Political Quotes

John Thune: last night, we found the answer to the question of how serious Democrats are about funding the government, and the…

On the recordSeptember 18, 2025
last night, we found the answer to the question of how serious Democrats are about funding the government, and the answer is not at all. For years, the Democrat leader talked about the importance of passing clean continuing resolutions. In fact, we did 13 of them while the Democrats had the majority the past 4 years with a Democrat in the White House. The Democrats' CR proposal this time is the exact opposite. It is not clean; it is filthy. It is packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats' leftist base: funding healthcare for able-bodied adults who refuse to work; ensuring that noncitizens go back on the Medicaid rolls; removing Republican-passed measures to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid and free up resources for the people who need Medicaid the most. Even while Democrats are ensuring that noncitizens and able-bodied adults who refuse to work are getting government-funded healthcare, they are attempting to eliminate a historic investment in home- and community-based services for Americans with disabilities. Where exactly do their priorities lie? They are also trying to ax Republicans' transformational, once-in-a-generation investment in rural healthcare designed to improve the way that we deliver care to those who need it. Republicans have advanced a clean, nonpartisan CR to keep the government funded while we continue bipartisan work on regular annual appropriations funding bills.
Said by
John Thune
Republican · South Dakota

Editor's note · Context

Criticizing Democrats' government funding proposal during a floor speech.

Share

More from John Thune

Aug 6, 2026

We’ve got to get a bill, if we want to pass a farm bill, that’s something that can pass the House and be signed into law by the president.

southdakotasearchlight.com
Sep 2, 2026

I’m hoping the White House will become engaged. Texas is an incredibly expensive state and obviously one that we need, that we’ve got to hold if we’re going to keep the United States Senate.

huffpost.com
Aug 16, 2026

try as we did on the House-passed version of it, we weren’t going to get there, and it was the small refineries issue.

southdakotasearchlight.com
Aug 3, 2026

Unfortunately, I think after two government shutdowns that have extended for a long period of time, it’s better for everybody if there’s predictability, certainty, and just to take that issue off the table.

rollcall.com

Other voices in this conversation