- 8 months ago
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) held a telephone town hall on Tuesday.
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00:00Thanks for being on. Looking forward to hearing from you. If you want to ask a question,
00:05press star 3. Star is that button in the lower left-hand corner of your dial and the number
00:113. And while we allow people to get on and have their questions screened, I'll just do a couple
00:18updates. Everybody on this call probably knows of somebody affected by fentanyl, somebody's
00:26grandchild who may have died of an overdose or someone who's now in rehabilitation. Well,
00:32I'm pleased to say a bill that I've been working on called the Halt Fentanyl Act is headed to
00:37President Trump's death to be signed into law. About 68% of overdose deaths in the U.S. are linked
00:47to fentanyl or something called a fentanyl analog. It looks like fentanyl, but it's not quite fentanyl.
00:54Crooks have used that as a loophole. It's not fentanyl. It just looks like fentanyl. Well,
01:01what my Halt Fentanyl bill does, if it looks like fentanyl, if it addicts like fentanyl,
01:06if it kills like fentanyl, you're guilty of pushing fentanyl even if there's a small technical
01:12difference. Now, if 70,000 people are dying annually from fentanyl overdose, we want that
01:19number to be zero. And the Halt Fentanyl gives law enforcement one more tool to arrest and prosecute
01:28somebody who's responsible for that epidemic. President Trump's doing a great job. He has
01:34worked to secure the southern border. He is expanding the number of people going after cartels.
01:42He's pushed the Mexican government to go after the cartels. But we still need every tool we have.
01:47And this Halt Fentanyl gives a chance for the law enforcement to prosecute people who otherwise
01:53might think they could escape prosecution. And that's a good thing. Now, by the way, if you're
01:58just joining us, Senator Bill Cassidy here, telephone town hall. If you'd like to ask a question or make a
02:04comment, press star three, star three, that button, lower left-hand corner of your phone
02:10dial, three number, excuse me, star, and then the number three, you'll be screened. Somebody will
02:15take your question, get your phone number, and we'll be putting you in the lineup to ask a question.
02:20Let's go on to the one big, beautiful bill. This is President Trump's kind of signature legislation.
02:27And we share a goal. We need a tax package, which helps create more and better paying jobs for the
02:36American people, putting a little bit more money in people's wallet, in their purse. To do that,
02:45it eliminates the tax on tips. You're a waitress, you are getting a tip, and right now you pay a tax on
02:54it. In this case, you would not have to pay a tax, not have to pay income tax. We also are going after
03:01waste, fraud, and abuse. For example, Medicaid paid out $1.1 trillion in improper payments between
03:092015 and 2014, excuse me, 2024. Textbook waste, fraud, and abuse were trying to stop it. You work
03:17hard for the dollar you spend to the federal government. The federal government should spend
03:21that money wisely, and that's what we're trying to do. So for seniors, we increase the deductibility
03:29for seniors, and the reason we're doing that is that it gives you, it compensates you for the money
03:34that taxes you're paying on your Social Security benefit. President Trump promised during the campaign
03:42that he would attempt to eliminate taxes on that Social Security benefit, and that's what we're
03:48attempting to do. So for seniors, he will fulfill that campaign promise working with Congress. So
03:53the tax bill is for seniors, it's for workers, it's for families. Oh, one more thing I want to talk
03:58about. There's a bill in there affecting the tax code called my Educational Choice for Children Act,
04:06and we know that some families are in a school district where the school doesn't work for their
04:12child. And what we're doing is using the tax code to create a scholarship fund so that family could
04:19apply for a scholarship to send their child to the local parochial school or private school.
04:25And I suppose they could use it for a charter school. The point being that the parent gets to
04:30choose the education for their child, and they use this scholarship for them. We address this through
04:37the tax code, and that's part of the one big beautiful bill. No one knows a child better than his or her
04:42parents. And so that's how we get to it. By the way, if you just joined us, Senator Bill Cassidy or
04:48Telephone Town Hall, if you want to ask a question, make a comment, press star three, star three.
