Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Wednesday that regulations in the United States are akin to those in communist countries.
The retired neurosurgeon made the comments while answering a question by Iowa conservative radio show host Jan Mickelson on "Section 8 housing regulations" that allegedly stipulate that Eastern Iowans "have to recruit from Chicago their poverty-afflicted individuals to bring them to Iowa in order to qualify for Section 8 Housing."
Carson said the regulations were indicative of "what you see in communist countries."
"This is just an example of what happens when we allow the government to infiltrate every part of our lives," Carson said. "This is what you see in communist countries where they have so many regulations encircling every aspect of your life that if you don't agree with them, all they have to do is pull the noose. And this is what we've got now."
Carson argued that these "dozens of regulations" were part of a process that proves "exactly what Thomas Jefferson predicted."
"Every month dozens of regulations--business, industry, academia, every aspect of our lives--so that they can control you," Carson said. "And this is exactly what Thomas Jefferson predicted. He said the people would become lackadaisical, they would not be vigilant, the government would grow, it will infiltrate every part of their lives, and it will take over."
Carson finished his recounting of Jefferson's predictions by saying that "just before we become another type of government, the people would wake up."
"But just before—just before we become another type of government, the people would wake up," he said. "I'm hoping that this is the time when they wake up."
