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Senate Majority Leader John Thune On The Budget/Reconciliation Negotiations
Senate Majority Leader John Thune joined me today:
Audio:
04-02hhs-thune
Transcript:
HH: Welcome back, America. I’m Hugh Hewitt. Joined by the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, John Thune. Senator Thune, welcome back. It’s great to have you, Leader. You were at the White House today with President Trump. Were you talking about budget and reconciliation?
JT: We were indeed, Hugh. Good to be with you, as always. Yeah, great meeting. We had the member of the Senate Budget Committee, and the President got a chance to hear from them, and the other way around. And I think it further intensified our desire to move forward and get this done for the American people.
HH: Now Chairman Arrington’s coming up after you. The whisper is the Senate isn’t cutting enough. What do you say to that?
JT: Well, I mean, we write the bill differently over here. We’ve got to comply with Byrd rule requirements that the House doesn’t, and so if we miss it by a dollar, we’re out of compliance. And that loses privilege on the floor, which exposes what would otherwise be a 51-vote majority to a 60-vote threshold. So it’s a very, you know, we have to do this in a very fine-tuned way. But we’ve got a section in there that says we, you know, our objective here is to get to $2 trillion dollars in savings as a minimum. And I think, you know, the house is at $1.5, so they’re, you know, it’s, I believe, at least, that we add the Senate instructions to the House instructions, and hopefully the House can pick it up and pass it, because the only things really that we change are the baseline that’s used, which allows the tax cuts to be permanent, which I think is really important and something the President is very supportive of. And then also having the debt extension included in there, extend a little while longer so it doesn’t fall right in the middle of the midterm elections in 2026.
HH: So Leader Thune, if they pass, if the House picks up the Senate version, which obviously you expect to pass, does that lock anything in other than the tax cuts being made permanent? Does it say what will and will not be cut?
JT: It has, the House instruction has, and then of course, it sets up reconciliation, and that’s where the real work gets done, Hugh. And that’s where the House and Senate will have to be working very closely together. For example, the House instruction directed the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to find $880 billion dollars in savings. And in the Senate, that’s the Senate Finance Committee that has jurisdiction on Medicaid. So Finance Committee and the Energy Commerce Committee. And then on the tax piece, it’s Ways and Means and Finance. So the two bodies are organized slightly differently, but to get a reconciliation bill on the President’s desk that does the things that we want to do on the border, on national security, on making sure that we don’t have a $4.5 trillion dollar tax increase at the end of the year, on energy, and on deficit reduction, we’re going to have to be in lockstep with the House and the White House. And everybody knows that. We’re working together. You know, as I’ve said before, we’ve got members in our, in the Senate, and they’ve got in the House, who kind of say things publicly, and there’s a little sparring back and forth, which is natural in a bicameral system with the House and the Senate. But at the end of the day, we all succeed or fail together. And in my view, failure is not an option.
HH: Now Leader Thune, we are in a moment of time where the Republican margin in the House is as big as it’s going to be, because two seats were filled last night, untimely death of two Democrats in the House. They’ve got the biggest margin, four defections, that they have. While that margin exists, do you expect reconciliation to kick off and the budget to pass?
JT: I do. I think the sooner we get the budget resolution done here in the Senate and over to the House, and hopefully approved there, reconciliation can get underway. And that’s the serious work, Hugh. As you know, it’s where the committees sit down and try and figure out okay, where can we find savings, and what programs can we reform and make work better and more efficiently, and here are the tax policies that we want to extend, and here are some new things that the President’s put on the table, including no tax on tips and some other ideas. And so we’re going to be working very, very closely to ensure that the final product is something that incorporates all of our objectives and goals. And again, you know, it’s border security, it’s rebuilding the military, energy dominance for the country, making the tax law permanent and with some additional changes, and then some very important deficit reduction where we find savings and try to put the country on a more sustainable fiscal path. So it’s all, that’s, those are the objectives and the goals. And to get there, we have to get down into specifics and the details. And that will happen once we get past this budget resolution and into the reconciliation debate.
HH: Does the budget resolution in the Senate have a topline increase for Defense, because I’m watching the B-2’s go to Diego Garcia, the Vinsen show up along with the Truman in the Persian Gulf. A lot of deployments of additional resources there, and I’m thinking they better plus up the Pentagon in a hurry. Is that in the budget, or does that have to wait for reconciliation?
