By Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.

Given that 75 percent of Americans think current government is corrupt, perhaps a bold outsider is the right person at the right time. Carly Fiorina’s articulate, focused, and fearless performances in the Republican debates elevated her from an also-ran to a real contender. Although there are no voting records to peruse, her current positions are consistent with those during her 2010 run against incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). But whether Fiorina will make a good president is the relevant question.

Economy

Fiorina denounces crony capitalism, noting that big business and big government go hand in hand. She called the February 2009 stimulus package a “failure” and that the key to economic recovery is less government, taxation, and regulation. Fiorina supports creating additional tax breaks for small businesses and repealing the estate tax.

Foreign Policy

For a political outsider, Fiorina is credible and well versed on world affairs. She’s served on several relevant boards, including the External Advisory Board for the Central Intelligence Agency. With regard to the Palestinian/Israel conflict, she supports a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the undivided capital. Pursuant to our allies’ requests, to combat ISIL she would provide materiel to Jordan, intelligence to Egypt, and more weapons to the Kurds in northern Iraq. Fiorina would stop the Iran nuclear deal and verify actions before Iran sanctions are lifted.

Immigration

Although Fiorina approved of the DREAM Act, she cautioned that it was “putting the cart before the horse.” In her view, immigration reform should be passed in a series of bills with the number one priority of securing our porous border. She supports a pathway to legalization but not full citizenship since such immigrants have broken the law.

Education

Fiorina favors the standards set forth in No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top but with more local control. She believes these accountability and achievement goals are best met by policies that provide for vouchers, open enrollment, charter schools and career technical education.

Abortion

Fiorina supports a ban on abortions after 20 weeks gestation except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. During the second 2015 Republican debate Fiorina distinguished herself by passionately declaring that haggling over pricing of aborted body parts poorly reflected on the character of our nation.

Health Care

Since 2010 Fiorina has called for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which she called a collaboration between big government and the health insurance companies trying to protect their franchises. However in 2013, she agreed with two ACA provisions: the individual mandate and the ban on discrimination by insurers against people with pre-existing conditions. Fiorina’s recipe for reform consists of encouraging competition in the health insurance market, reforming medical malpractice, increasing accessibility to community clinics, and increasing federal aid to states to administer high-risk pools to help the needy.

Hewlett Packard—Competence as a Chief Executive

Fiorina began her career as a receptionist at a small business and climbed up the corporate ladder to become the first woman CEO of a Fortune 20 company. Her success at increasing the market share of Lucent, AT&T’s networking equipment spinoff was marred by claims of questionable financial practices. Nonetheless, she was aggressively courted by the struggling Hewlett Packard to spur innovation and shake things up.

The tech bubble burst shortly after Fiorina joined HP. She streamlined operations, had a “shape up or ship out” mandate, and laid off some 30,000 American workers. To get more of the personal computer market share and better compete with IBM she spearheaded the $25 billion acquisition of Compaq in May 2002 – a move that was bitterly opposed by the founders’ sons. Revenues increased mainly due to the merger. On the positive side, HP increased its patents from 10,000 to 30,000, and Fiorina helped make HP a leader in charitable giving.

But during Fiorina’s five years as CEO her management style was criticized, the stock fell 49 percent, and ultimately the board of directors forced her to resign. But former director Tom Perkins notes that HP’s “ineffective and dysfunctional” board made life hard for its CEOs. Indeed, HP has had five CEOs since Fiorina’s 2005 departure.

Many technology CEOs now believe the Compaq merger and Fiorina’s “bold move” has been vindicated as it achieved her promise to created a worldwide technology powerhouse with top revenue positions in servers, PC and printers. Former Intel chairman Craig Barrett opined that the HP/Compaq merger was “an unqualified success.”

Fiorina defends her troubled HP tenure by asserting tough times call for tough calls for the overall health of the enterprise. Our country is ailing on many fronts. It will take more time and exposure to determine whether Fiorina’s corporate experience and views will sufficiently resonate with the electorate.

Dr. Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD is a board-certified anesthesiologist and member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

Dr. Marilyn Singleton ran for Congress in California’s 13th District in 2012, fighting to give its 700,000 citizens the right to control their own lives.

Despite being told, “they don’t take Negroes at Stanford”, she graduated from Stanford and earned her MD at UCSF Medical School.

Dr. Marilyn Singleton then completed two years of surgery residency at UCSF, followed by an anesthesia residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital.

Dr. Marilyn Singleton was first an instructor, then Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland before she returned to private practice in California.

While still working in the operating room, Dr. Marilyn Singleton attended UC Berkeley Law School, focusing on constitutional law and administrative law. She also interned at the National Health Law Program and has practiced both insurance and health law.

