Thune Joins Hannity, America’s Newsroom

“There are lots of flaws in Obamacare, but all the promises, none of them came to fruition. It was all a big lie, and I think the American people are onto it.”

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) joined Hannity and America’s Newsroom on Fox News.

On Democrats’ health care crisis:

“People [who] make $500,000, $600,000 a year are having their health insurance subsidized by people who are making $40,000 or $50,000 a year – that’s what the Democrat proposal does. And there are zero-dollar premiums; a lot of people have no idea they’re even covered, so the insurance companies auto-enroll them because they’re incentivized to do that. And so the costs keep going up, insurance premiums keep going up in the individual marketplace on the Obama exchanges – that’s got to stop.”

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“There are lots of flaws in Obamacare, but all the promises, none of them came to fruition. It was all a big lie, and I think the American people are onto it … [Democrats] made these promises [that] it was going to drive health care costs down … In the exchanges, from the inception of Obamacare to today, 221 percent increase in premiums. The CPI over that same time period was about 39 percent and in the individual market it was about … 68 percent … It’s a failure.”

On Republicans’ plan to lower health care costs:

“[Republicans] are for putting more money in the pockets of the American people so they can make their decisions about their health care coverage, instead of giving it to the insurance companies paid for by the taxpayers with no income limits.”

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“What [Republicans are] going to do today, Dana, is put a proposal on the floor that the Congressional Budget Office actually has determined reduces, by double digits, insurance premiums. That’s what this ought to be about. If it’s really about affordability, let’s focus on affordability and driving down insurance premiums. What the Democrats are doing is continuing to drive them up and giving the money to the insurance companies.”

On confirming President Trump’s nominees at a record pace:

“[T]his is something that applies just to district court judges and U.S. attorneys, and it allows individuals, the senators from those states, to be able to sign off on the people who are nominated to those positions. That doesn’t apply to circuit court judges, obviously doesn’t apply to Supreme Court judges, and we have moved his nominees through the process at a record rate.

“We will, by the end of this year, have a record number of [President Trump’s] nominees approved to the executive branch. Got his cabinet confirmed at the fastest rate possible. We’ll continue to work on the judiciary, Dana, but this is a procedure that’s been in place for a long time, that both Republicans and Democrats support, because it gives them some input, and particularly in those judges, the judicial appointments that are made in their individual states, some input into that decision-making process.”