The U.S. government must tackle long-term structural changes in the tax system to promote stronger growth, Carly Fiorina told CNBC Friday.
The former head of Hewlett-Packard and the current vice chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said short-term stimulus fixes aren't enough.
The "most important thing that Washington can look at right now is real tax reform, and by real tax reform I mean lowering our corporate rates, which everyone agrees are not competitive; providing incentives to bring profits and cash back home; reducing the complexity dramatically, which is strangling small businesses, and finally closing the loopholes so we actually do raise revenue in the process," she said.
Do that, Fiorina said, and "the C suite would have greater confidence in the ability of our political system to tackle real long-term solutions, and it would have a tremendous positive impetus to the market."
That corporate confidence will lead to more hiring, she said.
Friday's U.S. jobs report was better-than-expected, Fiorina said, but "one good report does not a recovery make." Consumers are not buying right now because "the real job creation engine—small business—is not creating jobs. We have to lift this weight off small business."