Tonight from the station across louisiana. Greg meriwether in baton rouge, cynthia in lake charles and doug warner in shreveport. We will take questions from twitter to join the conversation and send your questions using the hash tag the final debate greatly encourage you to get your commentary and occasionally you will see them flash on the bottom of the screen at hash tag the final debate. For tonights format of the candidates have one minute to respond to questions at the moderators discretion for academic way to do that there is a followup with no set time limit. We begin with the candidates specific question one for each of the candidates and by luck of the draw tonight that goes first to senator landrieu. He made it pretty clear today that you would like to talk about congressman cassidy. But i must tell you that when i hear from the cassidy supporters, the feedback i get is make sure that you ask Mary Landrieu about her travel into the idea that you refer to the most 35,000 to the claims that were billed to the Senate Office going back to 2002 when the rules changed. Why isnt there an inconsistency demanding the congressman does bring all 63 months of records for his work when we dont know how you traveled in the first six years of office . Landrieu thank you for the question and for hosting this important debate. I brought the record tonight for the time that was not to give in just a few weeks ago. I turned over all of the wrecker it. As a bookkeeping error and i taken for response ability for it and it has been completely repaid. A very the very big difference is that congressman cassidy has padded his own payroll for the last 60 years entering into an agreement with one of our hospitals and it is absolutely no record of the work that he has done. That is a very serious matter. So, one was a bookkeeping error which i take full responsibility and turnover a complete set of records which document tonight. Congress has taken over 20,000 a year in addition to his congressional salary and maybe even more than that if we pay for the malpractice without reporting it properly and turning over the new records and i dont think from what i can see that he brought the tonight and i think that is a shame. Moderator let me ask a quick followup. Landrieu i guess i shouldnt have brought them to give to you. Moderator the flight from new orleans to wake charles, that is one that broke out for people. If that had happened in the Business World i think most business as people would have been laughed out of the room if they suggested that a company. Landrieu first of all every senator and every congressman gets the budget. We can allocate a budget within those guidelines as we see fit. They are legal expenses. The only difference is that with a bookkeeping error. That is a far cry from the congress patting his own payroll moderator has the scrutiny changed your view about how quickly you arrange for a charter . Landrieu i want you to know that nothing is illegal. It is not allocating it. I fully reported it. Ive taken full sensibility and i turned over all the records. I hope tonight we will get to a much more serious matter in this debate. The story just broke this week. I would have talked about if the story just broke this week of my opponent who has shown himself foretold that he was a doctor for the poor but hes not coming hes a doctor for himself. Moderator congressman after your election as we have now well established, there was an arrangement where you were would continue working and teaching medical students, residents have 20,000 a year from seven and a half hours a week. Lsu has produced timesheets for 63 months, 16 of the 63 months that you work there say they can find the almost other 50. On more than a dozen locations that affects ours in the clinic on days when there were votes in washington. Address if you were would questions this has raised about how you can be in two places at once. Cassidy it is absolutely false and my direct supervisor and i have made multiple comments regarding this. Note the camp whatever they cant take these comments and they twist them around, im proud of the work that ive done. During flying into dc and voting that evening thats it. The work that ive done teaching medical students there is an irony she justifies the vote for obamacare and it wouldnt have passed without her. Shes for the poor into the uninsured even though demonstrably obamacare has hurt the economic prospects of the poor. Now, that said, theres also the issue of transparency. We get the record but actually it was illegal. Actually violated the ethics law and then a question to follow up with is what i was doing benefited the poor and uninsured, when she used taxpayer dollars to pay for the private charter jets to the campaign, who did not benefit . Moderator we have questions you can ask that we better stick with the format here. Let me follow followup, congressman. As i understand, this was supposed to be documented. Did you personally find these timesheets, and the other question i have is getting louisiana colorful political history if you history of the welcome is understandable that there would be some questions raised about some potential for abuse in some cases if there were no safeguards when a congressman was employed by an entity of state government. Its understandable if you heard this past week. They did everything they can to keep the story alive. Even helping the poor and the uninsured week of made multiple savings about this in the public. Did you sign the timesheets . The cassidy it looked like there might have been people who there was conjecture that you didnt sign them. To speak directly to the question let me ask you this if you were elected to the senate, would you like to be employed and would you like to go back to lsu . Cassidy i am the only one in the lsu system. There are others but im the only one that has the particular subspecialty. They continue to treat the poor into the uninsured in the hospital system. Moderator i have a visit we will revisit. Congress