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On Ben Carson and Oreos
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson isn’t having a good week if you’re reading news coverage in the progressive and mainstream press. First, this reporting from The Root,
During a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Tuesday morning, Carson was asked by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), about disparities in REO rates. According to USA Today, “an REO, or ‘real estate owned,’ refers to a kind of property owned by a lender, like a bank, after a foreclosure.”
Porter: “I would also like to ask you to get back to me, if you don’t mind, to explain the disparity in REO rates. Do you know what an REO is?” asked the congresswoman.
Carson: “An Oreo…”
“R, no not an Oreo. An R-E-O.” shot back Porter.
“Real estate?” asked Carson.
“What’s the O stand for?” said Porter.
“E-organization?” asked Carson.
That is, admittedly, embarrassing, especially for a Secretary in the Housing realm. And progressives are having a field day:
Not sure he was fully awake, maybe he meant to reclaim his time back to sleep. https://t.co/t25Pta8bVY
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 22, 2019
And some are being even more explicit:
I'll say it:
The fact that Ben Carson immediately went for Oreo is telling. Mad telling. FREUDIAN LEVEL TELLING. https://t.co/x282ChCXXg
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) May 21, 2019
It is telling that Ben Carson defaulted to “Oreo,” but I digress. What matters, though, is that his ignorance only makes his policy choices all the more terrifying. Then he jokes about it. From “Gifted Hands” to celebrating his own stupidity. https://t.co/n7sAKrAxZg
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 21, 2019
They love that Ben Carson heard “Oreo” because they think Carson is an Oreo – black on the outside, and white on the inside. It’s tiresome racism, and the sort of stuff Carson has been subjected to for years. If progressives think it’s telling that Carson heard Oreos, it tells a great deal more about them than it does about Carson.
To his credit, and because nobody with integrity is willing to say it, Carson pointed out to Omar that he’s not the idiot the Left has been trying to paint him as being for the last week, or the last decade, but literally a brain surgeon. A really, really good one.
Since you brought it up… I know what it's like to actually be sleepy, especially after 18-hour surgeries and operating on babies in the womb. I hope @IlhanMN knows I care about all people, even those she doesn't recognize as having a right to life. https://t.co/BRl3ibSKM3
— Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) May 22, 2019
Published in Journalism
When decent human beings like Ben Carson are slimed by the left in this manner, small wonder no one wants to testify in front of a Democrat House committee . . .
There is a way to handle such questions: always ask for more context.
REO has 22 different acronym definitions.
Then say I do not have the numbers at hand, I do not want to guess.
I have found years ago that really smart sounding people have a difficult time clearly stating their meaning. Do not assume and do not guess. And if you do not know, state so if needed. Not everyone knows everything.
The real shame here is that HUD even exists.
The first mistake.
REO and OREO accounting terms that relate to bank soundness. Banks are supposed to have a minimal level of what is effectively non-financial, physical real estate. Real Estate Owned and Other Real Estate owned. REO isn’t even legally defined with that word in banking.
I think I figured out what’s going on. If you look at the other language she uses, she’s in the loan processing business. I think document handlers use the term REO as a clip phrase to show who has actual title so they know where they are in the process. The customer or the institution. She’s talking about what is really a sociological problem, and government policy. It’s an inappropriate use of that word for that. “Foreclosures” makes far more sense in the context of that exchange.
REO in the way she uses it might barely make a big unabridged dictionary.
For the record, I can’t stand Ben Carson and he has no business being at HUD.
One final comment:
I worked in the Department of Energy for over 29 years. Up the day I finally left, I was learning new acronyms as part of the termination process. In any field, but particularly scientific ones, there are more acronyms than any one individual can possibly learn. Now, how long has Carson been on the job? I bet he knows some medical acronyms these morons in the committee have never heard of . . .
She is gratuitously trying to trip him up. There is no reason to use the term REO in that context. In fact, few in HUD are going to use it.
When you are talking about social problems due to lending and foreclosure policies you should just use the term “foreclosure.”
All Alinsky All The Time
Interesting fact: HUD is the umbrella organization over the bank examiners that watch Fannie and Freddie. I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense. It sort of proof of how socialist this country has gotten.
Can you imagine dealing with this stuff in 2008/
His response is perfectly sensible. The woman uses “an” before a consonant, when she should have used “a” before REO. Hearing that I’d have thought she said Oreo too.