Chad’s Morning Brief: Obama’s Refugee Plans Meet Resistance From State Leaders and Ben Carson Defends His Gun Comments

Here are a couple of the topics we will discuss on today's edition of The Chad Hasty Show.

Obama vs. The States

According to FOX News, not everyone is on board with President Obama's plans to bring in thousands of refugees from Syria.

The Obama administration's pledge to absorb thousands more Syrian and other refugees could run headlong into resistance from state and local officials worried about whether their communities can handle the influx.

Federal officials announced last month they plan to take in at least 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year, and a total of 100,000 refugees from around the world by 2017 -- up from 70,000.

While Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about whether refugees from Syria will be adequately screened for terror ties, local officials are worried simply about whether they have the resources to take them.

"It's a fiscal issue," said Peter Steele, a spokesman for Maine Gov. Paul LePage. "You can only pay for what you can afford, and those funds should be going to the most needy citizens in our state."

Refugees granted entrance to America often move around the country, tapping services and funds from local communities as they go. They get benefits ranging from food stamps to traditional welfare to housing to language classes. Refugees also receive over $1,800 per person in cash once in the U.S. (of which $750 goes to a resettlement agency contractor).

LePage has been reforming the welfare system in his state by actually enforcing standards set by law for those seeking benefits.

Other states are taking a more direct stance on refugees.

In Georgia, Republican Gov. Nathan Deal became the first governor to request the State Department keep his state's refugee numbers "static," at about 2,500 people.

And one example of a city practically maxed out by the influx of refugees and immigrants is Amarillo, Texas -- the top state for refugee resettlement. City officials say services are "busting at the seams." The city is fielding 911 calls in 36 different languages, supplying language classes in schools and having interpreters on call for the police and court system while facing ongoing challenges between "what's legal here and what's legal there," a city official said.

Now the city has been granted so-called family-reunification-only status for 2015 and 2016, after pleading their case to the Texas Health and Human Services department that administers refugee aid.

A discussion needs to be had over this issue and whether or not we as a country can afford to do this. I think you will see more cities and more states begin to fight against this.

Ben Carson and Guns

Dr. Ben Carson is defending comments he made earlier this week about defending himself and what other people should do if a shooter is present according to POLITICO.

"Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me, I would say, ‘Hey guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all,'" he said during a Tuesday morning appearance on "Fox and Friends."

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A day later, appearing on "CBS This Morning," co-host Norah O'Donnell asked him what he meant by saying, "I would not just stand there."

"I want to plant in people's minds what to do in a situation like this, because unfortunately this is probably not going to be the last time this happens," the retired neurosurgeon said.

Asked whether he believed the victims in Oregon "just stood there," Carson replied that "from the indications that I got, they did not rush the shooter."

"The shooter can only shoot one person at a time. He cannot shoot a whole group of people, and so the ideal is, overwhelm him so that not everybody gets killed," he added.

Asked by O'Donnell if he knew of Chris Mintz, the Army veteran who was shot seven times in his life-saving attempts at Umpqua Community College last Thursday, Carson said no.

"That verifies what I'm saying," he went on to say. "That's exactly what should be done. And if everybody does that, the likelihood of him being able to kill as many people diminishes quite significantly."

Responding to criticism that he may be coming off as insensitive toward the victims, Carson decried "a culture now where people decide that everything you say, we need to set up battle lines and we need to get on this side of it or that side of it, rather than collectively trying to figure out how we can solve the problem."

"It's sort of an immature attitude, but it seems to be something that's rampant in America today," he added.

The media is attempting to tear down Ben Carson over this comment but there is no reason to. Carson just said that people should fight back, and they should! People should be allowed and encouraged to defend themselves.