Dr. Marilyn Singleton has taught specialized classes dealing with issues such as the recognition of elder abuse and constitutional law for non-lawyers. She also speaks out about her concerns with Obamacare, the apology law and death panels.

Dr. Marilyn Singleton has conducted make-shift medical clinics in two rural villages in El Salvador.

Congressional candidate Dr. Marilyn Singleton presented her views on challenging the political elite to physicians at the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons annual meeting in 2012. (Audio version of the speech to AAPS doctors by Dr. Marilyn Singleton.)

Follow Dr. Marilyn Singleton on Twitter @MSingletonMDJD

Change Is Not Always For The Better

by Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D.,

Recently, I took a respite from my concerns about the Affordable Care Act, which I left simmering in the crockpot while I was re-visiting the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Most people visit Cambodia for a brief trip to Siem Reap to experience the magnificent ancient temples at Angkor Wat, the symbol adorning its flag. Some visit the capital city, Phnom Penh, to experience mass graves and a torture camp, prison, and execution center. Cambodia has a haunting physical and emotional landscape and an intangible something about these inspirational people that lures many visitors back.

The prolific and feared Khmer Angkor Empire that extended over Southeast Asia was transformed by years of civil or border wars and French protectionism. But the mother of all change was imposed by a native Khmer, Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, in the name of creating an equal society.

Pol Pot led the communist Khmer Rouge who overthrew the sitting Khmer Republic and renamed the country “Democratic Kampuchea.” Within hours of victory in 1975, armed soldiers began herding the two million residents out of Phnom Penh. Pol Pot assured them they could return.

Instead, the Khmer Rouge razed Phnom Penh and other cities and towns. The residents were forced into the countryside to work collective farms up to 18 hours a day on meager rations. Villagers’ houses were burned to ensure they could not return.

Pol Pot destroyed anything that represented capitalism and prerevolutionary society, including hospitals, schools, Buddhist temples, and hotels. The goal was to return to “Year Zero” with a rice-based economy and a single agricultural class.

To that end, Pol Pot immediately murdered the educated and people who wore glasses or had a high forehead (signs of intellect). Others were imprisoned in tiny cells and tortured “to confess” to “pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes,” which usually included some kind of free-market activity. The reward for a “confession” was execution or life in a labor camp with “re-education.”

Ironically, in 1979 the Vietnamese freed the Cambodians from their twisted leader when they extended their border war. All told, Pol Pot killed 2 to 3 million – at least 25 percent of the population – through murder, starvation, or disease. Many of the dead were buried in some 20,000 mass graves, or “Killing Fields” all over the country where human remains still rise to the surface.

Despite the arrival of peace in 1993, Pol Pot’s legacy lives on. Fifty percent of the population is under age 25. Forty percent of people over age 40 have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With 95 percent of doctors and 80 percent of teachers murdered, the country is limping along to recovery with little infrastructure. Even knowing the government plays fast and loose with foreign aid, Cambodia draws more donor-based nongovernmental organizations than any other country.

Phnom Penh is growing, with new government buildings and hotels amidst the remains of once-elegant French colonial homes and burned-out buildings. Siem Reap has doubled its hotels in the last five years and boasts the best Mexican restaurant in Asia. (We preferred standard Khmer fare of rice, morning glories, and fish.)

Although medical care is free to the certifiably poor in sparsely equipped clinics, 85 percent of children are seen in five modern hospitals established by Dr. Beat Richner with private donations. His hospital in Siem Reap is flanked by 5-star hotels. People arrive on foot or 3 to a motorbike: a driver, a patient, and someone holding the IV bag. By 5 a.m., hundreds of people are queued up. Street vendors sell French bread and crepes or rice and noodles to those in line.

A written constitution, a three-branch government, and multi-party elections proved to be no guarantee of good government. Corruption, economic mismanagement, and lack of transparency have become part of the government fabric. Consequently, some Cambodians have just tuned out.

Fortunately, many people refuse to be miserable and are determined to overcome past and current abuses by their leaders. Some carry those little black and white composition books and are not shy about asking for help with their English so they can get good jobs. They have their own vision of a better life.

Pol Pot destroyed Cambodian society by promising social and economic equity. Expressing no regret, his last words were reportedly, “Everything I did, I did for my country.”

Dr. Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD is a board-certified anesthesiologist and member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

Dr. Marilyn Singleton ran for Congress in California’s 13th District in 2012, fighting to give its 700,000 citizens the right to control their own lives.

Congressional candidate Dr. Marilyn Singleton presented her views on challenging the political elite to physicians at the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons annual meeting in 2012.

Follow Dr. Marilyn Singleton on Twitter @MSingletonMDJD

More info about Dr. Marilyn Singleton

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Cambodia and the Affordable Care Act

Change Is Not Always For The Better