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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.

On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:

“[Democrats] had their big … protest this weekend, got all their left-wing groups satisfied all over the country, and it seems like at least now they ought to come back to their senses and realize that shutting down the government’s not good for anybody, and I think they’re starting to feel the heat on that.

“It’s just not a defensible position in the long term … If they don’t vote to open up the government … they’re going to have to start explaining to the American people why they consistently vote to shut down the government at a time when there are important priorities that need to be funded – whether that’s air traffic control, or TSA, or Border Patrol, law enforcement, our troops, obviously, first and foremost.

“Those are all things that very shortly here are not going to get paid if … the government doesn’t open up.”

On Democrats’ health care crisis:

“[Democrats are] trying to hijack the federal government in exchange for $1.5 trillion in new spending and to bail out a program that is failing and is driving insurance premiums up for people in the individual marketplace – I don’t know how you defend and explain that.

“And I think that’s starting to sink in with the American people. The Democrats are … going to own this. And like I said, we’ll give them another vote this evening to open up the government; see what they do.”

[…]

“I’m happy to have the conversation about the unaffordability of Obamacare and what we might be able to do to fix that, but you can’t do that while the government is being held hostage … They want a guaranteed outcome. That’s what they continue to insist upon … I’ve offered them a vote …

“But so far, they seem dug in … I think this is a lot less about a solution to that problem that they say they are trying to fix, and a lot more about having a political issue and satisfying that far-left base that was … marching in places around the country last weekend.”