Carly Fiorina: Jeb Bush ‘dead wrong’ on Common Core, immigration

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO and potential Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Tuesday blasted her likely contender, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, as a “big government Republican” who is “dead wrong” on issues like immigration reform and Common Core.

“Jeb Bush is dead wrong on a couple issues,” Ms. Fiorina said Tuesday morning on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, The Daily Caller reported. “He’s dead wrong on comprehensive immigration reform. He’s dead wrong on Common Core. He’s dead wrong about government being too powerful. I think government is too powerful. I’m not sure he believes that.”

“There’s no question that there are big government Republicans and there are big government Democrats,” she continued. “Jeb Bush’s record suggests that he is a big government Republican. I don’t tend to agree with Common Core — you and I have had this discussion before — his answer on Common Core is that, ’Well it’s not intended to be a heavy-handed bureaucratic program. It’s intended to be a set of nationwide standards.’ Bureaucracies only know one way: It’s called heavy-handed. So if you get a federal bureaucracy, or in some cases even a state bureaucracy, involved in anything, it will become heavy-handed. That’s how we’ve gotten bigger and bigger government under both Republicans and Democrats.”

“An establishment decision continues to feed the political class — that’s the story of the establishment. That’s the story of the political class. It’s a system of people who have worked within the system forever, and they’ve all been advantaged by the system,” Ms. Fiorina said. “Ours is intended to be a citizen government and citizens are not in the system, they’re in the grassroots, which is why winning this election is going to take both leadership and citizenship — real citizenship. Grassroots, bottom up.”