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U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Charles Payne on Fox News to discuss Democrats’ attempt to revive their reckless tax-and-spending spree, the inflation crisis caused by Democrats’ spending, the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy, and Democrats blocking sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

 

On Democrats’ attempt to revive their reckless tax-and-spending spree:

 

“However you try and label this, if you slap lipstick on it, it's still a pig. It's still a bloated thing that would exacerbate the inflationary problem, the crisis that we're already seeing in the country.

 

“You know, the textbook definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few of goods. And so the Democrats talked about spending at one time up to $5 trillion, most of which would be borrowed, and then finance some of it with tax increases, which would also be harmful to inflation.

 

“Trying to break it down and pass it in pieces doesn't make it any better. It's still wasteful spending at a time when we really ought to be focused on dealing with the issues that are front and center for the American people, and that is trying to get inflation under control so that the things that they're buying in their daily lives aren't costing so much that they're exceeding the amount of pay increases they may be getting year-to-year.”

 

On Democrats’ policies causing rising inflation:

 

“It's economics 101. And the idea that you could flood the zone with more spending, and honestly, Charles, if you think about it, the $2 trillion bill that was passed last March is really I think what has fueled the inflationary crisis that we have in this country today.

 

“And that was too much spending at the time, and this is just compounding that problem. So it's, you know, they can say what they want, but they're going to have to, it's going to have to be phony math for them to suggest that in any way possible that you can put more dollars out there and have it not add to the inflationary problem.”

 

On the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy:

 

“I can tell you this, Republicans are going to evaluate, give a thorough, fair vetting to whatever nominee they send up here. We’ll be respectful, unlike the way the Democrats were when Kavanaugh was being processed up here by the Senate. 

 

“But we're going to we're going to look at the temperament, judicial qualifications, and frankly, judicial philosophy. And I think those are the issues going to determine the outcome, where Republicans are at least, with respect to the potential nominee.”

 

On Democrats blocking Russia sanctions:

 

“I think anything you want to do, you want to do it preemptively.

 

“The whole objective of most of these things is to deter bad behavior, and we had an opportunity, we had a vote a few weeks ago to sanction the Putin pipeline, and the administration lobbied ferociously to keep Democrats in line, and they defeated it.

 

“We actually could have done something meaningful on energy, which is something that, of course, is very critical to Russia's economy. And it would have sent a powerful message, I think, to Putin and his allies and also to our allies in Ukraine. 

 

“Unfortunately, Democrats took it down. So yeah, thinking that you can wait until he goes in and then you can then all of a sudden will pounce, I think misses the point. If you want to deter bad behavior, you take those steps earlier rather than later, and we missed a golden opportunity a few weeks back.”