Applause during this debate until the end but lets welcome now to candidates with a round of applause. Thank you. [applause] moderator our candidates will have one minute to respond questions from a panel of journalists. We have kellys buyers of Louisiana Public broadcasting, Greg Hillburn of usa today network, Elizabeth Crist the advocate and jeremy offer editor and publisher of law politics. Com. Tonight we will attempt to cover a lot of territory as we delve into the National Issues that are important to the future of the state. A drawing was used earlier to determine the order of questioning and closing statements. We will discuss the Affordable Care act, we will discuss the Foreign Affairs and perhaps gridlock in washington and much more. First our opening question for the candidates. This question is what specifically in your professional career has prepared you to be liaison as next United States senator. Moderator mr. Fleming able start us off. I am the one among those who are and i want to take louisiana values to washington. My background as a physician and a businessman and military member qualifies me for this. You know when i was 11 i wanted to be a doctor so bad and i worked for that and just before i went to college my dad died suddenly of a heart attack leaving my disabled mom and my brother and sister to fend for ourselves. I rolled my sleeves up and worked my way through college and medical school went on to the United States navy, rose to the level of Lieutenant Commander and after that set up a medical practice in louisiana with my family. Theres Something Else i wanted. Wanted to pursue the American Dream of opening up a Small Business and i did that including 500 louisiana jobs. You know what i now want to go to the u. S. Senate and fight for louisiana families and fight for your American Dream as well. Moderator thank you. Mr. Fleming. I want my country back. Thats why im running for the u. S. Senate. I believe americas best days lie ahead but not if we keep going in the direction washington d. C. Is taking us. Washington d. C. Is ting to destroy the oil and gas industry washington d. C. Is going to try to raise our Flood Insurance rates. China, russia, iran, isis now make the rules. I want to be United States senate to try to change that. Now i say washington d. C. Im of course referring to president obama and secretary clinton but im also referring to the ritzcarlton democrats and the Big Government republicans in the United States congress who talk some that they have set back from the last eight years and let the president and the secretary do anything they want to do. All of the mod to be ashamed of themselves. I dont mandate any disrespect but they have to hide their heads. Im not part of the club in a group and i wont be part of the club in washington d. C. Good evening my name is carolyn fayard. There are three formative experiences id like to talk with you about tonight but i believe have prepared me to be the next United States senator for louisiana. The first is a recent College Graduate i worked on wall street and witness the second plane hit the tower that day. The second experience is my experience working in a federal court and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were there and it was importantly a government that was responsive and when it was and we had a core system i was able to make sure that people were able to stay in their homes and get the relief that they needed through no fault of their own when disaster buff also spurred the third would be the aftermath of the bp oil spill. When i worked on behalf of the negligence of bp to make sure that our and i understood there was a point where government and business intersect and at that point true leadership would have to step up and create compromise to make sure our people get back to work and their future remains bright. Thank you. Moderator mr. Campbell. Im foster campbell. I teach school in louisiana a small place. By the way this auditorium is named after a man who came from their, jill wagner. Ive never been a politician is tap dancing shoes. The worst thing ive seen since ive been in politics is all these politicians going around telling what they are going to do but theres an old saying dont tell me what youre going to do. What you tell me what you have done. Im the only one appear that is created a billion dollar trust fund which i did and we still have it today. My home parish of boucher paris i make the School Board Say the money. We have a 45 milliondollar trust fund for education. Im certainly the only one appeared that is stood up for bobby jindal for eight years as louisianas governor. He did more harm to our state than any governor of louisiana. In fact by the people. In doing at all my life and i know how to do the job. Understand sticking up for people. Moderator mr. Boustany. Thank you for hosting this forum. My name is Charles Boustany i want to earn your trust as a United States senator brett is a heart surgeon i had to learn to trust my patience and i was very successful in my career. Now in Public Service i have worked hard to earn the trust of the third irrational district. I felt myself and both of these endeavors endeavors to the standard of ruthless accountability, real results not just talk but focused on getting results in solving the problems. Ladies and gentlemen i understand the serious challenges and we have the get serious. Our National Security is at risk our economy has stalled. People are hurting and our values, our American Values are being questioned around the world. Its time to get serious about solving these problems and thats what i will bring to nicely scented a record of achievement for a record results. I ask for your support. Im to Charles Boustany you will find out more about me. I asked for your vote on november 8. Thank you for your answers will go to her journal as panelists prefers we will hear from kelly sires. 