Carly Fiorina on Social Security Republican primary challenger and former CEO

No Constitutional role for federally set up retirement plans

Few candidates are willing to admit to similar views about the Constitution. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a libertarian, has called for the Supreme Court to repeal much of the modern regulatory state, but even he said during the debate that programs like Medicare and Social Security are legitimate tasks for the federal government to undertake. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has claimed that the federal Department of Education is unconstitutional, but he's also likened lawmakers who want to cut Social Security benefits to robbers and muggers.

Companies should provide benefits, but don't require any

A: No, the Federal Government should not play a larger role. Every time the Federal Government gets engaged in something it gets worse. And then the Government steps in to try and solve the problem and we get a little further down to that progressive vision that Hillary Clinton is talking about.

Challenge the status quo on entitlement reform

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.

We can't reform entitlements until we reform government

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.

Need to change status quo to achieve entitlement reform