EDITORIAL: Four good ideas from Ben Carson’s campaign — and two that need work

Ben Carson has as compelling a life story as anyone in American politics. Raised by a single mother in poverty, but blessed with a love of reading and learning, he graduated from Yale University and the University of Michigan School of Medicine, and spent 29 years as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center.

His life's work was giving sick children a second chance at a good quality of life. The 64-year-old Republican said his concern for children's quality of life compelled him to enter politics and run for president of the United States. He believes the country is on the wrong track and that without change, America's younger generations will inherit a poorer, weaker nation.

Dr. Carson met with the Review-Journal's editorial board Monday to discuss his vision for the country. To help Nevada voters decide whether they might support his candidacy in the state's Feb. 23 presidential caucus, we've chosen to highlight four of Dr. Carson's positions we support and two positions that leave us skeptical.

Four issues we agree on:

Training wage: Dr. Carson is the only candidate in the field who's addressing the country's youth unemployment crisis. Democrats champion a greatly increased federal minimum wage, which would price even more teens out of the job market, especially racial and ethnic minorities. A reduced "training wage" for juveniles would create entry-level, low-skill jobs that provide an entry to the workforce and the experience necessary to get better work.

Health care reform: Obamacare made a flawed medical system significantly worse and more expensive. Dr. Carson proposes putting decision-making powers back in the hands of providers and patients — and giving Washington more cost certainty — by providing Americans with health savings accounts and getting health insurers out of the business of prepaid medicine and back in the business of covering unanticipated illness and catastrophe.

Reducing the federal workforce: Washington is too big and too powerful, with millions of exceptionally well-paid employees engaged in missions that are hostile to industry and taxpayer interests. As president, Dr. Carson would impose a hiring freeze and shrink the bureaucracy through retirements and attrition.

Social Security reform: The federal entitlement that's supposed to keep senior citizens out of poverty will go bust without a substantial overhaul. Social Security ran a $39 billion deficit in 2014 and is projected to be insolvent by 2035. Its 75-year unfunded liability exceeds $13 trillion. The primary problems are eligibility ages not increasing with life expectancies and the declining worker-to-beneficiary ratio. Dr. Carson would not change the program for current beneficiaries or those close to retirement age; gradually increase the age of eligibility for those age 50 and younger; and allow Americans younger than 30 to create their own private accounts and give them "a say in how their money is invested."

Two issues we don't agree on:

Military spending: Like most of the Republican presidential field, Dr. Carson wants both a balanced federal budget and a substantially stronger U.S. military. He says he can hold the line on overall federal spending and make sizable investments in the armed forces by slashing the bureaucracy across hundreds of departments and agencies. He said the budget sequester was designed to "make it hurt, so nobody will ask us to cut again." He said he would tell his Cabinet to cut the fat and that "if you do it in a way that is felt by the people, you're fired." While we appreciate this approach, the military already consumes half of all federal discretionary spending. If spending in all other agencies could be cut 10 percent and redirected to the military, it would boost Pentagon spending by just $50 billion — and do little to reduce the federal budget deficit. A better approach would be slashing the bureaucracy and not spending the savings.

Domestic security: Keeping Americans safe in an age of ISIS-inspired global terrorism should be the president's highest priority. But some provisions of Dr. Carson's homeland security agenda could lead to abuses of our cherished rights. He says we need "much better training for the TSA," when abolishing the ineffective agency and privatizing airport security would have a much greater chance of success, and he wants the FBI "to be able to do 24-7 surveillance of people of interest." That's a whole lot of new federal police. The Justice Department and the federal courts have little respect for the Bill of Rights and transparency. We'd just as soon not see the federal police state expanded.