NMX: Carly Fiorina: Four More Years of Obama Will Devastate Small Businesses

Four more years of the Obama administration will be devastating for small businesses, the engine of growth in the United States economy, swamping them with more taxes and burdensome regulations, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

Fiorina, chairwoman of the Romney Campaign in California and Vice Chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, spoke to Newsmax at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. She said that most people are “very concerned” about a second Obama administration, especially small business owners.

Watch the exclusive interview here.



“More small businesses are failing and fewer are starting than in any time in the last forty years,” she said. “If you ask why, people will say, ‘I cannot get through the 27,000-page tax code, the regulatory thicket is impenetrable, I do not know what government is going to ask me to do next.’ In other words, it is just too hard for small business owners. I think we are hearing that at the convention, small business owner after small business owner are standing up and saying ‘I can’t do this anymore.’
“Unless the Obama administration was to change direction dramatically and frankly, I see no evidence of that, in fact I see evidence of him doubling down on the same failed policies. I think the engine of growth in this economy, small businesses and manufacturing, will be stomped on even harder.”

She said that GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney has made his plans clear. She said he will cut discretionary spending by five percent, reform the tax code, and repeal Obamacare.


“Why is that important? Because what he is doing is giving a signal of his intentions and that gives small business owners certainty and predictability” she said. ‘Okay, I understand under President Romney, my taxes will go down and not up. I understand that under President Romney I will not have to figure out how to deal with Obamacare. I understand that under President Romney that the tax code will get simpler, that the regulatory thicket will get less thick.’

“Those are really important signals and that of course he needs to follow through, and I think it is pretty clear from Paul Ryan’s speech last night that they are going to follow through.”

She said it is essential to tell small, medium, and large businesses that the country celebrates their success and wants to make it easier for them to operate and grow.

On other subjects, Fiorina said:

• The GOP has opportunities to pick up Senate seats in Virginia, Montana, North Dakota, Hawaii, Nevada, and New Mexico.
• Condoleezza Rice “is a good friend of mine . . . She is such a magnificent leader. “
• California Gov. Jerry Brown’s talk about raising taxes to stem the state’s financial crisis is a bad idea. “In every state where there has been a reform minded Republican governor, from New Jersey to Nevada to New Mexico, every place that has happened; guess what? Taxes have gone down, deficits have been reduced, budgets have been balanced, and unemployment has gone down,” she said. “In those states where Democratic governors the opposite, Illinois gets its credit rating reduced, its budget deficits continue to skyrocket. California is in terrible shape, we have a state government in California that is reduced to worrying about the stock price of Facebook in order to close their budget deficit. Of course it is the wrong thing to do, to raise taxes."