what do you do when one of your fellow marines tells you he's been drinking too much, it's isolated college surrounded by 18-year-olds who he can't make sense of and can't make sense of him and when middle school students students that you are teaching ask if you've killed anyone and are horribly disappointed when you say no and strangers that insist on treating the u. must be psychologically damaged or friends of yours who do indeed have post traumatic stress find that they can't express their legitimate feelings of grief and rage about what has happened and continues to have an overseas and at home? ..actually have the answers to those questions. but the book was the only way i knew how to start thinking them through, not just because there is a rigor involved in trying to turn fictional stories into

emotional truth, but because when you write it up there is the possibility of people responding. unidentified friends who might read the work, even if across centuries, and join the conversation. for me, writing this book, i cannot think of i cannot think of a more important conversation to be having words too strange to be processed alone. and so, i want to say everyone who picked up the book, bad it, it decided to join the conversation. i want to thank the judges of the national book foundation. i want to thank peter castano who first published my work and

has been it fettering writers come anything englander, who kicked my aspirin it definitely deserved kicking. to john friedman have published my first story. tom has been a mentor to me since before i joined the core. to the marines i served with in the committee of veteran writers, and especially those from the nyu veteran writers program central to this book and all the non-veteran writers equally essential to the book, pointing out what i didn't know i had. to my wife, jessica who offered tremendous love and support. to the rest of the crew at wmd and the folks at one, especially andrew walker, scott moyers, one of my early supporters in the publishing world. to my family. to my grandfather, my grandparents and aunt lou.

and all of you here tonight. thank you so much. [applause] ♪ >> electrifying. it is an electrifying speed. "redeployment." that's amazing. thank you for your service in your welcome for the national book award. congratulations and back to all the wonders and a hearty tip of the hat ensued a cocktail glass to other judges and i would just say to the final offense to anyone else out there associated with any book published this year, it does not take him a prize, i know it's difficult not to think of yourself at least somewhat as losers, but remember, outside of the literary world, all of us are considered losers.

[laughter] i have had a tremendous time this evening. i'd like to thank harold arkin bomb in the national book world for fighting me. i'm so so happy over to buy all of your drink on the balcony. summit media can buy a drink about the next time. the official party is after upstairs. the after party for me, geraldine and a bottle of wild turkey. that night, everybody. [applause] ♪ i was told that the wonders should go over there. the nurse should go over there. ♪ "one nation: what we can all do to save america's future."

in it, the prominent former nurse search in a presidential critic proposes a vote out of what he calls u.s. declined. he contends his solutions appeal to every american's decency and common sense. this program is about an hour. >> host: dr. carson, welcome. the best for you to start before we delve into your book is to delve into you. tell me you have a very inspirational story many ways. tell me where you grew up. >> guest: i grew up in detroit and a couple of years in boston also. my mother came from a large rural family, got married when she was 13. >> host: from where? >> guest: rural tennessee. my father moved to detroit. he was a factory worker to seven years later discovered was the

bigamist. having a third-grade education and raise us on her own. we were particularly good students and that is putting it mildly. i was a dummy. >> host: a neurosurgeon now. that's what i want to get through, how you got to neurosurgeon from dummy. >> guest: everybody is to call me names and tease me. my mother, any success i have i have to contribute to god and my mother. she is always speaking with them and came up with the idea of opening your eyes and looking around you. she knows that the home she claimed on the people didn't want you on tv. no offense. they've had a lot of books. she looked up where we we lived and worked up where they lived in somehow clicked her mind, if i get my voice to stop looking at tv all day long and start

reading. she imposed on us. >> host: did you have a favorite tv show? >> guest: i loved anything. you didn't need the tv guide. i could tell you every station. she basically restricted us to two or three tv programs per week and with all their spare time we had to wait two bucks apiece for the detroit public library and submit to her book report, which she couldn't read him up or we didn't know. >> host: did you find that your mom couldn't read? >> guest: later on in high school. in fact, she got her ged the same year i graduated from high school. >> host: no kidding. but anyway, by making us read, which i hated, something happened. i used to admire the smart kids in the class. they are the same age i am. but as i started for me, all of a sudden a teacher would ask a

question and i need the answer and it got me excited. i got to the point where if i was even a book i went from being the dummy to the top of the class and a year and a half. >> host: was the first book you really sunk into? my dad made me read found encouragement in eighth grade and that is what that is the smart interest in politics. >> guest: in third grade and it was about a beaver. it will be a bright sky to save. i went on from there and read every book in the detroit library. and then i started reading about plants and rocks because you live near the railroad tracks and there were all these blocks and i could get boxes of rocks and identify them. >> host: you're a scientist and didn't realize it. now i'm starting to make a connection here. that may be sparked your interest in science. >> guest: one day in science teacher held up a big lack shiny rock.

