Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson unleashed his strongest attack yet on Obamacare on Friday, saying that President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement was "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."
"It is slavery, in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government," Carson, who retired in May from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said at a speech at the conservative Values Voter Summit in Washington. "It was never about healthcare. It was about control.
"That's why, when this administration took office, it didn't matter that the country was going off the cliff economically, all forces were directed toward getting this legislation passed," Carson added, with his comments drawing much applause from the event's 2,000 attendees.
"Why did they want to pass it so badly?" before answering with a comment from Vladimir Lenin. "He said that socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a Socialist state. That's the problem."
The summit, which ends on Sunday, is sponsored by the Family Research Council, the Washington-based Christian right-leaning think tank that the Southern Poverty Center has labeled an anti-gay hate group.
Other sponsors include such nonprofit organizations as the Heritage Foundation, the American Family Association, American Values, and Liberty Counsel Action.
Among those speaking on Friday included Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Others included House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint are also scheduled to speak at the summit.
Carson, who has been mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, continued his attacks on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and other policies of the president that began with his comments in February at the National Prayer Breakfast as Obama sat on the dias.
Many of his remarks on Friday drew sustained applause from the audience.
"It is the most valuable thing you have," Carson said, referring to one's health. "Everything else pales into insignificance, compared to your health. And that's the reason why your health should be controlled by you and not the government."
He segued into his Obamacare critique by saying, "It's really time for the people, we the people of America, to stop being afraid of the government and put it in its place.
"Government plays a very important role when, in fact, it believes in the Constitution. That's the problem. When they begin to neglect the Constitution, when they begin to impose their own will."
Hinting at President Obama's decision to delay portions of the healthcare law for big business, Carson continued: "When they look at laws of the land and they say, 'OK, I think I'll enforce this one. This one I won't.' When they begin to treat people differently.
"When they say that people in the Executive Branch and in the Legislative Branch don't have to participate in certain programs, but everybody else has to
.
"That's not America. That's Russia," Carson said. "How did we allow that to happen in this nation?"
After his speech, Carson told The Hill that he would consider a White House run.
"[Running for president] is not something I have any desire to do whatsoever," he said, though adding "but I certainly listen.
"If the circumstances were to evolve in such a way that that seemed to be what God was calling me to do, I would certainly do it," he told the Hill. "And I would never turn my back on my fellow citizens, if there was a hue and cry for such."
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