Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson spoke to a large crowd during an event in Atlantic Thursday night. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, talked about coming from a broken family that was held together by the fortitude of his mother, the loss of a campaign staffer during a crash on Interstate 80 in Cass County, terrorism, and how to fix the economy. Carson spoke about the “Income Gap” Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders often speak of. He said taxing the rich more will not solve the problem.

He said one of the keys to getting the nation back on track is controlling the amount of government regulations.

Republican Ben Carson at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic (Ric Hanson/photo)

Carson proposed looking at regulations in terms of cost versus benefits. As an example, he said Clean Energy may lower the earth’s temperature by a slight margin over 85-years, but it will cost billions of dollars and millions of jobs. Carson said policies cannot be “ideologically driven.” Instead, we should want policies driven by evidence.

On the topic of terrorism, Carson said ISIS is an “Existentialist threat,” and that “We have to destroy the Jihadists, we can’t simply contain them, because they’re not going away.” He suggested the way to do that is to consult with military experts and find out what it is they need to take terrorist’s land away from them, and then give the military what they need, instead of tying their hands. He also said we “Have to take their oil,” which is their source of income.

On the home front, Carson suggested Americans be trained how to respond to terrorist situations. He said also we should be offering free courses for Americans on how to use their guns, not restricting who can legally purchase them. Carson was also in favor of term limits for Congress, and justices on the Supreme Court. When asked about Government Transparency, Carson said there needs to be a more open dialogue between the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and that those talks are public.

After he answered questions from the audience, Carson spoke briefly with the media. When asked about the low standing in the polls leading up to Iowa caucuses, Carson said Town Hall meetings are the way to get his message out.He said also “I’m not a politician…all I have to do is tell the truth.” Carson said his campaign team has pulled together even more over the loss of Brayden Joplin following the crash on I-80, and he never considered pulling out of the race, because the reason he got into the race still exists. And that is Our country is moving rapidly in the wrong direction, and if we continue down the same path, and if we continue doing the same thing, and we continue putting the same kind of people with the same kind of promises in, we’re gonna get the same results.”