and asked what it is. i boost my hand. everybody turned on. they said this is going to be hilarious. >> host: . none of the jokester? escovedo i couldn't possibly know the answer, i said is a subsidiary. they didn't know that they should be laughing or whether they should be impressed. the teacher said that his way. i explain how it was formed and they were too shocked. i was more shocked than anybody because it dawned at that moment that i was sent stupid. >> host: were great? >> guest: fifth-grade. the teacher started a rock collection with me, got me involved in animals. i said look into the microscope, discovering the whole world of protozoa. mr. jake. >> host: we all have one or two teachers that we took a little extra interest. you never forget their name.

>> guest: that was more than 50 years ago. the interesting thing is i went back to that school and this was several years ago "good morning america." and they wanted to trace my roots. mr. jake was still there. balbina potbelly. and i wanted. to show them the animals because we have a squirrel, tarantula, crayfish, all of these things. he said we had to get rid of those things a long time ago. >> host: did you have a good relationship with your father? >> guest: not a strong relationship. we would see them periodically. last time as the day i got married 39 years ago. >> host: disaffected family he has a relationship with those half brothers? that it all? >> guest: i kind of look at the big picture.

you know, my mother tried to make up for all of that. my father, you know he was involved with drugs, alcohol, women. there's nothing wrong with women, but you can't have more than one. i probably would not have been the best influence on me. so in retrospect, even though i was devastated as a kid, pray let him come back, now i realize i would not have the best thing for me. >> host: what would you be doing? >> guest: first of all, the same thing i would be doing. bring back some fiscal responsibility, fiscal common sense. a lot of people blame the unions for what happened to detroit. but i actually don't pray in the unions. they would gladly say to me that day. that's all they want. >> host: their members on a better deal. >> guest: free.

but the executives, they have a one-year, five year container, 15 year plan. they understand it and make it from seeping into the union that eventually the problem that they can anyway because they would have gone on before. it was someone else's >> host: you mismatch the executives? >> guest: same thing i see around the country for cheap looking at these seminars. >> guest: you have got the spark of enthusiasm for resale. have you supposed to come from conservatives? did you assume you are a conservative when you did this? to get the shoehorned always conservative. >> guest: obviously, play close to people, growing up leaflet to troy, when i went to college i was radical. so where did you go to school?

>> guest: i went to jail. -- el. there was a black panther rally, you know, server is evil and all this kind of stuff. it was just the way of a setback time during our history. radicalism is very much expected i consider myself more of a logical person than i am a conservative or liberal or anything. i'm not all that fond of labels. i save most of our problems are easily comparable if we just threw away the labels. i indicated in the book i would love a situation where party designation is not on the ballot. you have to actually know what the person was.

>> host: a lot of cities a lot of cities burn mayor races, that is the case then it's not surprising. guess who's getting stuff done? mayors. they don't have the baggage that comes with the political party right now. so you go tdl and when did you decide in going to be a doctor? >> guest: i had actually decided that when i was eight years old. i used to love machine stories in church. it seemed like the most noble on the face of the earth. great personal sacrifice, bringing mental, physical and spiritual healing to people. i said that if i'm going to do. i turned 13 having grown-up in dire poverty and decided to be rich. at that point i wanted to be a psychiatrist. >> host: you decide a psychiatrist is a better way to make money? >> guest: on television delivered big fancy mansions and a plush offices. >> host: were the psychiatrists are referring to? desk or the tv programs.

