Josh Hafner

USA TODAY

Ben Carson recalled America's pioneer past Wednesday, speaking fondly of the days when frontier families helped one another instead of relying upon government.

"Somebody got killed by a bear. Everybody took care of their family," Carson said. "So we have a history of taking care of each other."

The comments came during a CNN forum after Carson was asked about subsidies for the poor.

"In the old days of America, when communities were separated by hundreds of miles, why were they able to thrive? Because if it was harvest time, and a farmer was up in a tree picking apples and fell out and broke his leg, everybody pitched in and harvested his crops for him."

But then, Carson said, the progressive movement of the 1920s led into Lyndon Johnson's expansions of government in the 1960s.

"You know, $19 trillion later, 10 times more people on food stamps, more poverty, more welfare, broken homes, out-of-wedlock births, crime, incarceration," he continued. "Everything is not only worse, it's much worse."