NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd criticized Carly Fiorina for not releasing a written tax plan, but Fiorina shot back suggesting that on her website “you can ask a question and you will see me answering the question in public, verbally.”
Todd on Sunday asked why Fiorina hadn’t released a “detailed tax plan” and Fiorina responded, “Well, let me disagree with the premise of your question. How often do politicians put out detailed plans? How often do they get enacted? Never.”
“That’s the problem,” Fiorina explained. “Politicians put out detailed plans for all kinds of things, it never happens. But if you go to the carlyforpresident.com web site, you can ask a question and you will see me answering the question in public, verbally. In other words, I am being held accountable. A plan — anybody can write a plan. Anybody can put a plan on a web site.”
“It’s another thing to say, ‘You know what I think we need do’ and say it over and over again in public and be held accountable for this,” suggested Fiorina. “You know what i think we need go from a 73,000 page tax code, which is what we have today with 4,000 changes since 2001, we need to get it down to about three. And what that means is we need to close every loophole and lower every rate.”
Todd shot back, “How do we trust you?” Fiorina responded, “Well that’s what I’m going to do.”
Fiorina wondered, “So in other words ‘words’ on a piece of paper are more accountable than words said to people looking them in the eye?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s what voters think because I think voters have gotten smart enough to know that plans and papers, 50-point plans 10-point plans, 5-point plans are win by a bunch of advisors and consultants,” insisted Fiorina. “So I’m perfectly prepared to be held accountable for my words and my plans and I would encourage your viewers to go on the web site and ask any question they want.”
Todd pressed, “So we shouldn’t expect a tax plan out of you any time soon on paper?”
Fiorina doubled down: “I’ve given you a tax plan. I’ve given you a tax plan. It needs to be three pages and the only way to get there is to lower every rate and close every loophole.”