybody to participate, because if half the people don’t participate, it’s real easy for a politician to come along and say, ‘I want to raise taxes on the 1% or the 2% or the 5% [but] it’s very hard for them to say I want to raise taxes on 100%,’” he said.
“It is, because it’s politically risky,” commented Megyn Kelly.
Carson added that economists would create the tax plan he envisions: “I have no problem with allowing the experts on the economy to come up with all the details.”
Kelly grilled Carson during the first half of the interview about his appearance with Al Sharpton at an event, “This is a man who has stoked the racial fires in recent months… Why would you potentially tarnish your own brand by partnering up with someone like that?”
Carson defended his decision by describing the audience’s reaction to his message: “You won’t get me to defend him, but…. We can reach people. We don’t want to categorize people based on [one] individual; we want to give people an opportunity to listen and evaluate, because that’s the only way we’re going to heal the deep divisions in our country,”
Carson is expected to announce a run for the Republican nomination for president in Detroit on May 4.