U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, strongly criticized President Joe Biden’s energy policies this week, decrying the policies as “backward, anti-American and anti-national security.”

Biden’s camp is doing “everything they can to erode American energy production,” he said, which is increasing greenhouse gases and increasing energy costs for everyday items such as gasoline and home heat. “They’ve chosen to stunt our economy making Americans pay more so Democrats can claim they’re reducing domestic emissions.”

Cassidy’s suggestion to the problems are to carefully balance environment, national security, the economy and affordable energy.  “If anyone of those are ignored the plan collapses,” he said.

With the country facing the worst inflation since 1982, “it’s time for the administration to take responsibility,” he said. Gasoline prices are up 49.6 percent; beef and veal are up 18.8 percent; and chicken and ham prices are up 10 percent.

“People who were eating steak are eating hamburger and people eating hamburger are eating hot dogs,” Cassidy said — and the Biden administration is “not taking it seriously.”

Rather than focusing on inflation, Cassidy said Biden is focused on banning “common sense voter I.D. laws” as evidenced by his recent comments in a Georgia address. Biden’s comments are an attempt to put Democrats in charge of the federal election commission, which is a neutral organization, Cassidy said.

“It’s a blatant political attempt to take over elections … distracting from the real issues impacting every American.”

Concerning the raging Omicron COVID-19 variant, one billion home tests are set to be distributed to Americans. “I’m glad they’re doing it, but it’s a little late,” Cassidy said as funds have long since been appropriated for such an effort.

“They’re asleep at the wheel,” he said.

Cassidy said he was enthusiastic about a recent move to federally mandate increased online transparency to ensure consumers are informed about how their personal data is used.

“It would take 76 work days for the average American to read through all the agreements tech companies use,” he said.

Under the new requirements, large companies will be required to provide a readable, easy -to-understand summary so that consumers “don’t have to comb through pages of legal jargon.”

Small businesses will be exempt from the requirement, Cassidy added.