Thune Joins Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax

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WASHINGTON
— U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Greta Van Susteren on Newsmax.
On Congress’ responsibility to fund the government:
“The other party has a decision to make: Do they want to vote to reopen the government, or don’t they? These discussions, negotiations, all the things … they want to talk about, we’re willing to do, but not until they reopen the government and quit taking the American people hostage. This is a very simple, straightforward issue.
“We have a … funding resolution sitting at the desk in the Senate, ready to be passed by the Senate, already passed by the House of Representatives. The president will sign it into law soon as the Senate acts on it. All [the Democrats] have to do is reopen the government, and then we can have the conversation if they want to talk about some of these other issues.
“But right now, they’re holding the American people hostage, and their solution is $1.5 trillion in new spending, free health care benefits for noncitizens. They have a whole wishlist, liberal wishlist, which Chuck Schumer negotiated with left-wing groups like MoveOn.org, and that’s what’s animating the discussion in the Senate right now. I think that will change.”
On Democrats’ manufactured crisis:
“They want the Covid subsidies, but that program is rife with fraud, waste, and abuse. And yes, we will have the conversation, but we can’t do just a straight-up extension.
“First off, it’s a $365 billion program if you fully extend it for the time that they want to extend it. But beyond that, it’s got all kinds of problems with it. It is a program that … basically gives subsidies to insurance companies, who are incentivized then, through their agents and brokers, to enroll people, auto-enroll, who aren’t even aware that they’ve got coverage.
“And the evidence of that, of course, is that more than half of the people enrolled in that program last year didn’t even file a claim. But I will tell you that it’s quadruple what that number was before they put these Covid enhancements on it.
“These are Covid subsidies that were added by the Democrats. Covid isn’t with us anymore, and it’s time to reform that program. If we’re going to continue that program, we’ve got to do it in a way that makes sense for the American taxpayer, and today it does not.”
On Democrats’ shutdown hypocrisy:
“[Chuck Schumer] cut this deal with a lot of these left-wing special interest groups, and I think that’s unfortunate, but it is because he’s feeling pressure on his hard left … He has invested so much in trying to satisfy MoveOn.org and some of these other left-wing groups that have been controlling the actions he’s been taking in the Senate …
“Up until now, [Chuck Schumer] was never for [shutting down the government]. I mean, he was always the guy saying, you know, ‘You can’t take hostages. We need to keep the government open.’ Those are statements he was making in the past, and they’re statements a lot of other Democrats were making in the past, who now have a completely different position when the shoe’s on the other foot. And but this is all about politics.
“The substance of this is very straightforward. Keep the government open. We’ll continue the appropriations process, something we’re doing this year that they didn’t do when [Chuck Schumer] was the majority leader, and to fund the government in the right way through the normal appropriations process.
“And then we’ll figure this whole ACA issue out, but it certainly is not something that needs to be a part of the hijacking that Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have done to this short-term funding resolution, which is simply a seven-week, nonpartisan, clean, short-term funding resolution to keep the government open and to give us additional time to do the appropriations bills.”