Sen. Landrieu fights for a fourth term on December 6

1st December 2014   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
cash loans in savannah tn Contributing Writer

President Obama’s Executive Order to defer action, and effectively legalize the status of millions of illegal immigrants, brought a swift and opposing res­ponse from incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu.

“We’re all frustrated with our broken immigration system, but the way forward is not unilateral action by the president,” the three term Louisiana Senator said in an interview with The Louisiana Weekly. “Congress must act. I am against amnesty, which is why I voted for the bipartisan Senate bill that would prevent blanket amnesty and invest 10 times as much in the U.S. Border Patrol’s budget.”

Fighting with a President of her own party, of course, plays well in a state where Obama remains deeply unpopular with the Caucasian electorate. She needs 30 percent of the white vote to emerge victorious over Bill Cassidy on December 6, and consequently has had to engage in the difficult balancing act of moderate opposition to her party on issues like Keystone and immigration, along with support on subjects like the Affordable Care Act.

This centrist pathway has allowed Landrieu to win statewide three times, even in Republican years like 2002. However, despite her Pelican State-centric focus, Landrieu’s critics argue that she votes too liberally for her conservative constituents. The senior U.S. senator could not disagree more, and in fact, maintains that her “balancing act” of Left and Right makes her more focused on the needs of her constituents than bad company credit loan most other members of the Federal Upper House.

“I’m running to continue serving the people of Southeast Louisiana and the entire state, and to continue providing strong leadership on the issues that matter the most for Louisiana. It’s a leadership that works with both parties, that puts Louisiana first, and delivers for our state when it matters the most.

“What that means for Southeast Louisiana is leadership that has fought and delivered when Louisianans, as well as parishes and towns, needed help the most. My leadership in the Senate has helped me successfully deliver more then $800 million to Louisiana’s Historical Black Col­leges and Universities and canceled $200 million in loans from Katrina for those universities. In 2010, I secured over $1 billion to fund a court settlement compensating African-American farmers for racial discrimination claims again­st the United States Depart­ment of Agriculture (USDA). 75,000 Afri­can-Ameri­can farmers na­tion­wide, including 2,500 in Louisi­ana, had been discriminated against.”

Landrieu predicated her chan­ces in December on her work over the last two decades. “I have put together a winning team that is working to reach as many voters as we can. I have a record that I would put up against anyone for this region and for our state, and my team is communicating that. People in this region know that I fought and delivered to provide quality education from pre-k to college for our children. FEMA was forced to give us a $1.8 billion lump sum payday loan sumner payment because of legislation I authored and passed to build a school system of the future that will provide our children the skills they need to join the middle class.”

“Since Katrina and Rita, I’ve secured over $50 billion to help Louisiana rebuild and recover from the devastation. As Chair of the Homeland Security Appro­priations Committee, I was able to forgive nearly $400 million in disaster loans from those storms and ensure FEMA follows through on their obligations to Louisiana. And now as Chair of the Energy Committee, Louisiana has never been in a stronger place to accelerate the flow of oil royalties and secure additional funding to rebuild and restore our coast.”

As to her opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy, she said, “There are significant differences that distinguish me from my opponent, and the voters deserve to know that I will stand with them and fight with them in the Senate on education, on benefits for seniors, on support for women and middle-class families, and so much more. I have focused my career in the Senate on fighting for Louisiana and that is what I want to continue to do.

Additionally, the seniority that this state has earned is immeasurable. After 18 years in the Senate, Louisiana has risen to a place of prominence, receiving the chairmanship of the Senate Energy Committee. Why would we want to give that up to some other state? Finally, my leadership and first cash advance hourly wage my experience are at the forefront of development for Louisiana. My leadership has increased the numbers of African Americans sitting on the federal bench and in key law enforcement posts. Two of Louisiana’s three district attorneys are African Americans—Kenneth Polite in the Eastern District and Stephanie Finley in the Western District—and were recommended by me. I also recommended that President Barack Obama appoint Former Bastrop Mayor, Clarence Hawkins as Director of USDA. It’s a leadership that works with both parties, that puts Louisiana first, and delivers for our state when it matters the most.”

