State of the Union: Interview with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)

Interview

"Kasie, thank you for having me.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Well, a couple of things about that.

I'm aware that my state has lost land about the size of Delaware, so we're no stranger to this issue. You got to have a rational response. What people sometimes forget is that emissions from the United States are now lower than they were in 2005, lower, despite a bigger economy of many more people, et cetera.

Why? Because natural gas has replaced coal. The drivers of international increased CO2 emissions, Asia, but principally China.

Now, if we're going to have a rational solution, then we need to address China's emissions. I'm about to introduce legislation for a foreign pollution fee. If China does not want to enforce international norms for the environment, then -- and they want to import a good to us, a good that we would not produce here because of the associated air pollution, we will put a little bit of a fee, a little bit of a fee, if you will, to pay back to the United States for the harm that China is doing.

So, one, I want to continue to promote things like natural gas to replace coal worldwide, and, secondly, try to specifically address China's particular role in driving increased air pollution.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

No, not if you -- Kasie, if I may, we already have tariffs on those Chinese goods.

And so what this would do, it would replace the tariffs that we have now with a tariff related to the pollution that they are not paying to reduce. By the way, I will point out, we are already paying for that pollution. About 25 percent of certain classes of pollutants in the Western United States come from China.

It blows over the Pacific. We're paying now. And let's just make the Chinese pay, instead of us.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I would absolutely support more money for FEMA, absolutely.

Americans help fellow Americans. And we in Louisiana are so indebted to those fellow Americans. But everybody, if you have not yet been hit by a disaster, sooner or later, one will hit you. So, we're committed to helping Hawaiians. I think the Cajun Navy is there right now as a direct group from Louisiana.

As regards a government shutdown, it's always talked about. It rarely impacts the lives of individual Americans. Most likely, there will be a continuing resolution. But I do think that there will be eventually funding of the government.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

ell, I'm not an attorney.

There's 91 charges, I think. I think the charge that seems most likely -- I mean, seems almost a slam dunk, is the one related to mishandling of classified documents. So -- so, I can't comment on the rest of them, because, apparently, you have to prove state of mind. You will have attorneys after me that can comment on that.

But there's at least one, which is the mishandling of the federal documents, which is -- seems, again, a very strong case. They have a tape recording of him speaking of it. If that is proven, then we may have a candidate for president who has been convicted of a crime.

I think Joe Biden needs to be replaced, but I don't think Americans will vote for someone who's been convicted. So, I'm just very sorry about how all this is playing out.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I think so. But, obviously, that's up to him. I mean, you're just asking me my opinion.

But he will lose to Joe Biden, if you look at the current polls. I'm a Republican. I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden.

And so I want one of them to win. If former President Trump ends up getting the nomination, but cannot win a general, that means we will have four more years of policies which have led to very high inflation, to a loss of purchasing power for the average American equivalent to $10,000, and to many other things which I think have been deleterious to our country's future.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I'm going to vote for a Republican.

But my threshold issue for any person who wants to be the leader of our country is, will you take care of the issues before us? Both Biden and Trump both have the same policy in Social Security, for example, which is to do nothing. Unfortunately, Social Security is going insolvent in eight to nine years, which means that somebody watching this who's getting Social Security is going to get a 24 percent cut.

Both former President Trump, President Biden, are basically -- basically saying, you're going to get a 24 percent cut because I'm not going to do anything. Now, my threshold issue, if you want to be a leader of our country, is to lead. And, right now, we need someone who will lead on that issue.

BRAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Well, at least some of them are talking about it.

Frankly, I have a different approach than they. But at least they're talking about it. The first thing is to acknowledge that there is an issue. Now, the reason I hesitate on that is that the program I put forward, and, again, had seven Republicans and seven Democratic senators supporting, was to create a fund, separate from Social Security, no Social Security dollars, to invest in the U.S. economy and allow it to grow over time.

You do that, you can take care of 70 percent of the shortfall, and you can make sure that there's no cuts for people currently receiving Social. We also put in work incentives. We repealed WEP and GPO. And we also put in poverty-alleviation provisions.

President Biden could have endorsed it. Instead, he's decided to be political and make this an issue. It should be an issue, but it should be an issue of fixing it. And, so far, he's not come up with a credible plan.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Oh, I think the debate matters.

Governor Asa Hutchinson, who's a great guy, just pointed out that some legal scholars think that he will be disqualified based on the 14th Amendment -- I'm not sure that's true, but I'm not an attorney -- which means that the people you see on that stage, one of them, quite likely will be the presidential nominee.

And I think any of them will be better than Joe Biden. So, if you're concerned about the future of our country, watch that debate, find your candidate, support that candidate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Thank you, Kasie.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT"

Source