John Thune

Tobacco is an important issue, and it is something that we are going to pass legislation which prevents teens from starting smoking. But the issue, the reason that they are talking about at the White House the tobacco issue not the drug…

If I might add, we look at the Washington model, which is obviously, I think we would all concur, in many respects a failed model and the message that Washington sends to our young people. And would we not be much better served if we had…

I had the occasion to visit with a wide range of groups from economic development groups, to agricultural groups to education groups, and to discuss with them a wide range of issues; all of which I think are very relevant as we look to the…

Because, as the gentleman noted, we have to do something to address this very serious problem in the years as we get down the road. Today, obviously, the gentleman has laid out a plan which would protect us, but, ultimately, we have to do…

You go across the board in my State of South Dakota, because we are basically small businesses, farmers, ranchers, and you look at the death tax and rolling that back and the capital gains tax and rolling that back and the family credit…

I want to again compliment the gentleman for the extraordinary work he has done to draw attention to the need to be debt free as we move into a new century and to do something that is very positive for our children, for our grandchildren…

The fact we do not have sunset provisions in Federal programs is what I think makes the President's budget so dangerous. [...] we ought to give them back to the taxpayers whose dollars they are in the first place and really ought to have…

I think that is remarkable when we think about where we have come from, starting when our side took a poll of the Congress back in 1994, and began to govern in 1995, and how progressively each year we have been able to whittle away at the…

That is commonsense legislation, and that is probably the problem with it in this city. But in any case I hope that these bills move forward.

Because clearly in this country, and we have seen the statistics of late that the tax burden in America is higher as a total than it ever has been since 1945, and secondly, each individual family pays higher taxes today than they ever…

There are some that have expressed concerns that this bill may have implications beyond the question of determining eligibility for the universal service fund to questions of jurisdiction between States and tribal entities. Am I correct in…

I, too, support the line-item veto, but I think what is instructive about all this is, when the White House uses it inappropriately, as it has in this case by its own admission, that it is up to us to appropriately use our powers to…

I think as we, again, debate this, we have an opportunity. We have to be role models from the top down. People who are in public life, athletes, everybody else, has a responsibility in our culture to try and help define the values that our…

I am glad to hear that. You input your income and it will give you the real number, not the imputed number.

This last week, I spent most of the week driving some 2,200 miles across my State of South Dakota. I talked to farmers, ranchers, small business people, and a whole lot of just hard-working Americans. They did not want to hear the same old…

The budget agreement and the legislation that will implement that agreement is a good thing for America. It balances the budget by the year 2002 and keeps the budget in surplus thereafter. It provides $350 billion in gross tax cuts over 10…

I would hope that today we can pass the rule and get on with the business at hand, and that is to get badly needed disaster relief to those around this country including those in my own State who are desperately in need of it. We have…

And in Dakota territory, that is an important distinction to make because we have had our share throughout this last year, the most disastrous winter in our State's history and in North Dakota's history, as well, and we are in the process…

I have consistently throughout the last year as I have campaigned across the State of South Dakota supported term limits. In fact, I have committed to support the most restrictive version that would be enacted by the House of…