Carly Fiorina
Historical Details
Position on Issues
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"We must invest more in the treatment of all mental illness, including addictions. We also have to realize that what we've been doing isn't working. You know, I very much agree with Senator Paul that we need criminal justice reform. If you look at our criminal justice system today, what you'll see is that we have the highest incarceration rates in the world. Think about that. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world, and yet two-thirds of the people in jail are there for non-violent, mostly drug-related offenses. We are not helping people."
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Candidate's Website, 2015
Opposes a path to citizenship for illegal/undocumented immigrants
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"Common Core may have started out as a set of standards, but what it's turned into is a program that, honestly, is being overly influenced by companies that have something to gain, testing companies and text book companies. And it's becoming a set of standards not on what a kid has to learn but instead on how a teacher has to teach and how a student should learn. And that kind of standardization is always going to drive achievement down, not up."
Other| Read My Position
"Carly Fiorina has neither rejected nor supported a balanced budget amendment, but has proposed a zero-based budget. Saying that, 'we need to go to zero-based budgeting so we know where every dollar is being spent, we can challenge any dollar, cut any dollar, move any dollar.'"
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Argues that even if climate change is real and man-made, regulations in a single nation will make no difference. Fiorina supports reducing government regulation to encourage innovation that might help the environment.
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Candidate's Facebook Page, 2015
Carly Fiorina supports a simpler and more transparent tax code, but has not voiced support for a flat income tax
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Candidate's Facebook Page, 2015
Supports defunding Planned Parenthood
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"I believe in states' rights. I would not as president of the United States enforce federal law in Colorado where Colorado voters have said they want to legalize marijuana."
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"One, I would call a Camp David summit with our Arab allies. Not to talk them into a bad deal with Iran, as President Obama did, but to ask them what they need from us to win this fight against ISIS. I start there because I know all of our Arab allies and their leaders, and I know, for example, that King Abdullah of Jordan, who is fighting as we speak, has asked us for bombs and materiel we haven't provided them. The Kurds have been asking us to arm them for three years, we haven't done so. The Egyptians have been asking us to share intelligence. They also are fighting ISIS as we speak. And so we need to equip our Arab allies to win this fight with support and leadership and resolve. And I would do so."
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Generally supports fewer regulations on fossil fuel industries and said, "If you think that the environment is more important than people's livelihood travel some day to some of these communities in Kentucky or West Virginia and look at what 40% unemployment looks like."
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In a video on her website, Fiorina voices support for less bureacratic involvement in veterans' health care. She said, "We have to fundamentally overhaul the VA. ... I would start with a blueprint of where we need to take that agency, which is maybe to do away with it in some cases, or change its mission, by asking veterans, 'how do you want to be served?'"
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"If Washington is serious about encouraging job growth and innovation, politicians will stop talking about adding new, burdensome regulations, such as new health care mandates and higher energy costs. Instead, we should be focused on giving small-business owners and entrepreneurs the ability and the opportunity to grow and succeed by cutting taxes, reducing the burden of onerous business regulations and getting credit flowing again."
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Firoina identifies as pro-life
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"Like most Americans, Carly supports the death penalty for our nation's worst murderers."
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Generally supports increased transparency about NSA domestic surveillance and mass data collection and said "I would dial it back somewhat"
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"There are loads of good ideas on entitlement reform ... I'm not willing to go to the American people and say, 'You know what, we're going to raise the retirement age' until I can go to the American people and say, 'I can promise you that we are spending your money wisely and well. I can promise you that the government is not inept. ... In other words, the government has to get its house in order before it goes to the American people and takes something away from them."
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"While our nation's health care system is in need of reform, the legislation passed today is an example of the 'cure' being worse than the disease. It is a patchwork of Washington insider deals, and it will cost California taxpayers millions, if not billions, of dollars we cannot afford."
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"Dodd Frank needs to be repealed"
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"Principles are most important when they are most difficult to uphold. I have been an advocate of civil unions because of benefits. That is very different than the Supreme Court telling us what marriage is. Marriage is an institution grounded in spirituality between a man and woman that can bring forth life."
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Supports the right of employers to deny insurance coverage for contraception on the grounds of religious freedom
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"I would return the free market to the student loan industry. Secondly, I would enable as much choice and competition in higher education as possible. The Obama administration, for example, has been trying to drive for-profit universities out of business. Why? For-profit universities do a very good job of educating a lot of people at a lower cost. Technology now makes a college education so much more affordable. ... So the government needs to play a far less heavy-handed role here, both in terms of financing a college education and in terms of defining what constitutes an acceptable college education."
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Fiorina has not yet issued an opinion on the content of the TPP. She said, "I would like to know what's in the TPP. That's a pretty basic question. What's in it? What did we negotiate? This deal, negotiated in secret over 18 months, is 30 chapters long. It is thousands of pages, like they always are. The people who look at it can't talk about it. Let's just say what's in it. I think that would reassure me. I think it would reassure lots of people. I don't like agreeing to secret deals, particularly when the people who negotiated them haven't negotiated very well on America's behalf, which is clearly the track record of this administration."
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"I believe that we have lost a year to President Obama's failed engagement policy. The time has come for us to impose crippling sanctions unilaterally if necessary. We should be cutting off all access for Iran's leaders and for the Iran Revolutionary guard core to financial institutions to credit, to travel. We should be limiting Iran's imports for fined petroleum. And we should also stand very firmly with the brave men and women in Iran who are challenging the repressive Government and take advantage of the fact that there is a historic split in the theocracy in Iran--the first time in 25 years that that's happened. "
