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Thune: Abandon Partisanship and Work Together on Real Solutions

“So wouldn’t it be prudent, wouldn’t it be logical, wouldn’t it be rational for this body, the custodians, the stewards of the American people’s tax dollars, to take a hard look at what’s working and what’s not working before rushing headlong into spending another $3 trillion?”

May 21, 2020

Washington — 

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed the importance of monitoring the comprehensive and bipartisan response to the COVID-19 crisis to ensure money borrowed from future generations is going to programs and efforts that are working to bring real relief to Americans who are suffering in the wake of this pandemic. Thune also expressed his frustration with Democrats’ desire to advance partisan legislation that has no chance of becoming law.

Click here to watch Thune’s speech.

Excerpt of Thune’s remarks below:

“Just as a reminder to my colleagues, every dollar that we spend is borrowed from our children and grandchildren. This doesn’t just magically appear out of thin air. We’re borrowing money. Now, granted, money that we needed to borrow. Particularly what we’ve already done – and everybody acknowledges we had a crisis, we had to put out a fire, and we’ve been doing that. But every dollar, respectively, every dollar that we’ve already spent is a borrowed dollar, borrowed from future generations of Americans, and someday, dollars that we’re going to have to repay. So wouldn’t it be prudent, wouldn’t it be logical, wouldn’t it be rational for this body, the custodians, the stewards of the American people’s tax dollars, to take a hard look at what’s working and what’s not working before rushing headlong into spending another $3 trillion?

“The Democrat leader got up here and applauded the House of Representatives for blowing into town for 24 hours last Friday, cobbling together an ideological wish list. Now, granted, there were some things in there that are probably good ideas, and maybe things that in the end could end up in a piece of legislation. But it didn’t get a single Republican vote, and it didn’t have a single consultation with Republicans in the House of Representatives about how to put it together. You know what, in the end, they couldn’t keep all of the Democrats. There were 14 Democrats that voted against that in the House of Representatives, and not a single Republican. Which makes sense, if you’re a Republican you never get asked, you’re never at the table, you have no input whatsoever. They come in and put this thing together, 1,800 pages, $3 trillion, and what’s it got in it? Crazy stuff.”