WASHINGTON -- At last week's National Prayer Breakfast, Dr. Ben Carson challenged the president on everything from taxes to health care.
CLICK HERE to view a text version of Dr. Carson's speech.
"This is not a one-party problem," Dr. Carson said. "This is a problem for all of us."
Some say Dr. Carson, a neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins Hospital, crossed the line. But he told national correspondent Kristine Frazao in a one-on-one interview he's okay with that.
For Dr. Carson, Americas problems run deep. It was a message he took straight to the president in a speech in which he harshly criticized the direction this country is headed.
During his speech, he took on the way the tax system in this country should be.
"You make $10 billion, you put in a billion. You make $10 dollars, you put in one. Carson went on to say, "Some people will say that's not fair because it doesn't hurt the guy with $10 billion as much as it hurts the guys with $10. Where does it say you got to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot."
Perhaps the most surprising part of his remarks was the way Dr. Carson spoke disapprovingly about health care as well.
"Here's my solution: When a person is born, give them a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed," explained Dr. Carson. "When you die you can pass it along to family members."
Dr. Carson's 27-minute speech has now gone viral, and and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calls on him to run for president.
Dr. spoke one on one with us Sunday and continued his criticism of "Obamacare."
"We're continuing to increase the size of government. We're continuing to increase this big bureaucracy. We're continuing to insinuate more and more people between the health care provider and the patient," Dr. Carson told us. "All of this does not lead to good care."
One of the things quite a few people who saw the speech are talking about, is the reaction of those in attendance. We asked Dr. Carson to give us his take on how his speech was being received by the president.
"Pretty stone-faced through most of it," recalled Dr. Carson. "I don't think he's used to having people around who say things that aren't very flattering to him."
Dr. Carson was raised by a single mother in inner-city Detroit. He admits to being a bad student with a horrible temper. Now, he's considered one of the most renowned pediatric neurosurgeons in the country.