JT: Well, it’s in the budget. It ultimately will get, you know, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, will get instructed in reconciliation, and during the budget resolution, and they’ll have to go in reconciliation and produce the dollars to put into rebuilding the military. But yeah, we’ve got a significant, you know, in the Senate bill, we’re at $150 billion dollars. And you know, that’s obviously recognizing that you had a Biden administration that for all four years, their investment in our military didn’t even keep up with the rate of inflation. So we’re behind, and as you point out, we’ve got, it’s a dangerous world. And we need to modernize our military and make sure that our war fighters are up to whatever challenge or threat we face out there.
HH: So Leader Thune, it’s April 2nd. When are we going to see the Senate vote on a budget?
JT: I, well, the Senate will vote at the end of this week. Reconciliation will come later, but you know, and that’s where you really make law. The budget resolution sets up the, unlocks, if you will, budget reconciliation. But we’re going to vote starting, I would say, probably Friday into Saturday, and however long it takes.
HH: And then it goes to the House. And do you expect them to return serve again? Or do you expect them to say okay, good, let’s go?
JT: Well, I’m hoping that with the President’s help, we can get them to that’s good, let’s go, because we didn’t, you know, we didn’t modify their instructions. All we did is add to it. We added a Senate instruction. I’m hoping that the Speaker and his team over there can succeed in getting this passed, because we don’t have a lot of time to kick this back and forth. And I think we’ve done everything we can to preserve the House’s work and then give the Senate the flexibility it needs to get the budget reconciliation passed, and then in reconciliation, we actually get down to the hard work of agreeing on the policy changes that we need to make. And the sooner we get started on that, the better.
HH: Last question, Leader. Do you expect all 53 Republicans to vote for your budget resolution?
JT: Probably not all 53, but hopefully we’ll have, the goal, as you know, is the requisite number. And you know, there’s always people who are, everybody’s vote is their own, but we need to have 50 plus 1.
HH: All right. That’s interesting, but I won’t go any further. We’ll wait and see what magic you can work. Leader John Thune, thank you.
JT: Thank you.
HH: I appreciate the time, and have a good rest of the day. It’s a busy one with the Washington speech going on.
End of interview.
The post Senate Majority Leader John Thune On The Budget/Reconciliation Negotiations appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
View all episodes
By Senate Majority Leader John Thune joined me today:
Audio:
04-02hhs-thune
Transcript:
HH: Welcome back, America. I’m Hugh Hewitt. Joined by the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, John Thune. Senator Thune, welcome back. It’s great to have you, Leader. You were at the White House today with President Trump. Were you talking about budget and reconciliation?
JT: We were indeed, Hugh. Good to be with you, as always. Yeah, great meeting. We had the member of the Senate Budget Committee, and the President got a chance to hear from them, and the other way around. And I think it further intensified our desire to move forward and get this done for the American people.
HH: Now Chairman Arrington’s coming up after you. The whisper is the Senate isn’t cutting enough. What do you say to that?
JT: Well, I mean, we write the bill differently over here. We’ve got to comply with Byrd rule requirements that the House doesn’t, and so if we miss it by a dollar, we’re out of compliance. And that loses privilege on the floor, which exposes what would otherwise be a 51-vote majority to a 60-vote threshold. So it’s a very, you know, we have to do this in a very fine-tuned way. But we’ve got a section in there that says we, you know, our objective here is to get to $2 trillion dollars in savings as a minimum. And I think, you know, the house is at $1.5, so they’re, you know, it’s, I believe, at least, that we add the Senate instructions to the House instructions, and hopefully the House can pick it up and pass it, because the only things really that we change are the baseline that’s used, which allows the tax cuts to be permanent, which I think is really important and something the President is very supportive of. And then also having the debt extension included in there, extend a little while longer so it doesn’t fall right in the middle of the midterm elections in 2026.
HH: So Leader Thune, if they pass, if the House picks up the Senate version, which obviously you expect to pass, does that lock anything in other than the tax cuts being made permanent? Does it say what will and will not be cut?
