GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says she’s against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal that was recently made public.
“It’s 30 chapters long the thing has been negotiated in secret for almost two years,” Fiorina said to Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM hosted by Stephen K. Bannon. “The people only now are getting a look at what’s in this thing.”
She said she thinks there are some things in the TPP that one would expect in a trade agreement, such as lowering tariffs and lower taxes. Fiorina added that it’s good to have a set of agreements with other Asian countries to bolster them against China.
But she warned, “There’s a whole bunch of stuff in there that can only be described as crony capitalism, special giveaways to certain industries,” adding the agreement is “a mess.”
Fiorina said she favors bilateral agreements over trade pacts because “bilateral agreements are always more effective. We have more leverage.”
As one of the only GOP presidential candidates running for the nomination that has handled a multi-national corporation as the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina explained her economic plan for the country – going to zero-based budgeting.
“We need to go to zero-based budgeting and what that means every dollar is examined, any dollar can be cut, any dollar can be moved. That’s the only way we’re going to both spend less and spend where we need to spend,” Fiorina explained.
“There has been a bill sitting on the House floor to go to zero-based budgeting for some time,” she added, but said it hasn’t been voted on because it would “challenge so many special interest groups. That’s why we need an outsider in the White House.”
Fiorina also told Bannon that she wants responsibility, authority and accountability dedicated to the people. If government workers aren’t getting the job done, they’re gone, saying there should be a “consequence for nonperformance.” Roughly 250,000 government employees will be retiring out of government and Fiorina said, “we cannot replace a single one.”
As President of the United States, Fiorina said she would order a top to bottom review of all of the regulations and rules put on the books by the Obama Administration. “We need to look at every single regulation on the books” because there hasn’t been a review of the regulations and rules in more than 50 years. “We’re not a nation of laws any more, we’re a nation of rules.”
She also said the tax code needs to be simplified.
“We have to simplify the tax code from 73,000 pages …we got to get it down to three [pages], which means we close every loop hole…every deduction,” and lower every rate, she explained. Fiorina said the complexity of the tax code favors the rich, powerful and well connected.
She also wants to use technology to get the people involved in the government, saying she would ask citizens to use smart phones to be active and participate – press one for yes, two for no on certain decisions they want to see Congress and the executive branch make.
“We can do every single one of the things I just mentioned,” Fiorina said, adding it is the only way to reduce the size of government and reduce the power and the spending.
“What experience do politicians have? Do they have any experience cutting down bureaucracies?” Fiorina said, firing back at arguments by critics that she doesn’t have any political experience, she wouldn’t qualify for the position of President of the United States.
Fiorina also told Bannon during the interview that she would have vetoed the budget bill that was recently passed.
“That’s what I’ve done all my life – challenge the status quo. That’s how you get from secretary to CEO,” she explained.
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