Carly Fiorina answers questions about President's policies

During a meet and greet session at Bridgehouse Coffee in Newton on Saturday, Republican candidate Carly Fiorina didn’t hold back about her views on President Barack Obama’s policies regarding immigration and health care.

Fiorina began speaking at 8:45 a.m. and jumped into a Q&A session. The first question was regarding Obamacare, which she said has resulted in a very complicated set of laws and regulations.
Fiorina then offered three solutions to fix the health care system — repeal Obamacare, give power back to states and have a free market.

“Let us try the one thing we’ve never tried — a free market. We know that competition works. When you buy life insurance, you have a lot of choices and they have to compete for your business. When you buy house insurance, you have a lot of choices and they have to compete for your business,” Fiorina said. “We need to break the relationship between insurance companies and regulators.”

Fiorina was also asked to give her take on Obama’s immigration plan, which she said “was awful.”

“I would repeal and reverse all of the executive orders he has rolled out there,” she said. “When is enough enough? The reason I am running for president is because I have had enough of a professional political class that talks a good game and gives a lot of speeches and doesn’t get anything done.

“One thing we’re going to have to talk about, and I will talk about it, is how the Democratic Party uses Hispanics just like they are using African Americans,” Fiorina said. “They’re not helping them, they are using them.”

Fiorina is the only female Republican running for president, and she joked with the visitors at Bridgehouse Coffee about the country wanting to see a presidential debate between her and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Fiorina also responded to a question regarding whether a Republican will ever serve office again.
"It's not just a fight against 'Rs' versus 'Ds' or Hillary versus Carly. I truly believe the fight we're going to have in order to lead this nation in the right direction again is a fight between our principles. No one of us are any better than any of us," she said. "Everyone of us has an opportunity."

Newton was the candidate’s first stop of the day, and the meet and greet lasted about an hour. On Monday, Fiorina will deliver a foreign policy speech focusing on national security in California. The Jasper County Republicans will be holding a regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Fore Seasons Golf Course in Newton.

Contact Alex Olp at aolp@newtondailynews.com