JT: It has, the House instruction has, and then of course, it sets up reconciliation, and that’s where the real work gets done, Hugh. And that’s where the House and Senate will have to be working very closely together. For example, the House instruction directed the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to find $880 billion dollars in savings. And in the Senate, that’s the Senate Finance Committee that has jurisdiction on Medicaid. So Finance Committee and the Energy Commerce Committee. And then on the tax piece, it’s Ways and Means and Finance. So the two bodies are organized slightly differently, but to get a reconciliation bill on the President’s desk that does the things that we want to do on the border, on national security, on making sure that we don’t have a $4.5 trillion dollar tax increase at the end of the year, on energy, and on deficit reduction, we’re going to have to be in lockstep with the House and the White House. And everybody knows that. We’re working together. You know, as I’ve said before, we’ve got members in our, in the Senate, and they’ve got in the House, who kind of say things publicly, and there’s a little sparring back and forth, which is natural in a bicameral system with the House and the Senate. But at the end of the day, we all succeed or fail together. And in my view, failure is not an option.
HH: Now Leader Thune, we are in a moment of time where the Republican margin in the House is as big as it’s going to be, because two seats were filled last night, untimely death of two Democrats in the House. They’ve got the biggest margin, four defections, that they have. While that margin exists, do you expect reconciliation to kick off and the budget to pass?
JT: I do. I think the sooner we get the budget resolution done here in the Senate and over to the House, and hopefully approved there, reconciliation can get underway. And that’s the serious work, Hugh. As you know, it’s where the committees sit down and try and figure out okay, where can we find savings, and what programs can we reform and make work better and more efficiently, and here are the tax policies that we want to extend, and here are some new things that the President’s put on the table, including no tax on tips and some other ideas. And so we’re going to be working very, very closely to ensure that the final product is something that incorporates all of our objectives and goals. And again, you know, it’s border security, it’s rebuilding the military, energy dominance for the country, making the tax law permanent and with some additional changes, and then some very important deficit reduction where we find savings and try to put the country on a more sustainable fiscal path. So it’s all, that’s, those are the objectives and the goals. And to get there, we have to get down into specifics and the details. And that will happen once we get past this budget resolution and into the reconciliation debate.
HH: Does the budget resolution in the Senate have a topline increase for Defense, because I’m watching the B-2’s go to Diego Garcia, the Vinsen show up along with the Truman in the Persian Gulf. A lot of deployments of additional resources there, and I’m thinking they better plus up the Pentagon in a hurry. Is that in the budget, or does that have to wait for reconciliation?
JT: Well, it’s in the budget. It ultimately will get, you know, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, will get instructed in reconciliation, and during the budget resolution, and they’ll have to go in reconciliation and produce the dollars to put into rebuilding the military. But yeah, we’ve got a significant, you know, in the Senate bill, we’re at $150 billion dollars. And you know, that’s obviously recognizing that you had a Biden administration that for all four years, their investment in our military didn’t even keep up with the rate of inflation. So we’re behind, and as you point out, we’ve got, it’s a dangerous world. And we need to modernize our military and make sure that our war fighters are up to whatever challenge or threat we face out there.
HH: So Leader Thune, it’s April 2nd. When are we going to see the Senate vote on a budget?
JT: I, well, the Senate will vote at the end of this week. Reconciliation will come later, but you know, and that’s where you really make law. The budget resolution sets up the, unlocks, if you will, budget reconciliation. But we’re going to vote starting, I would say, probably Friday into Saturday, and however long it takes.
HH: And then it goes to the House. And do you expect them to return serve again? Or do you expect them to say okay, good, let’s go?
JT: Well, I’m hoping that with the President’s help, we can get them to that’s good, let’s go, because we didn’t, you know, we didn’t modify their instructions. All we did is add to it. We added a Senate instruction. I’m hoping that the Speaker and his team over there can succeed in getting this passed, because we don’t have a lot of time to kick this back and forth. And I think we’ve done everything we can to preserve the House’s work and then give the Senate the flexibility it needs to get the budget reconciliation passed, and then in reconciliation, we actually get down to the hard work of agreeing on the policy changes that we need to make. And the sooner we get started on that, the better.
HH: Last question, Leader. Do you expect all 53 Republicans to vote for your budget resolution?
JT: Probably not all 53, but hopefully we’ll have, the goal, as you know, is the requisite number. And you know, there’s always people who are, everybody’s vote is their own, but we need to have 50 plus 1.
HH: All right. That’s interesting, but I won’t go any further. We’ll wait and see what magic you can work. Leader John Thune, thank you.
JT: Thank you.
HH: I appreciate the time, and have a good rest of the day. It’s a busy one with the Washington speech going on.
End of interview.
The post Senate Majority Leader John Thune On The Budget/Reconciliation Negotiations appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.