Cassidy focuses on job growth

Freshman U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy took aim at jobs during a town hall meeting at the Delta Grand Theatre in Opelousas Thursday.
From allowing the export of U.S. oil to building roads, Cassidy’s one-hour presentation was peppered with talk about growing jobs.
“Right now in this economy the people that are having the hardest time are working families,” he said. “The folks that have worked on oil rigs, gas construction industry, building pipelines, building chemical plants, those folks working in manufacturing, they have been having the hardest time in this recovery. In fact, some people say if this is a recovery, what does a recession feel like? Because the jobs just have not come back.”
Cassidy said he has been working on revising rules to speed the construction of liquefied natural gas export plants.
“Every time we start selling more gas across the world it is more likely that gas in Louisiana is going to be sold,” he said. Natural gas sales add up to jobs in the state, he said.
“I would like our country to begin selling oil overseas,” he said.
Cassidy said a barrel of U.S. oil can be sold profitably for about $10 less than Saudi Arabian oil.
“There is a lot of resistance because everybody remembers the ‘70s when we thought we were running out of oil,” he said. “We are not running out of oil now. There is more oil than we ever thought existed.”
U.S. oil could be exported to refineries in the Caribbean where it would be refined to gasoline and sent back to the U.S., he said.
“If we export oil it is estimated our gasoline would go down by 10 cents a gallons. Now that’s a deal,” he said.
Cassidy on other issues
— The Senate passed a multi-year transportation bill that should allow more road work by states, he said. The bill has to pass the House, he said.
— Cassidy and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., are working on the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 to focus federal money on mental health issues.
Citing the recent movie theater shooting in Lafayette, Cassidy said mental illness affects everyone.
“Sheriffs tell us they are the largest mental health providers in the parish,” he said. People who are not criminals, but because of untreated mental health issues are locked up.
“So, taxpayers are paying for people who, if they were on their medicine, would be working and paying taxes,” he said.
Cassidy is a medical doctor who worked for about 30 years in the state’s charity hospital system.
Cassidy, who said he once directed the state’s prison health clinics, said it costs about $50,000 a year to keep someone in prison.
“Now that is a zero sum game,” he said “If we are spending money on someone in Angola we are not building a road. We are not doing something good for a child in elementary school. We are not providing some worthwhile essential service.”
— The U.S. spends about a trillion dollars on Alzheimer’s disease, but only $600 million on research in 10 years. Cassidy federal research funding should be focused on Alzheimer’s disease.
— Cassidy opposes a nuclear proliferation agreement with Iran because removing sanctions in place now would give the Iranian government money to develop missiles.
— Cassidy urged caution in committing U.S. troops overseas.
“I don’t want my son or daughter over there. I’m afraid the president is making obligations in which our young people are going to be committed,” he said.
— In response to a question, Cassidy said he did not campaign to eliminate entitlements. “I campaigned on making them work better.”
— Social Security and Medicare trust funds are going to be bankrupt in about 17 years, he said. The fix is to prolong eligibility by one month beginning at age 40, then two months for age 39 and so on, he said.