04:56And by the way, we're going to have a poll question. I'll announce this several times. And the poll question
05:03is, do you favor President Trump's one big beautiful bill? If you do, press one. And if you don't,
05:11press two. Now, and I think you can just do that. Let me see. Are we going to put that up for people
05:19to click on? Or when do they actually know when to vote? We're going to check and see when exactly
05:25when you're, we'll check with our operator to see when you exactly will vote. But we're going to be
05:29bringing that up. And we're going to ask you to vote one if you like the one big beautiful bill from
05:33what you know of it. And two if you don't. Lastly, I want to give some follow up. In January, a bill that I
05:39really worked hard to pass in the Senate to repeal the windfall elimination provision and the government
05:46pension offset, WEP and GPO is what they're called, was signed into law. It was a little touch and go
05:54for a little bit. I was working with another senator to overcome some resistance. President Trump joined
06:00us, tweeted out that he supported the bill. That made it happen. And now we've got, we've got a bill
06:05that passed. It's great news for teachers, nurses, firefighters, public sector workers who,
06:11because of WEP and GPO, did not receive the Social Security benefits they earned. Now, just six months
06:17later, 91% of those benefits have been back paid. I'm looking forward to it being 100%. I think it's
06:24over $570 billion going to over 70,000 workers. Huge win for Louisiana. Huge win for our workers. My last
06:34news is if you just joined us, Senator Bill Cassidy here, Senator Bill Cassidy here. And if you have
06:41a question, want to make a comment, press star three. By the way, we said we're going to have a poll.
06:47If you like the one big beautiful bill, which you've heard of it, press one. If you don't like the one big
06:54beautiful bill, which you've heard of it, press two. Lastly, I'm going to finish up with this and we'll
07:00start taking our questions. And I'll make that announcement a few more times. The bipartisan
07:09infrastructure bill, which I worked really hard on to get money for infrastructure in Louisiana.
07:17Though we've received billions so far from it, we just received another $5.8 million for airport
07:24infrastructure. Upgrading airports in Farmerville, Ruston, Oak Grove, Manny, Lake Charles, and Abbeville.
07:32Now, you have somebody that wants to make a major investment in your community.
07:36Typically, those folks fly in. So, having an airport in a smaller community that can actually
07:42receive a plane flying in from Dallas, Houston, or New Orleans is important because that's where the
07:48person who's going to make the investment decision, that's how they're going to get there.
07:51So, I'm pleased we're upgrading those airports. Louisiana is benefiting from the
07:57Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, same thing.
08:01And so, I'm pleased about that. Again, if you just joined us, Senator Bill Cassidy,
08:05if you got a question, want to make a comment, hit star three. If you want to vote as to whether or not
08:10you like the one big beautiful bill, what you know of it, press one if you like it and two if you don't.
08:14And now we'll go to our first question. Hey, John, you're up. Tell us where you are. Tell us where you're from.
08:19John. I'm sorry, who's up? John. John, yes, this is he. Hi, Dr. Cassidy.
08:26I've talked to you in the past. I worked at Bordelon's Pharmacy around the corner from you at
08:30Earl K. Long. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have a question about the fentanyl patch.
08:37Is that going to, is that in any way included? Because I have a number of cancer patients that we
08:41have and it works so well for them. Is that in any way going to be constrained within this bill?
08:46No, it's not, John. You're a good pharmacist. By the way, my mother's passed, but she was on
08:51fentanyl patches at the end of her life. And as a doctor, I know they really work well.
08:56So, the medicinal use will not be affected. The ability to do research upon these fentanyl
09:02analogs will not be affected. It's just if a criminal is trying to sell it, they can't claim the excuse,
09:09it's not technically fentanyl. Okay. Very good.
09:12Great question, man. The kind of question I expect from, from a pharmacist. I appreciate that.
09:19If you just joined us, Senator Bill Cassidy, taking your questions. If you have a comment,
09:23want to make a, make a comment or ask a question, press star three. And then if you want to vote on
09:30whether or not you like the one big, beautiful bill, press one if you like it, if you like what
09:34you've heard so far, and two if you don't. And our next caller is Stacy. Stacy, tell us where
09:38you're calling from. I'm calling from Allen Parish, kinder Louisiana. Yes, ma'am. I was just
09:46speaking about Oakdale today. So, you've been on my mind, if you will. Yes. I, as far as the fentanyl,
09:57I'm a teacher, so I know I've lost kids that I've taught to fentanyl. But I, and I agree totally with
10:14trying to get rid of it. And then I just agree with the person, the pharmacist ahead of me. But I want to
10:23bring up another point because you, you were saying about, we're talking about medical. I am not for
10:34the big, beautiful bill. It's going to raise our income, not ours, but the, the, the countries.
