Thune Joins Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax
“[W]e’re looking for ways to gain efficiency, save money, and modernize our federal government...”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) joined Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax.
On budget reconciliation:
“There are a whole range of issues that we’re trying to address, but the budget resolution is the first step, and House and Senate have to pass the same budget resolution. That particular legislative vehicle doesn’t have to be signed into law by the president, but it unlocks the next piece, which is what we call budget reconciliation and that is where you are making law, and that’s where… the really hard work gets done.”
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“And of course, as you know, the goal in all of this is to make sure there isn’t a $4.5 trillion tax increase on the American people come January 1 of next year, to make sure that America is energy dominant. We want to address some energy policy in this particular document. We want to make sure that the border is secure, we’ve got funding in there to do that. And we want to rebuild our military so that the United States is… able to defend ourselves and protect American interests around the world. Those are all issues that we intend to address in this budget reconciliation document, which is set up by the budget resolution, which we will hopefully act on, if not next week, the week after.”
On making President Trump’s tax cuts permanent:
“There are a lot of things that we’re going to try and accomplish through this budget reconciliation exercise… [I]f we don’t get it done, then… at the end of year, you are going to have the taxes going up on working families across this country. You’d have the Child Tax Credit cut in half, you’d have the standard deduction go back by about 50 percent from where it is today, and so you’d see this big tax increase.”
On protecting entitlement benefits:
“Social Security is not eligible for consideration in budget reconciliation by law, so you take that off the table. The president has said he’s not going to touch Medicare. There are some things that we can do… in terms of reforms to Medicaid to make it more efficient without hurting beneficiaries, including work requirements, for example. That’s something that I think is broadly supported, not just by Republicans, but I think by independents and Democrats as well. I think there are reforms to make these programs run more efficiently, hopefully at a lot less cost to the taxpayers… those are the types of things that we’re looking at.
“And you’ve heard the president talk about waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs, and all these federal programs have a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse… we’re trying to identify that, work with the administration, and come up with solutions that we think allow government to operate more efficiently, hopefully at less cost, modernize it through technology… [W]e’re looking at all of the… federal programs to determine if there are savings that we can achieve.”
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“When the Democrats had control... around here for the last four years, [they] dramatically expanded the size and scope of some of these programs, increased eligibility, some of it coming out of the pandemic. Well, we aren’t in a pandemic anymore, and so it’s time to normalize some of these programs… [W]e’re looking for ways to gain efficiency, save money, and modernize our federal government in a way that other businesses around the country operate and run.”
On DOGE:
“[N]o agency or entity of government ought to be exempt from this. I mean, we ought to be drilling down – whether it’s the United States Senate or the House or the White House or, you know, the Department of Education, obviously, which is where we can combine a lot of savings… but every agency of government ought to be subject to this effort.
“And Elon Musk and DOGE… is looking, again, at the totality of the government to try and determine if there are ways we can do things better and more efficiently. And this kind of a scrub of our federal government is long overdue, it really is. We’ve needed this for a long time, and I think the American taxpayers demand and deserve that, and we need to make sure that we deliver for them.
“I just met this morning with some officials from the White House – Russ Vought from OMB as well as Kevin Hassett, the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, and some folks from Treasury – to talk about, how can we incorporate these DOGE savings into legislation that Congress can act on.
“And there’s some conversation around a rescissions bill, which is a mechanism whereby we can find some savings if the White House suggests it. So, we’re working with them, all driving in the same direction.”
Related Issues: Taxes, DOGE, Budget
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