Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina Friday called for conservatives to return resources and decision-making to local communities across the country "because it works better."
"The reason we believe and decentralized decision-making and localize problem-solving is because it works better," the former Hewlett-Packard CEO told the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor near Washington. "We learn it in life. You do not need to be political.
"We lost a daughter to addiction. I know there are so many programs, so many programs that work to treat the epidemic of addiction.
"They do not start in Washington, D.C.," Fiorina continued. "They are starting in communities — and they need the resources and empowerment to make those programs work."
Besides Fiorina, President Donald Trump also spoke at CPAC on Friday. The gathering began on Wednesday and ends Saturday.
Political commentator Michael Reagan was scheduled to keynote the Ronald Reagan Dinner Friday night.
He is the former president's eldest son.
"People can solve the problems that impact them," Fiorina reiterated in a session with Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute. "Let's give them a helping hand, the resources to solve the problems."
She also warned against having power remain with a few in America, including the federal government.
"You concentrate power, you abuse power," Fiorina said. "Bureaucracy concentrates power — and they abuse the power.
"Our Fathers wrote the Constitution in large measure to prevent the concentration of power.
"We have to be the people that stand for the value of every life, the superiority of problems solved locally in communities and families and states — and we have to be the people who stand up and say: 'Do not concentrate power. Release power.'
"Power concentrated is power abused."
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