10:48And then it's going to take Medicaid away from some people that really need it.
11:00I'm a Christian. I voted for you. I voted for Trump. But I'm, I'm not for taking away
11:08poor people's benefits. Hey, Stacy, can I respond to that? Sure. Boy, at first, I'm sorry. A teacher
11:20always stays connected to her students and the fact that you lost some to fentanyl. And Allen Parish
11:25tells me just how, just how much this, this drug has penetrated our society. So, I'm sorry for those
11:31losses. Let's talk about Medicaid. You know, it turns out no one has to lose their Medicaid benefit,
11:38period. The people that they've spoken of that would be affected are, what the requirement is,
11:48is that you have to, if you're able-bodied, you're not disabled, you're able-bodied between 18 and 64,
11:56with no dependents, and you're not working, volunteering, or going to school. That's who
12:04would currently lose. But if you just decide to volunteer at the local food bank 20 hours a week,
12:11or go back to your local community college, or get a job at a fast food restaurant 20 hours a week,
12:18you keep your Medicaid. Now, I can tell you, as a doc who used to work in the public hospital system at
12:24Errol K. Long Hospital, kind of the charity hospital of Baton Rouge. When people work,
12:29they're better off. They have more structure to their life. They are statistically less likely to
12:34do drugs. They engage with other people and get out of their house. So, it's actually good for your
12:41health to work. If unemployment goes up and there's a recession, there's a provision that waives this and
12:49allows people to be on Medicaid even if they don't get a job, although they could still volunteer and
12:55they could still go to school. So, Stacy, I appreciate your Christian concern that people
13:01should have health care. I spent my life trying to do that in the charity hospital system. In this case,
13:08if you're willing, if you're able-bodied and no dependents, and you're willing to volunteer work or go
13:13to school for 20 hours a week, you keep Medicaid. And there's no loss whatsoever. Stacy, do I still
13:20have you? Stacy, I've lost you. I'm sorry. Thank you, Stacy. Thank you for teaching. Everybody,
13:26Senator Bill Cassidy here. And by the way, Stacy brought up the One Big Beautiful Bill. If you
13:31want to take our poll question, if you like what you've heard of the One Big Beautiful Bill, press one.
13:36If you don't, press two. I'm curious to see how this plays. That's the first thing I want to say.
13:40If you have a question you want to ask or want to make a comment, press star three on your phone
13:48dial. Star is that button lower left-hand corner in the number three. And our next caller is Colleen.
13:54Colleen, tell us where you're calling from, please. I'm calling from Charles, Louisiana.
14:00Hey, Colleen. Thank you for being on. What's your comment or question?
14:04My question is, you speak of the benefits for, I'm a senior citizen, and you speak of the benefits
14:10for senior citizen. I'd like to know what's the specific in the tax bill that will benefit me as
14:17a senior citizen. Yeah, so the current, great question. Thank you, Colleen. Right now,
14:25people above a certain income level, when they receive their Social Security payment,
14:31pay a tax on that Social Security payment, an income tax, an income tax. That started under Bill
14:40Clinton when they wanted to just get more income for the government. One of President Trump's campaign
14:47promises was that he wanted to not tax Social Security. Now, I won't go into the process reasons why,
14:56but the specific benefit is that it gives a senior citizen up to a certain income a credit so that
15:05if they are paying income tax on their Social Security income, they're held harmless. So in effect,
15:13they won't be paying taxes on that Social Security benefit. You'll have more money in your pocket,
15:19bottom line. So Colleen, thank you for allowing me to make that clear. And that's a great question,
15:26by the way. I don't think I've had a question as particular as that, so thank you for that.
15:30Our next, and we're moving quickly, because we've got a lot of people. And if you want to make a
15:34comment or ask a question, press star three. And again, Senator Bill Cassidy here. And if you want
15:41to vote on the one big, beautiful bill, press one if you like what you've heard, and two if you don't
15:45like what you've heard. And now I'm going to go to Brenda. Brenda, where are you calling from in
15:48our great state of Louisiana? I'm calling from the capital city of Baton Rouge.
15:53Hey, great to have you on. Thank you. Okay, thank you. I think you answered part of my question
15:57with Colleen about the Social Security income tax. Yes, ma'am. Do you happen to know what the bracket is
16:03for income that's going to be affected? Yeah, adjusted gross income up to $75,000 for a single
16:10person, $150,000 for a married couple. That's the top of my head. Now, it's still a work in progress.
