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Carly Fiorina: What does she stand for?

  • Economy

    Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation, addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, DC on February 26, 2015. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

    Fiorina has argued that the current tax system should be simpler and more transparent. She's also called for a zero-based budgeting system, rather than starting federal budget negotiations at budget levels from the previous year.

    She's pitched taking the 70,000 page tax code and make it three pages, as well as lowering overall tax rates and closing every tax loophole. "Maybe there's one or two loopholes that really help the middle class, but most of these deductions and loopholes and complexities actually benefit the wealthy, the powerful, the well connected," she said on Fox last month.

    In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year, she argued against increasing the gas tax, making the case that low gas prices are spurring economic growth.

    Democrats have slammed Fiorina for her record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, pointing out that she negotiated a merger with Compaq that resulted in 30,000 HP employees losing their jobs. She has defended her record, arguing on CNN earlier this month that she led HP "through the worst technology recession in 25 years, and yes, in order to save a company, sadly, we had to cut some jobs... Meanwhile, some of our competitors literally went out of business and all the jobs were lost."