Posted on 09/22/2015 5:47:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
To invoke a baseball metaphor, Carly Fiorina has been called up from the minors to the major leagues. After her widely praised debate performance last week, she can expect "fastballs" to be thrown at her head, not only by some of her Republican opponents, but by Democrats. It has already started.
The first pitch at Fiorina is the number of jobs lost during her tenure as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. While some say she is technically correct that the company's income grew while she ran it, thousands of people lost their jobs, as did many others during the 1990s economic downturn in the technology industry. There is a good answer for this beyond the technical one she has been giving and it can be grafted into an argument about the need to reduce the size and cost of the federal government.
Just as trees need to be pruned to remain healthy and grow, so too must companies occasionally "prune" employees in order to grow, pay dividends to stockholders and eventually hire more people, including, on occasion, some who were previously laid-off.
Fiorina can help advance her candidacy by shifting the debate from lowering taxes to pruning spending. This year, the federal government is projected to take in a record $3.18 trillion, according to the Office of Management and Budget. And yet, for 45 of the last 50 years, the government has overspent and had to borrow money to meet its spending addiction. Less spending reduces the "need" for more taxes.
I asked Fiorina about this in an email. She replied: "Washington doesn't know where all our tax dollars are going ... because they never examine any budget from top to bottom -- and haven't for decades. What we know is that every year, every government agency spends every dime they are entitled to -- whether they need to or not -- because they want to make sure the appropriations process is focused on the rate of increase for the following year."
The result, she says, is "our government (is) so big, so bloated, and so corrupt that it no longer serves the people it was designed to serve."
She would move to a zero-based budgeting standard to force every government agency to justify what it spends. She should consider going a step further and force every agency not only to justify its budget, but its very existence. As Ronald Reagan quipped, "The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."
Fiorina might promise, if elected, to call in a group of outside auditors who have no ties to anyone doing business with the federal government and conduct a top-to-bottom audit that would expose waste, fraud, abuse and unnecessary spending. Their findings would be presented to Congress. A President Fiorina and the public would then pressure Congress to accept its recommendations.
Here's something else Fiorina might do that Republicans in general are not known for: grab the compassion issue from Democrats and make it her own. Promise to mobilize the thousands of churches in America and lead them in what they should be doing anyway -- helping the poor become less so. Two members of my church have decided to leave the comfortable confines of a Sunday school class and spend time at an inner-city mission in Washington, helping poor and homeless people acquire life skills that can lead to a job, independence and a sense of dignity. I have had similar experiences helping the less fortunate escape difficult circumstances and it pays better dividends than anything politics can offer.
Real compassion is helping people out of poverty, not sending them a government check, which mostly sustains them in poverty. Fiorina should also begin featuring in her speeches and on platforms people who have overcome difficult circumstances as an inspiration to others.
Historically, women seem to model compassion better than men. Fiorina should take advantage of this characteristic.
Call it hardball with a soft cover.
Or call it astroturf.
Carly Fiorina is just the GOPe’s latest Great White Hope.
A non-outside outsider.
Fun to watch.
HP is still reeling from Carly’s tenure there having laid of 30,000 just last week.
No surprise with Jeb fading the GOP Establishment is desperate for a horse to back.
Her support is shallow
She has to many things to explain even though the MSM is pushing her but the will settle on Rubio way before her as their candidate.
The Cheap Labor Express is desperate to bamboozle us into voting for one of their amnesty candidates.
Fiorina is one of them.
HP is still reeling from Carly’s tenure there having laid of 30,000 just last week
Yes, and Obama’s America is still reeling from G.W. Bush’s tenure...right?
Don’t the apologists tell us that all the time...?
The more I look at the face the more I am convinced that Donald was right one more time. Now I am talking about her stage presence and demeanor here...of course I am.
Freegards
LEX
My Lord wouldn’t allow me to call it what it is... Don’t use that kind language anymore
She has to many things to explain even though the MSM is pushing her but the will settle on Rubio way before her as their candidate.
the eventual GOP nominee will not come from outside the political realm...and in ll likelihood will be Jeb Bush...
history is bound to repeat itself...whether people like it or not...
Maggie just found information on the lack of registering her foundatii. And xomoany with state and federal authorities. An audit of those two may be in order.
So they are advocating Carly repeating the sham AlGore government transformation from the 90s?
The GOP will go the way of the Whigs if they nominate a cheap labor importer.
“she can expect “fastballs” to be thrown at her”.....
She sure as hell didn’t get any fastballs thrown at her during the last debate, in fact, she got mostly little league “T” ball questions and we all know there is nothing fast about those.
She’s now the media’s star and they will give her lots of great praise and coverage with their intent to drown out Trump.
Polls? Where are they now?
Agreed. Fiorinna looks more manly than Trump.
She’s going nowhere and has even talked her way out of a cabinet position with the Trumpster.
She’s a good pruner, eh?
Can she pick berries?
Farmers in California need all the help they can get.
While I’m certainly no defender of Carly one cannot use this argument and also complain when one complains (and rightfully so) when Obambi blames Bush. 10 years have passed since she left that company (during the dot com bust) but either way the present CEO owns the recent layoffs or any issues since she left. When he new CEO (as with Obama) steps to the helm it’s time to put your big boy britches on, lead and solve problems. You don’t get to blame the ills of the world on a predecessor. That’s an excuse.
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