Candidates for office often present detailed plans that offer a framework of their goals if they win. Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, when asked about the lack of an issues page and detailed tax plan on her campaign website, saw it differently.
“How often do these get enacted? Never,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“That’s the problem. Politicians put out detailed plans for all kinds of things that never happen.”
Instead, Fiorina offers an “Answers” page on her website, allowing visitors to submit questions on various issues, which she answers through her appearances on the campaign trail. She explained that her remarks to voters hold her more accountable than a written plan.
“Anybody can write a plan. Anybody can put a plan on a website,” she said.
She said later, “I think voters have gotten smart enough to know that plans and paper — 50-point plans, 10-point plans, five-point plans — are written by a bunch of advisors and consultants. So I’m perfectly prepared to be held accountable for my words and my plans.”
The reason candidates put out plans on their websites, she argued, is because they don’t want to tackle how complex the issues are.
“If something is so complicated, you can’t understand it, what do you suppose the chances are that you’re getting taken advantage of? They’re almost 100 percent,” she said. “So people don’t need a complicated plan. What they need is a clear, common-sense commitment to what needs to get done.” Nevertheless, during her 2010 Senate run in California, Fiorina’s campaign website included an issues page and several plans on various issues, including jobs, energy and immigration. She also told NBC’s Chuck Todd that her tax plan boils down to three points: “It needs to be three pages, and the only way to get there is to lower every rate and close every loophole.” This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com
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