then we will start with you. Are there any provisions for were exceptions where you think that abortion should be considered and also at what point should the Government Draw the line . Cassidy one of the clear distinctions is i am prolife and i get 100 right to life and she gets zero. She gets 100 on the groups and i get zero so this is the kind of choice in the campaign. There is evidence that such a yacht is able to feel pain. At that point we can all agree whether we are prochoice or prolife but that is a life and it should be saved in michigan to be aborted. I am prolife. So the mothers life is at risk. I am prolife and that is one of the choices senator landrieu. Moderator youre quoted as saying 20 weeks isnt the norm for a child to be outside of the hospital. Landrieu i do not support abortion. I think it is tragic and i dont think the government however should make those decisions. I think abortion in almost every case is immoral. I believe the government shouldnt make the choice. That is why these labels are not very accurate because the person in consultation with their doctor or god should make that decision. My record has been misconstrued. I am the chair of the adoption caucus and i have two adoptive children into the congressman knows this very well. We both have adopted children and i support that option and i do not promote the abortion and never have. But that 20 to 26 weeks is a very, very fragile time. And i sure dont have the congress in the hospital room. Lets go to cynthia. We all witness to the events of ferguson missouri before our very eyes. Its about the issue of Race Relations center stage in america. Would you say that things are better, worse or the same and what you think needs to go about to bring the true feeling . But start with your response senator landrieu. Landrieu that is an important question because it is built on multiethnic unity for us to be the strongest country and the diversity of the strength not weakness. A weakness. And i actually think that the Race Relations have deteriorated a bit in this country. And i think that we have to continue to work on it decade after decade in the generation after generation. What happened was a tragedy for Michael Browns family as well as for the officer and his family. So, i hope that the community will continue to talk and review the Police Action and continue to have dialogue. But this countries strength is our diversity. Its not our weakness and i think that we needed a better job need to do a better job as a nation to understand each other and work together. What you say things are better, worse or the same . Cassidy clearly it is better. New new orleans is prominently africanamerican and white mayor and the governor was in a predominantly white and have a black city parish president. So, we have made strides in terms of acceptance and understanding of others. Is there more to do, of course. The parable of the Good Samaritan is about the Good Samaritan reaching across the racial and religious divides to create unity with another person that is in need. That scripture should attempt to reach across and make things better. Senator landrieu says somehow barack obama wasnt being viewed favorably because we have a history of racism in the south. I think just because you disagree with the president doesnt make you a racist and i would point out that when senator landrieu by the application would say she has been elected to the Public Office since i was in college. So i think weve made great progress. We shouldnt and i said, but of course theres more to do. Landrieu he makes things up as he goes along and hes made of the statements of anybody being a racist. You know what i said, i sit at the south said south has not always been the friendliest place for africanamericans and its also been a region that hasnt quickly recognized the leadership of women. I will make no apology for something that is a historical fact. That is what i said that was taken out of context and i also answered the question. I was asked why he is president obama so unpopular in the state. I said he was unpopular among some people in the state because of the Energy Policy and i went on to say hes not for keystone, i am. We are all for it. And then i said those words. He has spun them out of context for his own political benefit and im not the only one that is tigerdirect listening to his rhetoric. The cassidy people can look at themselves and make their own decision. Moderator this question deals with what he will bring back to dc whether it elected a senator or congressman cassady i will begin with you with your tv, radio and newspaper ads you run a campaign against president obama yet he will only be there for a fraction of your term if you are elected. It will be another four years after office, so what what do you want to do with this job if elected . The cassidy unfortunately the senator couldnt get past. Also, ive been working with the uninsured and poor whatever the senator says you can talk to my patient for the last 25 years. I would like to repeal and replace obamacare with something that actually works for people instead of working against them. I work in a public institution. I would like to be in the Veterans Committee selected look at the va system bringing my expertise working in the Public Hospital system. How can we get over to the patient and not leave it to the bureaucrat administrator and as the va system does. These are my Life Experiences to benefit all americans. Moderator senator landrieu. Landrieu he voted against the Veterans Hospital when he was a senator in louisiana. He voted no against the medical complex and now he has the merit to say that he supports the Veterans Hospital. Let me say one more thing. I dont believe that he will be elected but if he is he will be doing a lot more than fighting president obama. Because he padded his payroll he took money without accounting for it and he doesnt have a supervisor and he didnt find much as the window he does not have a signature, he does not have