3000 Louisiana Residents have enrolled in medicaid for expanded eligibility of the Affordable Care act. The precariously bound state budget relies on savings generated by federal funds, financing our coverage. What specific changes would you make if any to the epa and how would you assure no problems are created . I think baca, the Affordable Care act, has been an abysmal failure. I would tear it out by the roots and start over. Americans deserve a patientcentered Health Care Delivery system like somebody designed it on purpose. Heres what i would place in the Health Care Delivery system. We need more choice. We need more competition. We need less fraud. We need more pay for performance , not pay for value. We need to repeal the medicare and ferguson act of 1945 so we can buy Health Insurance across state lines. We need to block grant the money for medicaid to the states. We need to start charging the copay to folks on medicaid who want to go to the Emergency Rooms to get treated for a fever blister. For ablebodied folks who are receiving medicaid, Free Health Care there should be a work requirement. Again i want to a Health Care Delivery system that looks like someone designed it on purpose. Moderator thank you mr. Boustany. Ms. Fayard. In addition to over 300,000 working people that have Health Care Coverage they save money. About 184 million and its going to continue to save us money. The state match was around 40 during the gentle years paying expansion dollars. For it is now fallen to point 2. 5 . Is estimated that this Medicaid Expansion will provide 1. 5 billion annually as an economic driver to her economy and making sure working people in louisiana or bring your tax dollars am and making sure they get coverage. Our coverage Breast CancerAwareness Month in the statistics are these 24 women as a result of the Health Care Coverage have been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and are not getting lifesaving treatment so we literally are saving lives by bringing our tax dollars home. Moderator thank you ms. Fayard. Mr. Campbell. I have a son named i asked peter, what do you think about the Affordable Care act and he said dad let me play you something. Does more good than bad and i believe peter is right. Theres some things about the way to fix. First of all we need to attract younger people into the program to spread the risk. Small businesses are having problems with it but let me tell you something, if you repeal the Affordable Care act it would never be put back on the books again. Im not willing to do that. 300,000 people have insurance. Im not about turn them out on the streets. Brings in 50 million year the time that we are broke. We get money out of it, its good for us and its good for the economy is good for three and a thousand people. Im for keeping the Affordable Care act in fixing the problems we have with it. Moderator thank you mr. Campbell. Mr. Boustany. The high mark of Quality Health care is the doctor patient relationship. He cannot reach highquality and bring your cost to the lowest possible level without getting every patient into a meaningful doctor patient relationship. Thats where the medicaid system fails because we dont have the complement of specialists and primary care physicians who do what the governor wants to do with expansion im deeply concerned about what the cost is going to be. The care is going to be an emergency room. We have to keep run the ball. Focusing on quality, getting people into a doctor patient relationship making sure that everything is focused on true transparency on cost and quality so everybody whether its a physician or physician and patient can make good judgment calls on whats appropriate. When a competition to bring costs down and we need to put the family back in charge of health care not insurance bureaucrats, not bureaucrats in washington but the decisionmakers and families. Thats how we get back to system we can be proud of. Moderator thank you. Mr. Fleming. Is a physician and someone who has covered people under my employment i can tell you that being fair during the obamacare debate i warned everybody, he said your costs are going to go up, your premiums. You are not going to be able to keep your present health care and you will feel the keep your insurance in it we see today its failed. Even democrats admit its failed heres wouldnt understand. Congressman boustany said he agrees with 80 of obamacare and lately he has said like democrats he would like to gogo blind deadline and fix fix it. Ladies and gentlemen we cannot fix something that has a Terrible Foundation and id also remind my Democrat Friends that its 700 billion for medicare and medicare is going broke. Absolute nonsense. We need to move forward into the 21st century and have patientcentered care and make sure that we get the choice to the doctor and the patient not mandates. [inaudible] i never said i agree with 80 of obamacare. Thats absolutely false. The times i said that we could find some agreement was prior to obamacare well before that when we were talking a bipartisan