Thune will vote for budget bill today, predicts passage

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• John Thune's conference call opening statement

Sen. John Thune said he expects the Senate and House to approve a fiscal year 2011 budget bill today.

The bill came together after a compromise was reached between congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats last week. The deal that was struck late Friday averted a shutdown of the federal government but set a Thursday deadline to pass a 2011 budget bill that tops $3.6 trillion.

Democrats and Republicans agreed to a $38 billion spending cut in the bill.

“The CR (continuing res- olution) isn’t perfect, but it is a win for American taxpayers,” said Thune, R-S.D., during a teleconference with South Dakota journalists Wednesday morning.

“I’m hoping that vote will at least set us on a path where we can get through the next six months and through the rest of this fiscal year and allow us to pivot to work on next year’s budget,” he said.

Thune said it is the largest non-defense spending cut in history and the biggest reduction in federal spending since he came to Washington. He said while he still has some problems with the deal, he will vote for it.

“It is in that respect a victory for the American taxpayer,” Thune said.

He said the House and Senate should pass the budget bill today but a filibuster in the Senate may occur, although he said he has not heard of any plans for one.

“I think that’s always a possibility in the Senate,” Thune said. “I hope that doesn’t happen.”

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., plans to vote for the bill even though he is far from a big supporter of it.

“This debate is not about whether to cut spending or not. It is about making the tough choices,” Johnson said in a reply to The Daily Republic.

“We should cut subsidies on profitable big oil and gas companies, not on education programs for our kids,” he said. “The debate on the bipartisan budget deal is a preview for the 2012 budget.”

Johnson said he doesn’t expect a filibuster to block the bill.

Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., is unsure how she will vote, according to her spokesman, Josh Shields.

“Rep. Noem is still reviewing the details of the bill and listening to South Dakotans on what they think of its provisions,” Shields said in an email to The Daily Republic.

Obama delivered a speech on the budget deal two hours after Thune’s press call. Thune said he hoped the president’s speech would be “more than a vision and certainly more than just rhetoric.”

Johnson praised Obama’s speech.

“I’m glad that the president put out a solid alternative to the House Republican budget proposal, particularly their plan to privatize Medicare, a program that tens of thousands of South Dakotans rely on,” he said.

“I also believe that the president is right that deficit reduction must include raising revenue through closing tax loopholes and asking millionaires to pay their fair share — that is the only realistic way to bring the budget into balance.”

Thune had sharp words for Obama’s performance in office and said he will be judged not by his words or rhetoric, but by his actions.

“In fact, his budget this year was a complete failure in terms of even remotely addressing the big fiscal problems and challenges that are facing our country,” Thune said. “I’m glad that he has now joined the discussion.”

He called for the president to “provide real leadership and meet the Republicans at least halfway” on cutting the budget.

He said it’s also worth remembering that work needs to be done on a 2012 budget bill that needs to be passed this fall to avoid another series of continuing resolutions and threats to shutter some government services.

In other news:

• Thune said he’s aware that reductions in federal dollars have impacted numerous programs and agencies, and the announcement of job cuts and program changes in the South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service is an example.

“I don’t think you can ever make decisions like this that don’t have real impact,” he said. “Those are hard choices and I can only sympathize with the situation that puts people in. We’re all going to make some tough choices. None of these things are without consequence.”

Agricultural programs and tribal services are among the areas that will also face tough times and difficult choices as federal spending is reduced, Thune said.

“We need to be fair. I think that everybody recognizes we all need to tighten our belts,” he said. “Everybody gets a little bit of a haircut. It is going to have some impact on South Dakota.”

• Thune said charges that Republicans favor the wealthy and corporations while cutting spending for the poor and agencies that assist them fly in the face of facts.

“Domestic, non-defense discretionary spending has increased in the last two years by 24 percent. And if you add in stimulus spending, it’s 84 percent,” he said. “We have seen an explosion in spending. … We have to demonstrate we are serious about getting spending under control.”

• Thune promoted his Freedom from Government Competition Act, a bill he said would require federal agencies to utilize the private sector when providing goods and services.

“With our nation’s debt well over $14 trillion and our national unemployment hovering near 9 percent, it is important now more than ever that the federal government’s policies not only save tax dollars but also foster job creation in the private sector,” he said. “My bill would ensure that taxpayer dollars would not be used by the federal government to unfairly compete with private sector businesses.”

Thune said he uses what he calls “the Yellow Pages test,” which states that if the federal government is doing something that can be found in the phone book, the product or service should be subject to market competition to ensure better value for the taxpayer.

“The federal government should not be competing with private enterprise,” he said.

Thune said his bill, cosponsored with four other Republican senators, would save up to $27 billion annually.

• Raising the debt limit is another issue that needs to be addressed, Thune said, and it offers an opportunity to address spending.

It’s important to raise the limit to prevent the country from defaulting on its bills, Thune said, but he also said the government needs to target debt reductions.

Senators will discuss it with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today, Thune said, and will send a message to the White House to take the issue seriously.

“It’s something our country urgently needs,” he said.

• Earlier this week, Thune reintroduced legislation that he said will fix the “flawed definition” of renewable biomass in the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, which currently excludes any material removed from national forests and most private forestlands.

“As fuel prices continue to rise across our country with oil above $100 per barrel, we ought to be utilizing the ample amounts of forest waste available from our national forests, including South Dakota’s Black Hills National Forest, to produce energy,” Thune said. “We need to get that definition changed and expanded.”

• Thune said billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump’s surge in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination isn’t a surprise.

“Well, this is a country where it’s happened before, that somebody who’s got some certain amount of celebrity status makes it to the White House,” he said. “It’s a free country and it’s his prerogative, he decides he wants to run for the president and he wants to expend a lot of resources to do it, and it sounds like he does, more power to him.”

Thune said while Trump hasn’t formally announced, there is a segment of the population “looking for an unconventional” candidate who will address big issues. He said he has met the New York developer and TV star.

“He’s a guy with tremendous appeal just because of his celebrity,” Thune said. “So he’ll have natural name identification and that always opens a lot of doors for you. We’ll see whether or not he can form a connection with the American people.”

• Thune said rising gas prices are a concern to him and most Americans, but he wonders if Obama has taken it seriously.

“This administration is missing in action on this issue,” he said.

Thune said the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies are blocking or slowing efforts to develop energy in the United States at a time when the average price of gas is $3.80 per gallon and diesel fuel is selling for $4.11 per gallon.

“There are so many things this administration is doing that make it tough for us to complete when it comes to energy,” he said.

Senate Republicans are trying to “elevate this issue,” Thune said, and want to find other sources of energy.

“To me, it’s about everything American,” he said. “We have to be developing the resources we have here in this country.”

• Thune dismissed a comment by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi that the Republican Party needs to return to its traditional path and reject the input and growing power of the tea party movement.

He termed Pelosi’s comments “a little bit of sour grapes” after Democrats lost control of the House in the 2010 election.

“I’m glad she’s out of power and I think her advice to the Republican Party is something that most Republicans are not going to heed,” he said.

The best plan for the GOP in 2012 is to call for reform and change, he said.

• Thune expressed his sympathies to the family and friends of Ronald Johnson, the 63-year-old state prison guard who was killed during an escape attempt by two inmates Tuesday.

“Kimberley and I have his family, friends and co-workers in our prayers,” Thune said.

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