Rushmore State News

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) appeared on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the ongoing government shutdown and efforts in Congress to resolve it.

Thune criticized Senate Democrats for their repeated rejection of a short-term funding resolution. "There’s not a lot to negotiate, Maria. The Democrats just need to open up the government. Right now, we’re at a stalemate. They’ve now voted four times. We’ve given them the opportunity – a clean, nonpartisan, short-term funding resolution that continues government funding for the next seven weeks, and on four occasions now they’ve voted against it," Thune said.

He expressed hope that Democrats would reconsider in an upcoming vote. "So they’ll get another chance on Monday to vote again, and I’m hoping that some of them have a change of heart … What’s happening here is the Democrats are trying to hijack a short-term, nonpartisan continuing resolution to fund the government merely for seven weeks, to give us an opportunity to get the appropriations process done – to try and get $1.5 trillion of new spending, make health care in this country, free health care available to noncitizens in this country, and guts a $50 billion rural hospital health fund that’s designed to support rural hospitals."

According to Thune, these proposals from Democrats are not acceptable: "That’s what they’ve got on the table. That’s [Democrats’] proposal. It’s a nonstarter. It’s not serious, it’s not reasonable, it’s not realistic. Everybody knows that. The Democrats need to come to that realization and understand their option in front of them here is to open up the government, and then we can talk about all these other things they want to have a conversation about."

Thune also called on Democratic senators not to follow Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's approach: "[Chuck Schumer’s] rank-and-file members shouldn’t follow his lead on this. This is where you need to separate from your leader and actually do the right thing for your constituents and for your country."

He described the proposed resolution as straightforward: "This is nonpartisan, we didn’t put anything on it – no gimmicks, no policy riders. Just a straightforward resolution to keep the government open so we can continue the appropriations work that … both sides, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, want to do."

Discussing impacts of the shutdown if it continues further, Thune said: "You’re talking about border patrol agents not getting paid, TSA agents not getting paid … You’ve got programs like … food assistance for women and children that’s being affected by this. At some point, this is going to start having real consequences …

"The administration is having to make decisions right now about how to move money around, which agencies and departments to prioritize in all this. And those are also decisions they’re going to be costly to the American people and to a lot of the constituents of Democrats out there who continually vote to keep the government shut down."

He noted legislative work stalled by the shutdown: "The real sacrifice here, too, is all the other things we need to be doing … We’ve got a defense authorization bill that’s supposed to be on the floor. Appropriations bills. Permitting reform. All kinds of other things that are … swept aside and hanging in the balance now over this shutdown."

On responsibility for causing or prolonging the shutdown Thune said: "This is a Schumer shutdown. Chuck Schumer instigated this at the behest of a bunch of far-left, liberal interest groups." He added there were ongoing conversations between some Democrats and Republicans about reopening government.

"So hopefully the reasonable Democrats will prevail there and not … follow the lead of their leader … and walk down this path of a government shutdown," he said.

Thune attributed Democratic opposition partly as resistance against former President Trump: "Right now [Democrat] leadership is stuck because these left-wing special interest groups are so adamant in their desire to fight President Trump ... They don’t want to give president a victory on anything ..."

Regarding long-term trends he stated: “This is the new business model for Democrats in Senate ... They have decided take everything hostage because hatred for president ... For some ... this Trump Derangement Syndrome is borderline pathological.”

Turning briefly from domestic issues Thune commented on Middle East peace efforts: “We’re all very hopeful ... let’s get these hostages released ... I give president and his team great credit for sitting down ... work with Israelis ... neighbors in region who care deeply about stability.” He remained skeptical about Hamas’ intentions but credited presidential diplomacy while expressing hope for peace.