John Thune: “when I came here to Washington, it was for the purpose of trying to bring some common sense to this institution and to…”

“when I came here to Washington, it was for the purpose of trying to bring some common sense to this institution and to this city. I believe that it is infinitely better for my children and for the children of this country and our grandchildren if we can have a Federal Government that is more efficient, that is more responsive, that is smaller, and if we can restore discussion and debate about values to our culture. Somehow we have gotten to a point in this country where we can accept the fact that if we are willing to write a check to the IRS, it removes us from the responsibility that we have to be good citizens, to work in our communities and our churches, to be good strong family leaders. That is a trend that I believe we need to change and something that we are making progress on. Significant progress. Progress on issues like welfare reform; the first balanced budget for some 30 years; the first tax cuts in 16 years, since 1981; Medicare reform; important reforms in the area of education that address values that we share, values like parental choice, like trying to give the taxpayers the best value for their dollar and provide the very highest quality education that we can for our young people.”