Landrieu’s support for the ACA, labeled Obamacare by critics, is another element of the balancing act. She has been a strong defender of the legislation, but not without her own concerns. “As I have said from the beginning, the Affordable Care Act is not perfect. No law is. That is why I am working to make it better. But we cannot go back to the days when a child with a pre-existing condition could be denied coverage and a woman was charged higher costs simply for being a woman. Already, 100,000 Louisianians have purchased coverage in the new market places that they can never lose.”

“Families often tell me how happy they are with their new coverage, but we can still to improve the law. That is why I authored and pushed to pass the Keeping the Affordable Care Act Promise Act that ensures if you want to keep small loans dothan al your old plan, you can. I stood up to the Obama Admin­istration to ensure they followed through on their promise. Even Republicans in Congress supported my bill and called it a ‘bigger and perhaps better step’ than their own.”

Specifically, Landrieu targeted Louisiana’s governor as the reason that the ACA has not reached its potential in the Pelican State, particularly amongst the working poor. “Louisiana is currently missing out an opportunity to cover 240,000 working individuals as Governor Jindal refuses to expand Medicaid. In the meantime, our tax dollars are being sent to other states that have taken advantage of the funding. That’s why even Republican governors in Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah have all supported Medicaid expansion. Even our neighbors in Arkansas are seeing costs being reduced, fewer applicants applying for disability, and declines in the uninsured rate. Why wouldn’t we want the same for Louisiana?”

Under questioning by this newspaper, Landrieu made a call for a stronger U.S. military presence to stop ISIS in Syria/Iraq stating, “I support the use of air strikes to defend the Kurds and sending arms to defeat ISIS. That being said, while I have an interest in a peaceful Middle East, America can’t police the world. Our allies in the region must step up and oppose violent extremists.”

With the sequester looming, when asked if the defense budget needs to be smaller, and what do loans pay day com you see as the U.S. role in the world, the incumbent U.S. senator answered rather vaguely, “We should invest the necessary resources to maintain and build a strong and agile military force to defend freedom both at home and across the globe.”

She was more blunt to a question if a carbon tax was an acceptable part of a tax reform proposal, as long as its revenue neutral – (i.e. it would be used to lower a corresponding tax, such as the corporate income tax) which is an idea that many in her party, and some Republicans had embraced. Her response was, “No, I do not.”

When asked what was the next step on reforming the Biggert-Waters Act, one of her legislative priorities, Landrieu replied, “While we successfully stopped the draconian rate increases in Big­gert-Waters and returned af­ford­­ability as a centerpiece of the National Flood Insurance Pro­gram, we still have work to do. We need to build a flood insurance program that we can live with, grow with, and prosper with. That’s why I secured $100 million as chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee for FEMA to update flawed and inaccurate flood maps.”

Offshore drilling has been slow to recover since the moratorium. When asked what needs to be done now to get drilling restarted in the Gulf, she responded, “I was proud to help end the deepwater oil moratorium 2010. When the moratorium began, there were only 12 deep water payday loans sacramento open sunday rigs in the Gulf. Today, there are almost 60. We need to streamline the permitting process and continue to open more areas in the Gulf for energy production.”

As to whether the metro needs a storm barrier at the Chef pass and the Rigolets to stop storm surge from entering Lake Pontchartrain and if she be­lieves there is a serious chance of getting that $2 billion in funding, Landrieu said, “The 2012 update to the State Coastal Master Plan included a commitment to study the project and design a viable approach to protecting the entire Lake Pont­chartrain Basin from storm surge. As the state continues to refine the design of the project, I will continue to fight for additional, independent revenues so that it can actually be built. We cannot afford to wait 10, 20, 30, or more years on the Army Corps of Engineers.”

Landrieu concluded with a personal story. “If I weren’t running for the U.S. Senate this fall I would be an advocate for the adoption of children, as I’ve been my whole life. Adoption helped build my family: my husband Frank was adopted and together we adopted two children. Luckily, while working in the Senate, I have been able to use my passion for adoption issues by leading a bipartisan coalition of 200 members in Congress to promote policies for the long-term care and support of America’s children and families.”

This article originally published in the December 1, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.