way about what health care could look like which is what i just dealt with my physician. We have documented that you actually said that so you can run but you cant hide, charles. Moderator her next question comes from the usa today network. According to a poll conducted by Opinion Research more than half of those surveyed think the country should be somewhat or very involved in Foreign Affairs. We have learned this past weekend that the u. S. Is providing air and Ground Support to iraqi forces in an attempt to retake mosul for isis. Do you support this action and do you believe the u. S. Had any obligation to be involved in global conflicts . Moderator ms. Fayard we begin with you. I did support the effort and i believe we must support the kurds and iraqi sonogram. The reason mosul is important is the strategic sitting for oil and money and its the way the funds can destabilize isis. The truth of the matter is Foreign Affairs, we are the greatest country the world is ever nonand they are coming us. We have seen it the domestic terrorism. They have the radical islamic ideology. We had to the. Intake lead and we had to put her allies on the ground to make sure our National Security stay strong. There are couple of things. Its increasing airstrikes and supporting our allies in the middle east and other areas that will permit our democratic values. Moderator thank you. Mr. Campbell. I do support it. Im worried about russias power and what they are doing in the world today and im worried about iran and every area this world. There is one provision. I want to see our allies help themselves. I dont think we can be we can protect the world. I want to make sure we hafle help from allies. I dont want us to be the only ones trying to police the world. Moderator mr. Boustany. We will have chaos without american leadership. Thats been very clear to me. We have would not retake mosul for isis if we had a strategy over the past eight years. The Obama Administration has wobbled and drifted from crisis to crisis. We lost parts of iraq to isis because theres no strategy to deal with the aftermath. The fact of the matter is we did a strategy nine other elements of the strategy. Three years ago when i saw we were fully addressed. We need a safe zone across the turkish and iraqi border. We need to put your boots on the ground. We provide air cover and intelligence capabilities. We can then consolidate a working coalition, not a coalition paper and rollback isis, rollback the financial and we need the economic side to deal with the oil transactions. This administration has no strategy and thats why we need someone that can provide input and guidance and real leadership on a strategy. Moderator thank you. Mr. Fleming. I have served in the military no one else on this stage is served in the military. I meet with private and fourstar generals all the time to talk about these problems. You know one of the things that really concerns me his day created in the middle east by john kerry and the secretary of state that we have someone here tonight john kennedy who endorsed john kerry for president. That was his mentor so i hope john has changed his view on things but he certainly was a big supporter when he was a liberal democrat of john kerry. We need to go and destroy isis; support that. I dont want to have our troops in the frontline but they do need to be in a support role. We need to have a eyes on the battlefield to make that happen. Mr. Kennedy. And you get kicked in the rear it usually means youre out front. I do support the american airstrikes in mosul. I think we have to go further. I think thats a fully armed the kurds, the first mega, peshmerga excuse me. But there is a larger problem on international affairs. Our enemies no longer respect us and our friends no longer trust us because of president obamas policies. And he alone is not responsible. Do you know who else is responsible . The United States congress because they have sat there for eight years and they talk tough and they huffed and they puffed and they have done nothing about it. America is the strongest country in the history of the world. We need to start acting like it. Thats how we will win the war on terror. Moderator thank you very much. Followup . Im for boots on the ground, actually u. S. Its on the ground and who would take in any of these foreign complex for you to support back . You know greg it has to be an absolute last resort for most Precious Resource which is american troops and to send them into conflict with an exit strategy. Im not in favor taking any option off the table giving what an enemy may present us but i certainly understand we need to work in partnership with the occupant of the white house whoever that may be when this election cycle is over as well as our generals and their military intelligence to make the right decision. Right now we need to support the troops that are on the ground, the iraqis and the kurds. When you have airstrikes and we need to be able to fully have a coalition of partners in the United States so we can defeat isis. Moderator you have 30 seconds. Mr. Campbell. I would have to consult with all of our military leaders, the cia and the fbi, everybody to see if this was something that had to happen. It would be very hard for me to commit our man on the ground, men and women on the ground and i would have to know emphatically that 100 of our allies are willing to again. Im very concerned about that because we have done a lot in other people dont seem to