>> guest: i started reading psychology today. everybody would bring me their problems. i would sit down. and i majored in psychology in college and have luminary professors and there was really pretty exciting. but when i got to medical school, i said everybody has special gifts and talents are yours? asserted inking about my manifest i had a tremendous none of a tremendous modified and coordination. and the ability to think in three dimensions, which is essential for a narrow surgeon because you are dealing with a nebulous mass. >> host: were the triggers, which are even smaller. >> guest: you have to keep in mind what attracts art even though you've give to them. if you don't have three-dimensional skills -- [inaudible] >> guest: some of the jobs i

had done and performed extremely well. >> host: did you do for steel factory? >> guest: reina theater. you know, you're driving these enormous poems of steel and drop them in the of the truck. they've let me do that after one day. i said these guys see something in me. the next guy. tesco no, no. i was a summer job and a lot of people who worked there permanently didn't get to see that. but as i thought about it, but not a would be a tremendous nurse urging. a lot of people thought i would be strange because there had been a black neurosurgeons in the history of the world. to me, i didn't think about it

you said this is a by talents are. this is learned in ago. >> host: i hear that basically her surgery to one rotation where people can identify that the surgeons are sometimes the plastic surgeon rotation because you've got to know there is an artistic at the same time. now lamp it in some ways. is there truth about for >> guest: i think there would be as a lot of my career evolved without craniofacial surgery with plastic surgery. >> host: you are not practicing right now. the u.s.a.? >> guest: i miss the way it used to be. >> host: what does that mean? >> guest: there were a lot of things in the process changing. most people when they chose medicine, they chose it because you had to figure out well, i'm going to solve this problem.

in the days, in the early days cannot very be a kid from bolivia or some thing that this incredible problem and didn't have resources. i just said override it. >> host: you figure it out because he wanted to solve the problem. >> guest: nobody said to because the hospitals had a big enough for her chest and was okay. once the insurance companies to dictate how much they were going to pay the hospitals no longer had a margin and you want to do for? are you kidding me? just changing so much in so much bureaucracy. so one of my goals in life is to try to make medicine fun again. i want doctors to get up in the morning and be excited about going to work. >> host: should talk or is he getting rich? >> guest: doctors should be well compensated, which is a different name.

>> host: who should be aboard in our society? teachers or doctors? >> guest: i would say it is an irrelevant question. i think people should be paid for what they do. recognize that doctors spend a very long time training. they go to college. they go to medical school for four years. internship, residency. >> host: you arguably say it is 12 years to simply do postgraduate work to be a practicing neurosurgeon. >> guest: takes a long time. and there's a lot of sacrifice involved. once you do start working, you are working extraordinary hours and then you've got the short issue with the neurosurgeon is particularly bad because

everybody thinks everything is supposed to be perfect and they are dealing with very high with real estate. you know, that was one of the reasons that i had a real problem of so-called health reform that doesn't include the reform. it can even be serious. >> host: the president would talk about it when push came to shove. your christianity is that the book. science and faith sometimes cola. you had this highly scientific mind and you are very deeply religious person. some people would say that doesn't compute. that doesn't always give you. how does that compute with you? >> guest: first of all, i am not deeply religious, but i have a very strong relationship with god. there is a difference. the difference is that religion tends to be more form and faith

has to be more subtle. in the name of religion, a lot of really silly stuff has been carried on. >> host: you see that in the middle east right now are any point in time. >> guest: exactly. you will have a deep relationship with god have a tendency to do things in a different way. >> host: now go to science. >> guest: i actually believe science and faith can be very quite compatible. i've had some interesting discussion with nobel laureates who say, how can a person of your intelligence believe that god created heaven, earth, all this stuff. i say how could a person of your intelligence came from nothing. explain to me how that works. we don't understand everything. so i would give you something.

and you are going to tell me it explodes and we had a perfectly organized system to the point we can predict seven years when it's coming. but go would have found, that just happy. and a farewell, if you have enough explosions over a long enough period of time, eventually one of them will be the perfect explanation about his vote will have. so if i blow a hurricane three junkyard over billions of years, billions of times, eventually there would be a pretty good form 740 sevens ready to fly. is that that is what you're saying basically. i said no problem with that. i'm not going to denigrate you because of that. but there's a lot more faith. >> host: if somebody asked you are your creationists who believe in evolution, you would

answer? >> guest: i believe god created heaven and earth. and i find that much easier to believe because you have to recognize that you take somebody like charles star who as you probably know started out in the seminary. but he got to the point where it goes off to the galapagos islands to start scenes. he sees benches with the heavy peaks. you never see that anyplace else. as evidence of evolution. it depends on how you look at it. years before he had come here, which she didn't know at the time, do you have survived were the ones who had beat savvy enough to break through this evening extract nutrition. so that i actually believe is happening is you have a creator has given his creatures the ability to adapt to the buyer may appear to the environment. so you don't have to start over every time.

