The Biden administration's newly announced $1.5 billion USDOT grant funding toward transportation infrastructure projects benefiting environmental sustainability, promotion of union jobs and racial equity will be just the latest endeavor to further divide America, former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson told Fox News on Friday.
The money is being offered under USDOT's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program: "As was the case last year, the department is encouraging applicants to consider how their projects can address climate change, ensure racial equity, and remove barriers to opportunity," the DOT said according to a previous Fox News report.
On "Hannity," Carson lamented the new massive expenditure, saying it clashed with the Trump administration's belief that a "rising tide floats all boats" when it comes to deciding on similar endeavors.
"It's rather quite sad that we would use this excuse to funnel money in for their pet projects; the Christmas wishlist of the woke left. And singling out racial favorites: that doesn't really do anything," he said.
"If you think back to the last administration, it was a philosophy that a rising tide floats all boats, and we had the lowest unemployment for minorities – particularly blacks and Hispanics. We had the highest wages. We had prison reform. We created a situation where the HBCU's (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) didn't have to come with cup-in-hand every year."
Carson, a retired Baltimore neurosurgeon, said there are many ways $1.5 billion in taxpayer money could be spent to help those intended by the USDOT's program than the "equity stuff" it reportedly includes.
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"If people would just stop and evaluate things on their face as opposed to listening to the propaganda, I think we'd be much better off," he added.
"But these gifts are used to further divide the American population. If you favor one group or another, all you're going to do is create tension. And we've gotten to the point where we think that we're enemies: We, the American people, we're not each other's enemies."
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"The enemies are those purveyors of hatred and division who seem to have a tremendous mouthpiece and [are] facilitated by the media."
Later, Carson remarked that America is holding on only by the "grace of God" rather than any Earthly force, in terms wokeness and the crisis on the southern border; allowing illegal immigrants to flood into the homeland:
"We certainly don't have a government that seems to understand the dangers that are presented by doing things like they're doing," he said.
Fox News' Peter Kasperowicz contributed to this report.
