Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Originally posted at Conservative Review
(New York, NY) – Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, will formerly announce her presidential campaign May 4, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Leading up to her presidential campaign launch, Fiorina is making headlines by directly attacking Hillary Clinton’s lack of accomplishments and questioning her trustworthiness surrounding her State Department emails and the Clinton Foundation.
During an exclusive interview with Conservative Review, Fiorina maintained her reputation as a no nonsense business executive eager to tackle problems confronting the U.S.
Fiorina sees the size and scope of the federal government as an impediment to individual and economic progress and she wants to bring an executive business perspective to rein in government excesses and leadership.
Fiorina believes the many years she served as a business executive, including her direct interaction with foreign leaders, her in-depth knowledge of technology and the economy, makes her qualified to be president.
Well-Traveled Foreign Policy
“Let’s begin with your first comment on foreign policy — actually I have lived and traveled and worked in the world for decades now. I know many of the world leaders on the stage today, in fact, I would say I know more world leaders than virtually anyone else running, with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton. I also served as the chairman of the Advisory Board at the Central Intelligence Agency, I have served on the Defense Business Board and did work with Secretary Rice so I think I’m highly qualified.”
Taking Advantage of the Technological Field
Fiorina continued, “I think I understand technology and how it really works and that’s important now because technology can be a transformational tool. I understand the world and how it works as I mentioned. I understand bureaucracies which is important because you can’t get ahold of spending unless you get ahold of vast government bureaucracies which is what Washington, D.C. has become. And finally, I’m an executive which means I know what making tough decisions in tough times with high stakes means and I’m willing to be held accountable for those and I think all those things I’ve just mentioned are necessary to actually do the job.”
Reducing the Size and Scope of the Federal Government
Fiorina believes the massive size of the federal government is stifling the human spirit, creating dependency and favors big business over small businesses.
“It’s crushing the potential of the American people actually the size and scope of power and the power of government is crushing the small and the powerless. A couple of examples, we’ve tangled people up in a web of dependence that’s very difficult for them to escape from. Everybody has potential, everybody has gifts, everybody has the capacity to live a life of dignity and purpose but we are making it so difficult for people to disentangle their lives from that web of dependence,” said Fiorina.
“We’re crushing small and family owned businesses so in Washington today if you’re a big business you can do ok with big government but in fact, every new law and regulation that’s a complication to the tax code that gets passed in Washington, D.C., what you see are the bigger getting bigger and the small are getting crushed so we are now destroying more businesses than we are creating for the first time in U.S. history and that’s important because most people get their start in a little business.”
Having started her career as a secretary in a small real estate firm, Fiorina says she can relate to the plight of small businesses, which she called, “the heroes of our economy.”
Fiorina’s corporate executive experience was most apparent in her response to questions about cutting the size of government and holding government workers accountable for their performance.
Zero-Based Budgeting
She would replace the current budget process that deals with the rate of increase from the prior year with zero-based budgeting that “would provide transparency for every dollar of government spending.”
Fiorina would seek to institute performance metrics for government workers because “we’re kind of horrified” when we discover what government workers are doing on the job. “We find out that they don’t serve our veterans well, we find out that you can watch porn all day long and get paid the same way as somebody next to you trying to do a good job,” she added.
What Federal Department Would Fiorina Cut?
Instead of naming a department or agency she would close off hand, Fiorina described the process by which she would determine if a part of the executive branch would be eliminated.
As part of what she calls, “reimagining and reducing the size government,” Fiorina pledged to initially start with determining how and where tax dollars are spent and to work with Americans to establish spending priorities.
Connecting on a Personal Level
Finally, Fiorina spoke about leadership where she drew upon her own life story and a recognition of everyone’s unique potential.
“Everybody has potential. When I was a secretary, somebody had to take a chance on me and I didn’t have a plan to become a CEO but what I found out was that I liked the challenge I would run to the problem instead of running away from a problem and when I ran to a problem there were always people around that problem whose potential had not been tapped and who could help me figure out how to solve the problem.”
Fiorina continued, “So I think the highest calling of leadership is to unlock potential in others and I think what’s missing in our nation right now is the kind of leadership that sees that as its highest calling, that remembers that ours was intended to be a citizen government – by, for, and of the people – I don’t know when we got used to this idea that only professional politicians can run and I think a lot of people in this country believe leadership is missing and believe that their own possibilities are constrained and we can fix that.”
Deneen Borelli is the Senior Correspondent at Conservative Review.
Follow on Twitter @deneenborelli and @CR
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