Fiorina blasts Clinton’s, Sanders’ higher education plans

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said fellow presidential candidates Hillary Clinton’s and Bernie Sanders’ plans for higher education is “how socialism begins” while at The Des Moines Register Political Soapbox on Monday.

“Government has, in no small measure, created our current problem” with student debt, Fiorina said, adding that the government “nationalized” the student loan industry.

“It used to be a competitive industry; it isn’t anymore,” she said. “The federal government basically owns that industry and they decide what interest rates should be, so they say it should be 4.5 to 6 percent. Meanwhile the government is paying between 1.5 and 3 percent interest on their own debt. Kind of sounds like a racket for me.”

Fiorina spent nearly all of her 20 minutes taking questions from the audience.

Answering a wide variety of questions, Fiorina called for a stronger U.S. military and a tough foreign policy that stands with Israel and America’s Arab allies. She also talked about the minimum wage, saying the issue should be a state decision.

“It makes no sense to say that the minimum wage in New York City is the same as the minimum wage in Mason City, Iowa,” said Fiorina, who has been rising in some polls nationally as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

She added that minimum wage jobs are often the first employment for many people, including young people, who she urged to not worry about getting “the perfect job,” but to “get a job, any job.”

“We have to remember that a lot of minimum wage jobs are jobs where people start, and in those jobs they learn the skills to move forward,” she said. “So we need to be honest about the consequences of raising the minimum wage too high. One of the consequences is that young people who are trapped in poor neighborhoods will have less opportunity to learn skills and move forward.”

In between Fiorina’s other stops at the fair, Anne Weinel, 18, told Fiorina she would be her first choice for president.

“I said I would be honored to use my first vote to vote for her,” said Weinel, who drove three hours from Lakeville, Minn., to meet Fiorina. “If you listen to her, you’ll realize she is smart, well-spoken, and I really believe she can turn this country around.”

AT THE EVENT

Quote: “I am pro-life. And I believe science is proving us right every day. But you do not have to be pro-life to understand the hideous nature of what is going on here. This is about the moral character of our nation. When you can have employees who target poor communities, who are pushing women into later term abortions so they can more successfully harvest body parts even though late term abortions are demonstratively bad for women — you can only be horrified when you see employees picking over a petri dish for body parts while they say ‘look its a baby.’ There is no excuse, Planned Parenthood must be defunded.”

Crowd: The crowd was 25 rows deep out onto the Grand Concourse and wrapped around the stage.

Other stops at the fair: Fiorina spent about two hours at the fair, walking up and down Grand Avenue. She shucked corn, grilled pork burgers and viewed the butter cow.

Up next: Fiorina wrapped up a recent tour of the state with a planned appearance at the Boots & BBQ Bash in Kimballton.

Fiorina touts technology as a method for change

After her soapbox speech, Fiorina talked about her desire to move the federal government to zero-based budgeting, to repeal Obamacare and to use technology to take the temperature of the people on a variety of issues.

“One of the things that technology can do is to allow us to reconnect citizens to the process of government,” Fiorina said. “The only way the professional politicians in Washington, D.C., are actually going to move ... is they must feel pressure from the citizenship.”

So, she said, she will go into the Oval Office and ask citizens to vote via smartphone on issues they care about. “People would vote and Congress would feel pressure,” she said.

Fiorina also said she might go back on her earlier promise to not eat food on a stick.

“I’m going to go over to the corn stand, and I am going to try sweet Iowa corn,” she said, “and then I am going to the Farm Bureau so then I might eat something on a stick.”

(She did not eat anything on a stick.)