Fiorina: Abolish Wall Street reform law

Likely GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina wants to abolish the sweeping Wall Street reform law.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO told The Hill that if she were elected president, she’d nix the 2010 Dodd-Frank legislation entirely and begin anew.

{mosads}“We should get rid of Dodd-Frank and start again,” Fiorina told The Hill.

Fiorina argues the law will do little to prevent another financial crisis and has instead introduced regulations that are holding back the economy.

“Let’s start by making sure that the 26 regulatory agencies that were supposed to be overseeing the financial system, that were supposed to be predicting the financial crisis — 26 of them all missed it. We haven’t even started to look at that problem,” she said.

“We still have 26 agencies out there, all of whom say they’re supposed to be regulating the financial system and none of which did their jobs.”

As the only GOP woman expected to run for the White House, Fiorina has been dubbed the “anti-Hillary” Clinton.

But as a former top executive for a major global corporation who wants to undo the Wall Street reform law, the better contrast might be to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the financial sector’s most fierce critic in Washington.

Fiorina has even invited the comparisons.

In her public speeches, she frequently praises Warren for fighting crony capitalism in Washington. But she criticizes the liberal firebrand for her policy prescription.

“She’s wrong because she thinks that more government is the answer to crony capitalism,” Fiorina said. “Bigger government creates more crony capitalism.”

Fiorina became the first woman to lead a Fortune 50 company in 1999 as head of Hewlett-Packard. 

But her six-year tenure was marred with controversy, ending in a bitter, public ousting in 2005. Critics say she laid off as many as 30,000 employees, and Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) reelection campaign made that a central issue when Fiorina unsuccessfully challenged her in 2010.

Fiorina has defended her business record and is now making it a central point as she tests the presidential waters. 

During her six-year tenure, she said HP moved from the 28th to the 11th most profitable company in the nation, and doubled its revenues to $90 billion.

She argues the GOP doesn’t need another career politician as its standard-bearer.

“We have plenty of those to choose from,” she said. “But I am not sure they have served either the Republican Party or the country well.

“People want a practical approach that sounds like normal people talking and I think they want empathy and problem solving,” she continued. “An empathetic tone is important. I think people are tired of the vitriol in politics. They’re tired of the name calling. They’re tired of the judgment. They’re tired of the lack of tolerance.”

Fiorina is seen as a long-shot for the GOP nomination, leading many to wonder if her real goal is to be vice president. The GOP could be under pressure to have a woman on the ticket if Clinton is the Democratic nominee.

So far, Fiorina has garnered positive reviews on the trail from GOP observers, but she also has a knack for getting attention.

She supported Indiana’s religious freedom law and grabbed headlines earlier this month for telling The Wall Street Journal that Apple CEO Tim Cook was hypocritical to oppose it.

“When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90 percent of the markets that he’s in, including China and Saudi Arabia,” she told the Journal. “But I don’t hear him being upset about that.”

On foreign policy, she criticized President Obama’s negotiations with Iran and advocated for increased sanctions against Tehran.

“I actually hope that the Senate would reimpose sanctions… We are rewarding bad behavior by continuing to talk to them,” she said. “I frankly was stunned that President Obama went into the Rose Garden to declare victory.

“I can remember sitting in [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Bibi Netanyahu’s office in a private meeting five years ago. There were no press. There was no election. And Bibi wanted to talk about Iran,” she said. “This is a very serious matter and unfortunately this administration has been so keen to announce a deal that they have been willing to cave on virtually every issue of significance.

Fiorina wouldn’t say whether she would be open to becoming a vice presidential pick, noting that she “hasn’t even announced” a formal campaign.

She also notes that other candidates aren’t getting that question.

“And when you start asking the male candidates — then I’ll answer,” Fiorina said.