>> host: you believe in sort of some part of darwinism throughout the world. >> guest: i mean, i call it darwinism. but i believe an adaption. creatures with the ability to adapt to an environment. if i'm the creator rather give my creatures that ability. >> host: 6000 or a billion? >> guest: the earthquakes i don't know the answer to that. the bible says in the beginning god created heaven and earth. >> host: i have some people say one day could've been a billion years. people that have defended saying you've seen success in years. >> guest: i would say there's nothing that tells us how will be your face the bible. but also i believe that the reason god is god is because he can do stuff we can't do. so if you wanted to create some in the dirt he had aged neck, he

could do that. absolutely. that is why he would be god. >> host: and so coming your scientific education you feel like as not conflict? >> guest: i have never had any instance where my belief in god as conflicted my ability to be a good neurosurgeon. >> host: out with aldrin had a character, he was a search was a surgeon with a god complex. supposedly a stereotype. is that just an unfair hollywood view of most surgeons? >> guest: there is no question that there are some surgeons who have fairly large egos. in effect, it selects people like that. those are not going to become surgeons. so it does select those kind of

people. i know of a lot of incredibly caring, decent people. >> host: i get why they might have a god complex because they're the only ones that can solve the problems in their head and that is where it comes from a little bit. >> guest: yeah, -- poster how does you prevent it? people could be feeding your ego. you are john hawkins. you were at the elite of the elite. how did you keep your head? >> guest: because i personally remember and still remember where i came from and i also recognized that a lot of things depend on a lot of other situations. there is a lot of important people involved in everything i've done. i tell everybody i was, you know, there's always other people involved.

my mother, if she hadn't given to me, i would've ended up in the factories have been the first. output was anything wrong with that seen this before. but it wouldn't have realized the potential for some of the very complex operations. think about the first set of conjoined twins coming out, that kind of thing had never been done with them. but i had to consult with the cardio thoracic surgeon who were extremely good and understood the concept of endothermic incentive to figure out how we work that together and work with the plastic surgeon's with how we ever going to get discovered? a lot of people besides myself and all those kinds of things. >> host: i want to get to the heart, the deep hours of this book. by mark fisher not science. what does your scientific background tell you about climate change?

>> guest: it tells me if you look at the year that any given point in time, temperatures are even going up or they are going down over a specific period of time. as you may remember, you might be too young, in the 70s, if "time" magazine or "newsweek," whichever one had typically share. the new ice age is coming. it depends on what. you look at it. here's what i say about it. whether we are getting colder or warmer, we have a responsibility to take care of the environment. that's the bottom line. we don't have to argue have to argue the other have to argue about whether hot or operator. we need to argue for cows intelligently take care. >> host: something has changed. after her has changed you have to do for you. you look at new york city, new jersey, you have to make public policy decisions based on what you think is coming.

so that is the importance of figuring this out. >> guest: we put up with also important to not get overly involved in paranoia about it. you know, our eps rsi and concerned should be working in conjunction with research facilities and industry to say how can we best utilize our natural resources and at the same time respect our environment. rather than saying we are not developing this because i don't think that is a wise use of our pursuers. >> host: remember the great concern about the world owes olmert. a lot of focus about.the problem was. basically the entire aerosol industry changed. so this is a case where a father was identified, a solution was

identified. the industry fight hard and lo and behold moved on. industry adapted. so you believe which do please pursue some of these scientific research? >> guest: absolutely. i am saying we need a balanced approach. as you saw from writing the book, i say that in just about everything. remember when i said at the national prayer put this in order for people to fly high and straight, it needs to things. a left and everything. if you do everything in a las vegas a las vegas are a las vegas i commend my spirit to from your going to crash. >> host: let me start chapter three. i think it's interesting. you are highly intellectual person. you went to school at the best and taught the past. you're concerned about elitism. >> guest: the reason i am worried about elitism nec and a

