FIORINA: Well, first of all, it's recognition that you cannot have a successful bombing campaign without people on the ground telling you where to place the bomb. So, he's sort of come to reality. On the other hand, it's too little too late. I think this is a reflection of the reality, that when America does not act, when we do not lead as we have not the last three years under this president, our options become very constrained and the situation becomes more dangerous.I'm glad he did this, but we still do not have a strategy in Syria. We do not have a strategy to deal with ISIS.
FIORINA: Well, you know, the president has said he doesn't believe in no-fly zones, but no fly zones are very effective. They have been effective in the past and we need to establish one. We need to make it crystal clear to Vladimir Putin that our jets will fly when and where they want, that our troops cannot be threatened in any way by Russia. And it is why, as president of the United States, in addition to having a strategy in Syria and for ISIS, I would also be rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, right under Vladimir Putin's nose, rebuilding the missile defence program in Poland, so he must see strength and resolve from the United States of America.
And the reality is the human impact of progressive policies is to keep people unemployed. We have record numbers of people who are no longer working or who have quit looking for work. We have record numbers of people on food stamps. We have record numbers of people living in poverty.
FIORINA: Well, of course not. All of those things are important. Of course we should be funding those things. But I find it fascinating that Democrats will never support taxpayer funding, for example, for a women's health center right next door to a Planned Parenthood that would provide all those same services and also provide women an alternative to abortion.
A: Something very important has changed since the last government shutdown. What's changed is the Republican Party has historic majorities in the House and we now control the majority in the Senate. A lot of people worked really hard out there in the nation to make that happen. I think people worked hard because they expected a change based on that majority.
FIORINA: The way to bridge difference, the way to negotiate a good deal--you start out by stating very clearly what your principles are, what you must have, what your walk away position is. And then you enter into an open-minded spirit of collaboration about everything else and try to find common ground. On the other hand, there are some issues about which there really is broad bipartisan agreement and yet nothing gets done. How long have we been talking about broad bipartisan reform for tax reform? It doesn't happen. Everyone says they want to secure the border. It doesn't happen. Everybody says our VA is a scandal. Nothing changes.
FIORINA: I reject the premise of your question. There has not been real cutting going on. Every year, Senator Tom Coburn puts together a report of fraud, waste, abuse, corruption in the federal government. It adds up to a lot of money. Nobody ever does anything about it. The professional political class-- Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio among them, but certainly not limited to them--here's where they always fail us. How long have we been talking about entitlement reform? We talk about it every election. We talk about tax reform every election. And guess what? Nothing happens. There are binders full of great conservative ideas on how to reform Social Security and entitlements. And we will never get to it because the political class can't challenge the status quo.
FIORINA: There are loads of great ideas on how to make Social Security more financially solvent. I do not think there is a prayer of implementing a single one until you get a leader in the Oval Office who's prepared to challenge the status quo. And I am not prepared to go to the American people and talk to them about how we're going to reform Social Security until I can demonstrate to them that the government can execute with excellence.
Q: Now, that is a dodge worthy of a very good politician.
FIORINA: It's not a dodge. I am deadly serious. The American people are sick to death of politics as usual. Because we talk about all kinds of good things in election cycles. And none of it happens. None of it happens.
I think the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Kurds and the Egyptians are all fighting ISIS, as we speak, on the ground. They know this is their fight. Yes, they need leadership, resolve support and material from us. We haven't provided any of it. And if we did, it will make a big difference.
Inside an agricultural equipment shop, Fiorina spoke to a crowd of around 250 people on the future of rural America. She says as the EPA controls more of the water in the United States, agriculture is being destroyed. By the end of August the EPA will control 95% of the water in Iowa, she said. Fiorina believes the EPA is standing in the way of affordable and reliable electricity.
To combat any "festering" problems, she said the economy will grow if regulations and power are lifted from the government. To help get the economy of the country on track, Fiorina reiterated two ways to get debt and deficit under control: grow the economy and cut spending.
Fiorina feels economy growth is being prevented by government spending. She is in favor of a zero-based budget, a "revenue-reducing tax reform," and would like tax codes simplified. "We need a government that's smaller. We need a government that's more responsive. We need a government that's not crushing the potential of this nation. But we also need a government that is competent, not inept."
FIORINA: First we have to remember what the engine of economic growth is in this nation? Small businesses, family-owned businesses, community-based businesses. Two-thirds of new jobs are created by small businesses. Half of Americans are employed by small businesses. We're crushing them. We're now destroying more than we're creating. That's why we have to roll back this regulatory burden and take a 75,000-page tax code and make it three pages, because guess what? When you have a big costly, complicated government, only the big, the powerful, wealthy and well connected can deal with it. It's called crony capitalism. It's why we must reduce the size of government.
A: That's right.
Q: I should point out that you are a survivor of breast cancer; didn't your experience show you that the preexisting condition part of ObamaCare is crucial?
A: I absolutely endorse that goal. But guess what? None of that has worked. Demonstrably, if you look at the results of ObamaCare, what you see is emergency room visits are up over 50%. Health insurance premiums are up almost 40% now. We're dumping more and more people into Medicaid. Medicaid is a program that fewer and fewer doctors will accept patients from. That isn't helping anyone with cancer, I can assure you. The problem is this.