the account for his work and he will not turn over his wreck or. This is a serious issue. And he will talk about everybody elses record and his own and so whatever happens in this debate, the questions must be answered. Cassidy the truth of the answer can be judged by this. To get the va hospital to the va hospital in new orleans i wasnt in congress when that was approved. Referring to the hospital that i thought was too big of a va hospital is totally a different issue. So you can judge the truthfulness based upon that i wont affect affect of the questions i asked earlier if id been working to benefit the poor and the uninsured, we know the poor and the uninsured. The Campaign Events food benefited their . Senator . Is a vote not so much against the Veterans Hospital as what they did for example fold is an overblown Veterans Hospital. He voted against the complex. That is a part of the complex when he was a legislator. I didnt say when he was in congress. Now he shows up to take credit for how the veterans. I came to build two new clinics in lafayette and like charles. But john, i really want to get back to this issue of truthfulness. Moderator and will have an opportunity for you to ask a question of one another. Let me bring up a pie chart of how we spend our money in america. This is the numbers will change slightly in the proposed budget, 20 , defense, 19. Unemployment 16, medicare and medicaid are 21. Ive seen interest high your damn that come up high here than that, but the point is when you get to what we think of as the rest of the government, the cdc, the park service if it is within percent or so, there were times that the visit was going crazy that this little portion you could have wiped out what we think of the government and you wouldnt have balanced the budget. Social security and the entitlement come you talked a lot about Social Security but if we dont cut benefits or raise taxes or do something, we are on a path where these entitlements will devour the economy and the budget, arent we . Landrieu my opponent and many of the republicans have decided they dont want to fix that because they want to continue to get the tax cuts that make over a Million Dollars. They want to find the space on the pie chart to cut out and run up the debt. They also brought us into the war they put on a credit card. So, the Republican Party is just as much at fault and we need to work together. We need to give tax breaks and raise the Social Security age to 70. I am not going to do that. It will hurt people in the state. People cannot work the people cannot work until they are 70yearsold playing concrete, paving the highways, building bridges, lifting heavy objects even in spite of the hospital. They cannot do it. There are other ways to solve this problem and let me say the annual deficit under president obama has been reduced by 50 . Moderator isnt that because of the louvre and so greatly in its first year . Landrieu no, it has not. They lifted it up but its still coming down over time because of the economy and the good budgeting. Now we do have a debt problem that raising the age to 70 is not the solution. Moderator congressman . The cassidy i have many patients and the only thing they have is their medicare and Social Security. My mother lives with me and i understand the importance of the safety net programs. My commitment to you is to work to preserve and strengthen these programs. The problem is that obamacare, which senator landrieu wouldnt have passed but a 760 billion out of medicare to spend it on obamacare. Weve got to do something or else medicare and Social Security will go bankrupt. Now when that happens that the benefits that you are receiving were decreased by as much as 25 . There are things we can do. Louisianas own a senator 20 some years ago came up with a plan for medicare which on a bipartisan basis has been brought forward again. If you were to keep medicare exactly as you have it now, you can but if youve been to this new program they estimated the Congressional Budget Office saves money for the beneficiary and it preserves the life of the trust fund. I gave you the leeway that you said you wanted to respond. The 750 billiondollar document but he suggested was supported by both republicans and democrats. Of the money was wasted and inefficiency and it went back into the medicare program. I have seen those for a fact strengthen medicare. It still does not excuse his wanting to solve that problem and not on the backs of the coke brothers or the billionaires, but on the backs of the poor and the elderly raising the Social Security age to 70. Its wrong. There are other things that we can do. Of the money wasnt taken to the medicare Social Security trust fund was spent on obamacare. My team will be cut off right now. It doesnt have to be like hes not telling the truth and i am sort of thing. You will see it. Let me ask you this and maybe we can try to do this as quickly as possible. Give me your view of tax reform, just a rough outline of what it might look like what they be revenue neutral and who would pay more and who would pay less . Landrieu the revenue makes up since world war ii. When it was deluged with 21 or 22 . The last time we have a balanced budget that is the problem. They continue to cut the programs for everyone, for the low income, middle class and then turn around and give tax cuts. Then we have to take out waste, fraud and abuse and do it efficiently. The taxes were raised by 1. 6 trillion. And senator landrieu said she plays with tax reform but only if it raises by a trillion. What did the president s Bipartisan Commission adjusted is that we do away with exemptions and loopholes and we brought in the amount of money that is being taxed between over the rate and so by doing legal work we will further press and create more revenue. That is in the president s of bipartisan that commission. Thats a good idea. A landrieu i didnt say by raising revenue. Every independent group that says it has to be a combination of additional revenue by shuttin