Thune Joins Bret Baier on Fox News
“The ball is in [Democrats’] court, and this is politics for them - nothing more, nothing less.”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Bret Baier on Fox News.
On the bicameral meeting at the White House:
“It was spirited … [Democrats have] a base that is demanding that they fight anything related to President Trump. [Democrats passed a CR] 13 times … when they had the majority … [and] Joe Biden in the White House … Well, what’s changed? Donald Trump’s the president, that’s what’s changed.”
[…]
“There is no reason for a government shutdown. Republicans are united – House Republicans, Senate Republicans, the president of the United States all agree to keep the government open. All it takes is Chuck Schumer to agree to put the bill that’s sitting at the Senate desk. The House has passed it. We can pass it. President signs it into law. Government stays open.”
[…]
“The ball is in [Democrats’] court, and this is politics for them – nothing more, nothing less.”
On Congress’ responsibility to fund the government:
“I’ve made this very clear: You pass a short-term funding resolution that will enable us to finish the other appropriations bills through the normal, regular process … We want to fund the government the way that it should be funded, which is through regular order …the Appropriations Committee marking up bills, reporting them to the floor, opening it up to the amendment process. That’s the way it used to work.
“In Chuck Schumer’s universe, we didn’t do appropriations bills. It was all written behind closed doors in his office. And now he’s upset because he isn’t being consulted on everything, because we’re doing things the way we should be doing them – allowing Republican senators and Democrat senators to work together to pass these bills.
“What we need is to fund the government, give us some time to do the rest of the appropriations bills, and if there are other issues they want to talk about, one of which is this premium tax credit issue … we welcome that conversation. But you can’t hold the federal government hostage. Release the hostage, and then we can start talking about these other things.”
On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:
“Republicans are united – House Republicans, Senate Republicans, President Trump. The House Republicans have passed a short-term funding resolution that is clean, nonpartisan, and came over to the Senate. It’s sitting at the desk in the Senate. We could pick it up and pass it tonight, the president would sign it into law, the government stays open.
“It’s that simple. And what they’re trying to do is create a counter-narrative that suggests that they can add trillions of dollars of spending … there isn’t a world in which they’re being realistic. This is a totally unserious proposal.”
[…]
“Schumer is running scared from his political left. I mean, it’s that simple. And again, this is all about who’s in the White House. [Democrats] did this 13 times when Biden was in the White House.”
On Democrats’ manufactured crisis:
“The premium tax credit issue is something we’re willing to have a conversation about, but the fact of the matter is, it is rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. It needs reforms.
“It is a program where government pays, makes direct payments to insurance companies. Insurance companies get subsidies to cover more people, so through their agents and brokers, they go out and auto-enroll people, many of whom don’t even know they have coverage, and of the 23 million people who were covered in the exchanges last year, 12 million never filed a claim, because a lot of them don’t even know they have coverage. And there’s no income caps on it. There’s a couple in West Virginia making $580,000 a year that’s getting subsidies from the federal government for their health care …”
[…]
“We’re willing to have that conversation, but … you can’t do that in the context of a hostage-taking situation, which is where we are right now.”
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