16:20So if it comes out just a little bit different, excuse me for that, but that's just the latest
16:24thing I saw. Brenda, did I lose you? Here. Can you hear me? Now I can hear you. Go ahead.
16:35Yeah, okay. Back when Clinton started this tax, it's really, we've already paid taxes on this money
16:45once, and it shouldn't be taxed again, no matter what your bracket is. That's my point. Okay.
16:51Yeah, so the President heard that on the campaign trail, and we're trying to address that.
16:57Hey, thank you, Brenda. They're moving me on. I've got somebody sitting here who's pacing me,
17:03just because we've got a lot of people who want to ask questions or make a comment. And if you are
17:09on right now and you want to do so, Senator Bill Cassidy here, star three. And if you want to vote
17:14on the one big, beautiful bill, press one if you like what you've heard, and two if you don't. Our next
17:18caller, I think, is Margarita. Margarita, tell me where you're calling from, please.
17:23I'm calling from Kenner, Louisiana. Hey, thank you for being on. I appreciate it.
17:29Well, I support the big, beautiful bill, and I support Trump. I support you. And my question is,
17:40what is going to happen to FEMA flood insurance?
17:43Yeah, so Margarita, that is something of concern to everybody in Louisiana. And just so folks
17:52understand, there's property and casualty, I think wind damage, and that is the state run issue. And
17:59then there's flood insurance, which Margarita is asking about, which flood insurance, which is a
18:05federal run program. I've been pushing reforms for this about five or six years now. Some of them have
18:11already been incorporated, but I'd like to redo the whole bill. We've got something that we're pushing
18:16right now with the Banking Committee. John Kennedy, my good colleague, is on Banking Committee. We're
18:22working with him and a couple other Republicans and Democrats, because we'll need Republicans and
18:27Democrats to pass the legislation. And so I'd like to tell you a reform bill will happen this Congress.
18:33Can't promise, but I can promise you that we're going to work our hardest on it.
18:37We've just sent a letter for those people affected by flood insurance. You may be familiar with the risk
18:43rating 2.0. It's a new system, which is rapidly raising premiums. And so I've just led a letter with
18:52fellow senators and members of Congress to the administrator, and ultimately to President Trump,
18:58asking them to put a pause on the flood insurance premium. And lastly, I've been directly speaking to
19:04the acting administrator of FEMA, who frankly had some misconceptions about the program. He thought
19:10the only people seeing higher premiums were people who had flooded. I said, nope, I got people who have
19:16never flooded, and their premiums have gone up 500%. And so we're pushing it in multiple different ways,
19:24Margarita. I understand it's an issue, and we're going to work on it until we fix it.
19:29Thank you for that. I wish I'd asked you about your experience. I bet you would have told me that
19:36your premiums were sky high. I apologize. Again, I'm getting moved on by somebody who's looking at
19:42our list of people. So if you want to vote, and I just keep repeating this, and we'll announce the
19:48results in a little bit on whether or not you do or don't like the one big beautiful bill, press one if you
19:54like it, and two if you don't. And if you just logged on, and you'd like to make a comment or ask a question,
20:01press star three. And our next caller is Phyllis. Hey, Phyllis, tell us where you're calling from, please.
20:08Yes, I'm calling from Covington in St. Tammany Parish.
20:13Okay, great.
20:15And how are you today, sir?
20:16I'm doing really well. Thank you for asking. How are you?
20:20Oh, just marvelous. Living the dream.
20:23You know, Louisiana is a great state to live in, and St. Tammany is a great place within a great state.
20:29It is. We've moved here 10 years ago from Las Vegas, so we're loving it. Yeah.
20:37Good for us.
20:40What's your comment or question?
20:42Well, my concern is the infrastructure in the state.
20:46You had mentioned something about money that has been allocated for infrastructure. I know you were
20:54talking about the airports. My concern is it's a two-fold with the infrastructure, but with the
21:01school systems as well, is the concern that in Covington it is a growing area. I'm glad to see that.
21:10But at the same point, the road systems are horrendous. I don't understand why a thought
21:19process is when you're building an additional 1,200 to 1,500 homes, and we've also had in our council
21:27meetings blocking a property company from adding on another probably another 1,300 homes in the same
21:39area because the roads are just backlogged. It could take you 20 minutes to go three miles.