lot of our universities who believe they are stored at the beacon of light for everything. anybody who doesn't agree with them, not only do they want to hear them, they don't want anybody see her then. if a business, they want to shut it down. if they have the reputation, they destroy. birds that come from unless you believe you are the cat's meow? >> guest: you feel the academic elitism is among the one? let me ask you, when jeffrey sam into politics? when did you make that train vision for scientists, you know, highly acclaimed surgeon at johns hopkins say and i want to get into the political frame pair produced a trigger? >> guest: i don't know that there is a germanic format. if you look back through, brooks was i afraid over the last 20 to

30 years, you will say that i've been talking about these issues for decades. you go back to a book i was in 1999, you will see a whole health reform program laid out there. so i am not johnny-come-lately to these issues. but the thing that really changed me in the perception of people with national prayer practiced in 2013 because you know, i just spoke my mind. i spoke about what i really saw as the problem and why i was concerned about it. i very much love the nation we live in and i don't want to see a fundamentally change. >> host: you have an interesting challenge in chapter six of your boat. you say to somebody this concern that i have in how people consume too much of only one side. they only follow if their conservative they follow twitter. if they're liberal, with the

liberals. they say pretend you remember a different political party and make a rational defense of one of those issues. make a rational defense. i will put you on the spot here. a national defense of the public health care line. >> guest: that is easy to say. everybody should have health insurance and we need to find a way to make that possible. and since we know about, how the lot of really brave people, we can probably find it out better than the dirt and we know than peoples themselves. but part of the president's plan to think is good parties? is there any part of the health care plan? >> guest: certainly a lot of time limits.

>> host: you do for their expansive surgery. you sort of understand that. a young family having a pediatric neurosurgery for their child. that is a big corruptible deal. excluding people on the basis for that. those are horrible things. in fact before this was passed. this is good stuff in here. i agree with it. i think virtually everybody would agree. why not take those things that almost make them the foundation of health care form. let's build it together. why can't we work on this together? i said if you push it through on one party and you have unanimous disagreement, all you're going to do is create recurring you're not going how cooperation for anything. why would you do it?

he said you're probably right, but this is washington and this is politics. that's the very problem. but we take these important issues and make them into politics and into politics to majeski polarizing. the wise man once said a house divided against itself can't stand. >> host: a very wise man. >> guest: so why do we have to keep doing this? wide-awake called the book "one nation"? because i think our strength is in our trinity, and under division. we the american people -- >> host: it seems like you would not have -- he would have made the first goal, but you're signing what you like is the reform in the insurance industry. it was the next step is figuring out how to expand at least get universal access for the collision happened. >> guest: and we can get universal access because we spend twice as much per capita

as the next nation. it's not that we not put out of resources. so to think we need to pour more money into it is foolishness. we need to think how we design it in a reasonable way. that is what i've emphasized the health savings accounts because people are cruel. they have control of what they are going to spend their money on. >> host: you have an im to any air birth to death. health care savings accounts. walker through that. how is it funny? >> guest: it's burned in a variety of different ways. people who are indigent, the same money that we spend -- the health care savings account. and you don't lose it if you don't use it and there's no limits on it. so you're having a birthday party. please contribute to my hsa. there's a number of ways and it

accumulates to write a lifetime. i also give people the ability -- >> host: five european countries at the beginning of birth hand you money. some is childcare come as soon as this. would you post some government army and the hsa at the beginning? >> guest: people who need government money? >> guest: automatically start at say $5000. need to? s. cobre. but if we take all of the people who are needy in this country and put money into their hsa, we are still going to fall short of what we extend now with inefficient programs. so here is the key thing. people began to be responsible. you need to have something done. i want to go here. remember when the food stamp programs were started. a lot of people said you can't do that because people will see

it as irresponsible. no way to use those appropriately. they will go by porterhouse take the first five days. but now come you didn't have to put limits on it. people are themselves. i'm going to buy some hamburger and hamburger helper. they will learn how to stretch it out and make it work. they would do the same thing if they have control of their health savings account. that's what brings the whole medical system in the free market economic forum. >> host: it sounds like you would make an argument the hospitals are as much of a problem if anybody's because the hospital will charge a ridiculous amount. my father died of a long disease. my mother would go to the built line by line and she would find the doublethink consented to the insurance company and let them know. they were charging crazy amounts of money because they know somebody is paying for it. >> guest: no, it is because the cost of this may be only

