Dr. Benjamin Carson, who made headlines for making political statements during his keynote address at the National Prayer Breakfast, will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"Dr. Ben Carson represents the optimism and hope of the future of the conservative movement, while at the same time he articulates the deep fiscal and social challenges that our nation faces," said Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, the group that sponsors the annual gathering.

Carson became a conservative favorite when he indirectly criticized tax policies and health care reform while President Obama sat just feet from him at the prayer breakfast earlier this month.

"When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he's given us a system. It's called tithe. Now we don't necessarily have to do 10%, but it's the principle," Carson said, adding that the progressive tax system is the "kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands."

"That money needs to be back here building our infrastructure and creating jobs," he said.

Carson, a renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, also lamented the idea of government-funded health insurance.

"Here's my solution. When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record and a health savings account [HSA], to which money can be contributed, pre-tax from the time you are born, to the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members," he said.

"For the people who are indigent, who don't have any money, we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money instead of sending it to bureaucracy -- let's put it into HSAs," he added. "Now they have some control over their own health care and what do you think they're going to do? They're going to learn very quickly how to be responsible."

Carson's comments quickly won favor among many conservative blogs and news outlets.