Landry told attendees in a St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce, Franklin Republic Women and AT&T breakfast forum at the Forest Restaurant in Franklin that “candidates come up here, and they tell you how great they are, how hard they’re working for you and talk to you about all these critical issues. You listen, and what happens? Nothing.”
He said there is a core problem in Washington, D.C.: Career politicians.
“What I found when I got there is the same thing Huey Long said a long, long time ago: ‘You know, the difference between some Democrats and Republicans is that one will skin you from the head down and the other from the toes up. It’s true. What you find out there is those two parties fighting over the checkbook, and they send us the checkbook.”
Landry said D.C. politicians “don’t care about the next generation, they only care about being re-elected. I know that’s blunt, but I don’t know what else to do but just tell it like it is.”
He asked the audience if incumbents have “fixed out of control spending, railed against big businesses and helped small businesses? Have they done anything about our deficit or debt except raise the debt ceiling?”
Landry voted against the debt ceiling bill that he said resulted in a downgrade of the nation’s credit rating.
He said U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, Landry’s opponent in the 3rd District race, voted in favor of the debt ceiling and deficit super committee bill.
“Today I have to go back to Washington and clean up that mess,” Landry said. “We can’t have those cuts in defense; we can’t have those arbitrary cuts. Does anybody want to ask him why he voted for them?”
He said there is a culture in Washington that “tells the American people one thing and then they do another.”
He accused Congress of “having years to fix those problems” such as health care, Social Security and other issues.
“Why should you give me an opportunity to have a better retirement system and I don’t fix the safety net that our seniors depend on?” he asked.
Landry said the Democrats and Republicans blame each other for their inability to deal with issues.
Congress can grant itself raises, he said, “but they can’t fix a core problem that is yours. It’s a culture of politicians that come up here and tell you one thing then go back to Washington and line their war chest with millions of dollars in special interest money that keeps good people from being able to run for office.”
He said Boustany will spend a million dollars trying to “destroy my character because he can’t stand on the issues.”
Landry said when the overturned drilling barge was stuck in the Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal, “We removed that barge at not a dime of tax payer expense,” he said. “The contractor paid the bankruptcy court $160,000 for it. Because I failed to say ‘no.’ I refused to let the (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) off the hook.”
He said he grew up when “Congressmen did big things. They were big people. They were titans… they helped to build this country, make it great. They worked with business owners, and by not putting their foot on them. By letting the free market work its will.”
Landry said this election is perhaps the most important of a lifetime. “The question is who will you put in this seat to move this country forward,” he concluded.
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