$2000. but if they put that cost down, the insurance company will pay them $300. therefore if we put 20,000 down, they will pay a 3000. it is located. so how do you bring reform to the hospital? this is a case where the administration -- the hospitals -- that was a tough one. they are networking with the insurance company, not what the hospitals. you are not going to go to the hospital. you are going to the other one. this will start this one. that's the way the free market works. >> host: you think the only way to truly reform the health care system is to basically get out of the insurance business. >> guest: you can't have all of these artificial influences. >> host: advocating for no insurance. the savings account would replace that.

>> guest: no, no. when i insane for your routine health care committee% of everything you have to do can easily be paid through your hsa. you have to remember, people have major and catastrophic issues that come up here that is what insurance is for. that is what is always should have been four. they were cancer policies in the 80's and 90s. don't exist anymore. they turned out to be losers for the health insurance. that was you get for the big diseases. you take that stuff off the insurance. >> guest: correct, correct. and remember, you sprain your name: think you need an x-ray, that comes out of your hsa. zoellick will expand free to job? birth-control pills? no hobby lobby. so what happens? you are not impinging upon your major medical. what happens to the cost of it?

>> host: should come down. >> guest: should come down dramatically. >> host: you have the insurance companies, hospitals and all these people that have gotten rich. health care is among the fastest growing and our economy. we know it is without medicare with these things i do you enact your plan? >> guest: keep in mind insurances insurance. your homeowners insurance. if you have a high deductible, guess what happens to the price of a? it plummets. if you want everything taken care of, guess what happens? same thing. exactly the same. >> host: chapters have been used the in saving our children. some of your language that you have used as certainly -- you talk about this, the politically correct police, the pc police on

this. but words do matter and it did offend folks. so why not curtail the language? >> guest: what offends people that i said? >> host: it depends on the point of view. there's all sorts of ways people get offended. >> guest: when i talk about political correctness, i talk about not being able to express how you actually feel. >> host: some african-americans would say slavery is awful. to compare the national debt to slavery is doing a disservice to slavery. >> host: but i would say about that is the whole hypersensitivity thing. you know, a lot of things don't bother people, but then somebody comes and says did and says digi. they said? you should be offended about that. this is the same stuff they used to galois on the third grade playground and guy would come in

day to chew here but he said about your mama? , on. we don't have to deal with that. we have real major problems that we have to deal with. the things they have to talk about in saving our young people i don't think most people can even comprehend $17.5 trillion going onto 18 trillion. $18 trillion at $10 million a day, it would take you 5000 years. i mean, that is an absurd amount of money. the only reason we can sustain that is because the u.s. dollar is the reserve currency of the world. what if we were not? there's the designation that generally goes up the number one economy in the world, which we have been since the 1870s. we are going to lose it soon. >> host: china? china is a mess, too. >> guest: they are 6% to 7%. how much are we growing?

said they are going to pasadena. i don't believe they are going to become the same kind of force. the banking system. >> guest: a lot of problems they will face. >> host: >> guest: however, here's the issue. they are talking about creating a basket current the consent of the u.s. dollar b. in the bases, what will that do to us? it will arouse us or deplete as per the ability to print money. it's not going to think about that for a moment. >> host: let me ask you about race. i look at the last 30 years and i think when i corrupt we had a more honest discussion in the 70s about race than we do today. we are actually afraid. they say something happens. somebody attacks the president

that we say we are going to go conversation about race and we don't. so let me start first with this. do you believe that some people are against the president because of the color of his skin? >> guest: if you say some people, i am sure some people are against. >> host: it is today -- >> guest: i don't think it's a large number of people anymore. i do think people are very much influenced by their perceptions. so for instance, if somebody told you an evil, terrible guy. and then you met me. you would interpret everything i did. and if somebody on the other hand would say it's a nice guy, loves everybody. i can see that, too. so somebody is always looking for racism. no matter what you say, too bad