Q: But the expansion of the pool allows the insurance companies to pay for the people with preexisting conditions.
A: The health insurance companies and the drug companies who helped write ObamaCare are consolidating. That's called crony capitalism. Meanwhile, people are getting left on the sidelines.
A: When I was the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, we also offered paid maternity leave and paternity leave. I don't think it's the role of government to dictate to the private sector how to manage their businesses, especially when it's pretty clear that the private sector, like Netflix, is doing the right thing because they know it helps them attract the right talent.
FIORINA: So we have a 75,000 page tax code today. And that complexity favors the wealthy and the big and the well-connected because they can hire the accountants and the lawyers and lobbyists to figure out how to make all that complexity work for them. My blueprint: lower every rate, close every loophole. Maybe there's one or two loopholes that really help the middle class, but most of these deductions and loopholes and complexities actually benefit the wealthy, the powerful, the well connected. Our tax code isn't competitive anymore. It's ridiculous to have the highest tax rate in the world when we're trying to attract jobs here.
FIORINA: Well, I would have walked away because if you can't walk away from the negotiating table, the other side just keeps negotiating. And that's precisely what's happened. We have caved on every major goal that President Obama set, so I would walk away and I would tell the Iranians that until and unless they are prepared to open every nuclear facility, every uranium enrichment facility to full and unfettered inspections, that we will make it as difficult as possible for them to move money around the global financial system. We can do that. We don't need anyone's permission or collaboration to do that.
Soon afterward, several GOP candidates seized the opportunity to attack Obama while touting their own foreign policy platforms. In an appearance on Fox News, Carly Fiorina chimed in: "It's been clear that President Obama hasn't had a plan. It's been equally clear that the Pentagon has been giving him options, and of course our allies have been asking for very specific things to help us defeat ISIS."
A: Our education system is in trouble, but demonstrably, giving more money to the Department of Education, as we have been doing for almost 40 years, doesn't improve the state of education. Common Core has become a nationally driven set of bureaucratic standards that teach teachers how to teach, that teach children how to learn, and what we need is to provide more parental choice so that our kids anywhere they live have a real chance, and Common Core doesn't help us do that.
Q: So what should be done?
A: We know that the most important thing about a child's education is to have a great teacher in front of the classroom and a lot of choice and accountability with parents, whether that's at home or with vouchers or charters or parochial schools. And Common Core, unfortunately, limits parents' choices. It limits the creativity a teacher can apply in the classroom. So, it will over time limit our children's chances.
FIORINA: Well, I think we have two fundamental structural problems in our economy. One is that we have tangled people up in a web of dependence from which they can't escape. We're leaving lots of talent on the field. Secondly, we're crushing small businesses now. Elizabeth Warren is right, crony capitalism is alive and well. Big business and big government go hand in hand. But for the first time in US history now, we are destroying more businesses than we are creating. And so, while we have 10 banks, too big to fail, now have become 5 big banks too big to fail, [while] 3,000 community banks have gone out of business, and that's where family-owned and small businesses get their chance. That's important because small businesses create 2/3 of the new jobs and employ 1/2 the people. So, if we want the middle class growing again, we've got to get small and family-owned businesses going and growing again.
FIORINA: Well, I'm very proud of our record. We took Hewlett-Packard from about $44 billion to $88 billion. We took the growth rate from 2% to 9%. We tripled the rate of innovation to 11 patents a day. We quadrupled cash flow. We went from a market laggard to a market leader in every product category and every market segment. And we grew jobs. It is true that I managed through the worst technology recession in 25 years. Virtually every technology stock was down over that same period. And while it's true that in a technology recession, we had to lay people off, the truth is we outsourced more California jobs to Texas than we did to India or China, demonstrating we have to compete for every job.
So, if we want mainstream and the middle class going and growing again, we've got to get small and family-owned businesses growing again. Washington has become a vast unaccountable bureaucracy. It's been growing for 40 years. We have no idea how our money is spent.
There are two things that would help tremendously. One, zero base budgeting, so we know where the money is spent. We're talking about the whole budget and not just the rate of increase. And two, pay for performance in our civil service.
FIORINA: Well, I think it was part of the plan all along that the Clintons had. Look, I think it was very deliberate that they had a private server. I think it was very deliberate that she used a personal e-mail account. I think this clearly was a deliberate effort to shield her communications. We need a nominee who will bring this up in the general election. The reason Benghazi was not enough of an issue in the 2012 election is because, unfortunately, our nominee pulled his punches when he had an opportunity to remind the American people of the Benghazi tragedy and scandal.
Q: So, you won't pull your punches on Hillary?
FIORINA: Oh, I will not pull my punches--not now and not in a general election.
FIORINA: I think you're reading the Democratic talking points because it was not all American jobs. But of course, laying people off is the last resort. It's a terrible thing to have to do. But when you are managing through the worst technology recession in 25 years, sometimes there are tough calls that need to be made for the overall health of the enterprise. And in the end, we took a company that was really struggling and turned it into an exceedingly successful company where overall jobs grew.
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The above quotations are from Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2015, interviewing presidential hopefuls for 2016.
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