Cassidy, Kennedy Trash Democrats Election Bill. Here's Why

United States Senators from Louisiana John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy have both gone on the record with statements that are less than kind to proposed legislation that Democrats call "voting rights," but Kennedy, for one, calls it the "screw the people act."

The bill, which was blocked in the Senate on Wednesday on a party line vote, would have given the federal government more oversight over how elections are conducted in individual states, including an expansion of absentee voting, ballot harvesting and how long after an election votes could be counted.

"It's an extraordinarily cynical bill even by Washington standards. It's very ruthless, even by Washington standards, Kennedy told Fox News, "Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer call it the 'For the People Act,' but I think it would be more aptly described as the screw the people act."

Senator Cassidy, though slightly less homespun, was just as caustic in his review of the legislation. "“This bill’s goal is not to improve election integrity but to improve the chances of a Democrat winning public office," said Cassidy in a release. "This bill allows ballot harvesting, forces taxpayers to fund political campaigns, and bars common-sense voter I.D. laws. We should all support election security, this does not do that."

Leading Democrats vow to continue the fight. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York continued to say that the bill is about expanding the voting rights of the disenfranchised and says Dems will continue to press forward.

But Kennedy says it's about something else, entirely. "It will make it much easier to cheat in an election," he said to Fox, "It guarantees we'll never have another election day. We'll have election months. It (also) achieves its purpose by taking elections, which are governed by the people through their state legislatures, and gives that authority to the federal government. I guarantee the first thing they're going to do is get rid of voter I.D."

And Cassidy echoed the tone in a recent Advocate op-ed, calling the bill, "a recipe for election disaster and fraud. This is not a voting rights bill. Ballot harvesting, letting non-citizens vote. This is an attempt to rig the system to help Democratic politicians stay in power."

The Wednesday vote, 50-50, fell substantially short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the legislation.