that is racist. >> host: have you experienced it? >> guest: i'm sure there have been some along the way. it has not been a big factor for me. another told me something very important. if you work into racist, bigoted people, you don't have a problem. they have a problem because they are all going to cringe and wonder if you're going to sit accident and you can sit anywhere you want. that is the way a kind of let my life. if somebody has a problem with that, i've got more important things to do. >> host: do you think race has benefited? >> guest: i don't think it has hurt me. i think it has benefited me. i think it is a wash. i think, you know, and the profession i've spent my whole life and is a neurosurgeon. i would fully recognize early on in my career coming into the

room and some eyebrows are trying to grow up. >> host: you did feel a little bit about? >> guest: i would feel a little bit. you know, by the time i got through talking to them, say here's the problem. here is how we are going to handle it. you would see that clearly not the way. >> host: i would argue in some ways it is so results oriented. you answered a perfect ways to sort of if you want to -- science numbers don't lie. that is going to trump everything else. >> guest: without question. that is the wonderful thing about not a sin. there is a procedure i started advocating among which is very controversial. people were complaining, the department chairman, maryland medical association, even to the ama. by that time, i was able to

reveal the numbers. they demonstrated not a single person had died and there is very little in the way of complication. that ended the controversy. that wouldn't work in politics. >> host: people have their own set of facts and it is really a set of half-truths on both sides. the question of everybody's gone with a everybody's gone to the little pink truths to defend their position. >> guest: exactly. you advocate for a flat tax, 10%, same everybody has to contribute something. >> guest: i didn't say 10%. >> host: that was your example. >> guest: the reason i use 10% is it's because it's easy to calculate the mass. but it needs to be whenever it needs to be to support government. that it needs to be proportionate because what you need to recognize is by having this very skewed system with all of these to do both and things, you know, there are a lot of

people who make enormous amounts of money, who pay very little in taxes. 10% would be a lot to them. >> host: there's too many ways for them to high taxes. >> guest: i think that is crazy and we don't have to do that. on the other hand, i believe it is altering for people who make small amounts of money to say you poor little thing don't have to do anything. i will take care of you. they, i believe, if they really stopped and thought about it, would want to become even that they wouldn't be contributing a lot, they are still carrying their way. >> host: let me propose a counter argument on the folks that don't pay any federal income tax. if they got a casino, if they buy a lottery ticket in some resolve this gaming we use preys on the poor >> guest: it does postcode they are spending more money funding our schools, whether it's to trade going casino

gambling or another place. they are putting tax dollars into the pockets. so there are ways that this group, while they are not writing a check to the federal government, they are contributing arguably more money to education and making the situation than the rich. >> host: >> guest: gaming is what we do with this complex tax system. if we have something simple and easy to figure out, first of all, we are going to have a predictable amount of money we are going to bring in. we know what we need in order to run the government. the other thing you might have noticed, i am not a big proponent of gigantic government. why do i say that? in 2010, we at the statistics for that. if you took the income of everyone that made $69,000 above, 5.1 trillion, what was

the federal budget? 3.5 trillion. 60% of everything the middle class and above makes. does that make sense? of course it does. obviously, we need to reduce it. i proposed a very simple and fair way to reduce it to thousands of government employees retire every year. you can shift people around, but don't replace them. we did that to a manageable size. they didn't fire anybody. if people are down to manage those sites, they can concentrate on what they're supposed to do. >> host: as you and i both know, something happens. stay at a va hospital for something is not getting done and everybody is up in arms and they say they're just running people to do this and to do that. i mean, all of these things in the grand scheme of things make a lot of sense and we know the way government and politics work. how do you prevent politics of

the way this town works, which is my gosh, look at this federal government. we have to fix it in everybody, democrat and republican has to fix it. >> guest: you know, they don't understand. a lot of people don't understand. i have worked in va hospitals. wonderful people. doctors, nurses, therapists, wonderful people. wonderful patients. love them to death. huge amount of bureaucracy between this group and this group. that is the problem. get rid of that stuff. honestly, there is something for veteran hospitals do very well. poster mattock stress disorders and things like that. but everybody else should be able to go to other hospitals. >> host: go somewhere else. i want to add a little more political, which is you used a c. word that i don't hear conservatives used very often and that is compromise.