21:48And I also don't understand why, since we are a very flat area, that in the infrastructure there were
21:57never bicycle lanes put in, which could help alleviate some of the traffic issues.
22:04And so, Phyllis, let me just comment on several of that. Now, the schools are going to be a local
22:11issue. And so that's going to be a local millage or a local sales tax that's going to support the,
22:17whether or not there's a school. But one thing I was privileged to work on was the Infrastructure
22:22Investment and Jobs Act, also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. And that brought
22:28$5.9 billion to our state to build new roads and bridges and to widen and repair the federal roads
22:36we already have. Now, the state legislature matches that with some state dollars to stretch that out,
22:42but those dollars are rolling out now. There's also money for sewer and water systems that we've
22:48continued to work on. There's money for the Lake Pontchartrain District. So, the communities bordering
22:55Lake Pontchartrain have access to dollars to help with drainage, flooding, as well as sewage treatment,
23:02because some still have old sewer systems that were overflowing into the lake.
23:06There's money for broadband internet, which is about to be released. There's money for airports,
23:12as we spoke of. I could keep going. But there was a lot of dollars in there that hopefully,
23:20over the next year, two and three, you'll begin to see the fruits of. That said, St. Tammany is growing
23:26so rapidly, it's always going to have a local road issue, and both in schools as well as your local
23:33roads. That's up to the state and locals, but I'm doing my absolute best to help the federal program
23:41kick in, widen I-12, do other things that would make it easier to move around.
23:48Phyllis, thank you. And by the way, if you just joined us and you want to vote as to whether or
23:53not you like the one big beautiful bill, press one if you do and two if you don't. And then,
23:59oh, by the way, one more thing on infrastructure. You can go to my website,
24:02Cassidy.Senate.gov, and you can click up there, and you'll see it very clearly. Cassidy's Infrastructure
24:13Investment and Jobs Act has delivered $10 billion to Louisiana, and you can click on there, and it'll
24:19bring you to your parish, and you can see the projects from the infrastructure bill in your parish.
24:26So anybody interested in that, more power to you. Thank you. Our next caller, I think, is Gayla.
24:35Gayla, can you tell us where you're calling from?
24:38Yes. I'm in the City of Central in East Baton Rouge Parish.
24:42Great to have you, Gayla. Am I pronouncing that correctly?
24:46Yes. Got it.
24:47First of all, I want to say thank you for your hard work on the elimination of GPOWP. I was affected for
24:5810 years after retiring from the state, so it's been a major blessing for me. Now, my question that I want
25:07to ask you about is, I know that the House passed a bill that temporarily gives senior citizens an
25:17additional $4,000 tax deduction rather than tax elimination for Social Security benefits.
25:26Okay. My daughter is CPA, and I asked her once that bill passed, I said, how does this affect
25:32my tax liability? And she said that if Congress had passed a $2,000 nonrefundable tax credit,
25:45it probably would have eliminated my tax liability. But the $4,000 temporary deduction is not going to
25:53eliminate it. So my question is, can this be changed from a deduction to a nonrefundable tax credit
26:02for seniors? So the President's promise was to address the tax on Social Security.
26:12And so that's what he asked us to do. The House version sounds like it was specifically trying to
26:19fulfill the extra obligation that would come from taxes on Social Security. But if somebody's got a
26:28second job, or if they're continuing to work, or if they've got investment income, that that would,
26:34you know, rental income, that that would be unaffected. So the purpose, again, if you've got
26:40rental, investment, etc., yes, you'd still pay tax on that. The President's promise was to try and
26:48eliminate the tax on Social in particular. Now, just for anybody that watches too much C-SPAN,
26:54we can't really, we're not allowed to directly say in a reconciliation bill, you don't have to pay taxes
27:02on Social. So we did the next best thing, we estimated the amount that someone would pay if they
27:08were paying, and we're giving that credit. And that's how that process worked. So Galen, I wanted to
27:15explain it to you. And I hope that works for you. I know you'd like to have no tax viability, but that was the
27:26President had kind of a different sort of a sense of how to approach that. Thank y'all for joining. Senator Bill
27:31Cassidy here. If you got a question, want to make a comment, press star three, you'll be spoken to by someone,
27:37it'll take your question or comment and put you in the queue. If you want to vote as to whether or not you like the one big,
27:42beautiful bill. Press one if you like it, and two if you don't. Hey Bruce, tell us where you're calling from,
27:49please. Calling from Shreveport. Hey, I think we've now got all four corners of the state.
