Carly Fiorina: Big Government Is Crushing Americans

Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina told a packed audience that a huge, complex and sometimes corrupt government was "crushing the potential" of Americans.

"That is not hyperbole," she said. "That is fact."

When democracy becomes so big and powerful, and so costly and complex, Fiorina said, only the big, powerful, wealthy and well-connected can handle it.

"The small and the powerless get crushed," she said.

At the Delaware GOP convention in Wilmington on Saturday morning, Fiorina came out strong against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, questioning why the former U.S. secretary of state has answered so few on-the-record questions.

Fiorina said Washington needs more leaders, not managers. Managers are happy to go along and exist within the status quo while leaders take risks, she said.

The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina said she has the expertise as a leader to be president. The country is at a pivotal point in its history where strong leadership is needed, she said.

While on the campaign trail, Fiorina said she's often asked why she's so critical of Clinton.

"It has nothing to do with the fact that either one of us are women. It has to do with this fact: 82 percent of the American people now believe that we have a professional political class that is more focused on preserving its power and privilege than it is on doing the people's work," she said.

"Bill and Hillary Clinton are the personification of the professional political class," she said.

More