conservatives want to use common ground. there's a difference between compromise, 50% of what you want them, ground, which is the tiny 10% you both agree on. but it's better in this case. you are obviously advocating for compromise. he wants a more 50/50. just go when i talk about compromise, i am talking about compromise and masses. not necessarily a compromise in value and in principle. >> host: says in chapter 10. >> guest: great. when i look at democrats, republicans, except for the fringes, we are pretty much want the same things and we have allowed ourselves to be to into this group of hyper partisans, which we really shouldn't and don't have to be.

>> host: we are polarized. i can show you the numbers. where people identify as liberal and conservatives. more people will describe our full names and conservatives do the same thing. the other side thinks they don't love america. that is something my query was taking it too far. >> guest: leadership. it starts with readership. a leader is somebody who can take a variety of individuals, create a vision and have everybody working together to accomplish that. if that leader is someone who says this group -- that group -- they are the bad ones. we would get everything done if it weren't for them. that is not leadership. another aspect is multitasking. during the current administration, we have had the

former situation. during the previous administration, there wasn't enough multitasking. there is focus on the war and trying to make sure that america didn't get attacked again. you have to be able to multitask. so we have had a pretty long drought since we have had the kind of leadership benefits america. let's remember who we are. have we made mistakes? of course we have. >> host: give me some examples of leadership the right way. >> guest: john kennedy. this is a guy -- he came in. he was 44 years old. look at the stuff that was going on. they have three eggs, the cuban missile crisis, the civil rights movement. the economy was horrible. unemployment. and the russians had passed us in this space for him. what he do?

the use the bully pulpit to say within 10 years will put a man on the moon and bring them back. galvanize business industry, academic, everybody behind the project. we were able to accomplish. he put his brother, bobby, in charge of civil rights. bobby was very compassionate. the guy had his ear to the ground. he was very smart. he faced down the russians. enable blockading faced world war iii. didn't blink. they did. you know, he decided his party would need to raise taxes. they said no, just the opposite. he needs to lower taxes and to have a tremendous effect. incredibly brave guy. ronald reagan. look at the kind of leadership he provided, which actually resulted in the dissolution of the soviet union and the winning of the cold war without firing a

shot. you know, bravery, statesmanship, working across the aisle, he is able to work with the democrats. kennedy was able to work. >> host: so do you see any leadership like that right now? >> guest: i think this has potential. one of the reasons i tend to keep speaking out is i want people on both sides to understand this. >> host: do you think hillary clinton has potential? >> guest: of course, everybody has potential. >> host: what did you think of the clinton presidency? bill clinton? >> guest: i was pleased with the fact he was able to work with republicans to get the budget under control. you know the whole history of that. >> host: there is an argument made maybe you can't do big-budget deals with one party. it may be impossible. >> guest: said that was good. you know, as you probably

haven't noticed, i don't spend a lot of time talking negatively about people. what i would rather do is spend time talking about how to resolve the problem? we have the capability. we are smart people. we are innovative people, but we have to create the environment that offers hard work and that honors innovation. >> host: you bring up yourself in this book that after your speech at the national prayer breakfast another said what about ben carson for president? why would you consider it? >> guest: to rescind -- first of all, certainly not my plan for retirement. after a very long and arduous career. however, you know, there's so many people. every place i go, it's unbelievable the crowds that

show what. i coach wade looks tiny and people are like stringing out the door. there's so many people that can't even get in. and there are saying you've got to do this. in the beginning i didn't take it that seriously, that it just keeps happening. i have to ask myself, you know, as some point you have to put aside what you are planning and listen? >> host: you said in many ways you see this as a little bit of faith, a little bit of god's plan. do you feel -- >> guest: absolutely. i do with america, despite what president obama said, is a judeo-christian nation. i believe that because i've done a lot of reading about the founding of the nation. all you have to do is go back and read the letters. the people who say our founders were ds have no idea what they are talking about. the evidence is quite clear.

so i believe that it was those judeo-christian principles that lead us to the pinnacle of the world into a much higher pinnacle than anybody else that ever experienced. >> guest: ..