27:56Oh, we still need Monroe. We still need Northeast. So, so, um, but turn it to you, sir.
28:02Uh, appreciate the chance to ask you a question. And the question, Senator, is this, you are being
28:11attacked now on television, uh, by some vague pack, I don't know who they are, uh, that are saying that
28:17you are actually harming, uh, your legislations, uh, harming seniors and the Medicare program,
28:25particularly. A lot of that you just commented on, I know. And I'm sure it's too complicated to go into
28:31right here, but is there a place that we can look at what they're saying and look at what the truth
28:36is, uh, on your website perhaps? So where can we, where can we figure out what this issue is?
28:40Because it's very vaguely stated and clearly very biased. Yeah, it is very biased. By the way,
28:46there's nothing in the reconciliation bill, literally nothing that deals with Medicare. But there are some
28:52people mad at me because I proposed, uh, I proposed that, um, insurance companies which are being
29:01prosecuted criminally and civilly for the way that they are, uh, manipulating people's medical histories,
29:10not be allowed to do that. They are being prosecuted. Now, I wanted to pass a law to forbid it,
29:17and that's why these people are attacking me. Uh, but Bruce, being attacked in this job for doing the
29:23right thing is part of the job. Um, by the way, that would have saved taxpayers $275 billion.
29:32Think about that. Medicare is going insolvent, and we had a chance to save $275 billion over 10 years
29:39for the Medicare program. Ultimately, however, the president said he didn't want to touch Medicare and the
29:44big, one big, beautiful bill. We took it off. Uh, but it's something that I'll look at later
29:50because we've got to, we've got to control our spending. We've got to support the Medicare program.
29:57Uh, we've got to do the right thing, and if people are going to run ads against me,
30:01I guess they're going to run ads against me. I appreciate that, Bruce. Thank you. Thank you for that support.
30:08Um, uh, and if you just joined us and you want to vote on the one big, beautiful bill,
30:14uh, as to whether or not you like it, press one if you like and two if you don't. Uh, and our next
30:20caller is Deborah. Deborah, where are you calling from? Hi, uh, Dr. Cassidy. I'm calling from Hammond,
30:26Louisiana, Tangible Hill, Paris. Thanks for being here. The reason, yes, the reason why I'm calling,
30:32is that I want you how much I appreciated how you got the windfall bill passed. I have been working
30:42with your colleagues since Senator Vitter was in office to get this change and, um, one of your
30:51colleagues, I'll say Congressman Scalise's office would keep me updated, but it just became stagnant
31:00and I was kind of losing hope. I emailed of your colleagues, I kept calling, and I'm just so
31:08grateful to you for getting that pass. Yeah, I appreciate Deborah that it started in the House,
31:17but it was about to stall out in the Senate as I was speaking earlier. Susan Collins from Maine,
31:22she's had a lot of weapon GPO in her state. Um, I got up there and spoke about how the people in my
31:29state, the nurses I used to work with in the charity hospital system, the, the, the, the,
31:34the long time local and state employees, the first responders were the ones being affected by this.
31:41And then again, the president heard about it, tweeted support, and, uh, and all of a sudden,
31:46that's what we couldn't get done. It got done. And Deborah, thank you for commenting. I'm just
31:50appreciative, appreciative that you, um, have benefited from it. And thank you for acknowledging my role.
31:58I thank you for that. Um, our next caller is Carl. Hey, Carl, tell us where you're calling from, please.
32:06Hi, uh, Senator Cassidy. I'm calling from Alexandria, Louisiana.
32:11Hey, thanks for being on, sir. What's your comment or question?
32:15Well, my, my question is, is that, you know, I've heard different, uh,
32:22figures, uh, thrown out in the media about how much the
32:28big, beautiful bill is going to add to the deficit to the tune of anywhere between two and a half
32:38trillion to, you know, upwards from there. And I want to know, um, how are the working class people
32:53in the state of Louisiana and really all over the country going to, um, uh, make up for that deficit,
33:07uh, with the, the tax cuts that are going to go to the, the upper echelon in society, the upper one or
33:17two percent. Um, and just a side comment that, that, you know, I'm a pharmacist like John and, um,
33:26you know, back in 2016, I was making six figures a year and I paid 25 times
33:40what Donald Trump paid in income taxes that particular year. He paid $700.
33:49So how, how do we justify to the working class public that we pay a higher percentage of our
34:01income as opposed to those in the top tier?
34:05Okay. So let me jump on this. You ready, Carl? First, the top marginal tax rate is 37%.
34:11And obviously the lowest marginal tax rate is zero. And then it escalates up from that.
34:17Most people in Louisiana probably pay somewhere between 15 and 25%. So again, the top marginal tax
34:23rate is 37%. Um, as it turns out, the people in the top marginal tax rate, top couple marginal tax
34:30rates pay most of the tax revenue. Uh, I forget the exact percent, but if it was 70%, I wouldn't be
34:35surprised. Now, what about the big beautiful bill itself? Um, the, um, um, the one thing we cannot
34:45take into account is the money that, that we're going to get from the president's tariffs, but that
34:50has been estimated as being $2.8 trillion over 10 years by the Congressional Budget Office. If you put
34:59that together with the savings that we have in the bill, uh, anywhere from about $1.4 trillion, that's
35:05the moving target, just because things are being added and things are being taken away. Uh, and then
35:11if you add that to the economic growth, you can dispute as to whether or not this adds to the debt
35:17and deficit. Uh, different estimates are, uh, that the economic growth, that it will increase economic
35:23growth. I'll point out that when we passed a tax cut in jobs act bill, there were increased numbers
35:29of jobs, better paying jobs, and those were disproportionately in the lowest two fifths
35:35of the economic strata, meaning working families and middle income families were the ones who had
35:42the increased growth in their salary as a percentage of the whole economic pie, if you will. There's also
35:49some provisions directly benefiting people who are, say, working. Uh, so for example, no tax on
35:55overtime, uh, a break for those beneath a certain income level if they decide to buy a new car. Uh,
36:02the no tax on tips. There's also an increased child tax credit. So for, uh, families with children,
36:08they'll have a little extra money to help raise that child. Um, and so there's different ways in which
36:14working and middle income families are going to directly benefit from this. And then to say once
36:20more, if the issue is as regards the debt and deficit, uh, if you add the tariffs in with everything
36:27else, um, uh, this, I think the whole thing went up decreasing our D and D, if you will, our debt and
36:33deficit. Thank you, Carl. Um, uh, we got, let's announce our poll results. What's our poll results?
36:39Uh, see, I'm looking here. Um, it looks like about 63% of the people like the big, beautiful bill,
36:49444 people voted. They liked it. And 261 don't like it or 37% against. So about two thirds like the
36:59big, beautiful bill and one third does not. Um, last caller, because I have to say this,
37:06unfortunately will be our last caller. Uh, I just got the, the, the, the Yank sign. Hey,
37:11Larry, tell us where you're calling from, please. Yes. Hello. Hey, Larry, you're up, man.
37:18Hello. Yes, sir. Larry. Oh, yes. I'm calling from Jefferson Parish. Hey, thanks for being on.
37:27Yeah. My wife worked for the school system and I know what you did with the, uh, Fairness Act. And yes,
37:34we are finally getting, you know, her, which, which should have been her benefit from the social
37:39security. They denied her getting the back pay because we didn't apply for it before. But when
37:49we went down there to go do it, they kept telling us why you're not going to get anything. When we
37:55finally applied in November, before the COLA went up, we knew that even without the big, beautiful bill,
38:01she would get something. They didn't even go back today. They just started her in January.
38:07You know, we've been now for almost 50 years and we would have gotten it as soon as we could have
38:12get it, but we kept getting told we couldn't get it. So do me a favor, call my office in Baton Rouge,
38:20225-929-7711, area code 225. Say you've got a social security issue and one of our caseworkers
38:35there will take this on for you. And anyone else who's had an issue achieving their back pay for
38:42a weapon GPO, 225-929-7711. And by the way, if anyone has a problem with the VA, with their
38:52Medicare benefits, they need a passport suddenly, or anything else with the federal government,
38:58look on the website, Cassidy.Senate.gov, or call that number. Y'all been a great group.
39:04Thank you for joining on to this telephone town hall. I look, I'm just privileged to be your senator,
39:11and God bless the United States of America.
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