John Thune Offers Update In GOP Attempt To Pass Reconciliation Budget Bill

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Senate Republican leaders hold their weekly press briefing.

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00:00I think I know I think I know what they said this week we should be on the genius bill which is a

00:20stablecoin bill as most of you know we had a vote to motion to coach on the motion to proceed last

00:26week which every single Democrat every single Democrat voted against in spite of

00:32the fact that there were five Democrats who voted for that exact legislation when

00:38it came out of the Senate Banking Committee so the Democrats have now found newfound admiration

00:45for the Senate filibuster the junior senator from Arizona was in Pennsylvania over the weekend by

00:51the way he was one of the Senate Democrats who voted for the genius bill when it came

00:55on the Senate Banking Committee and he was out there just crowing about the fact the Senate

01:01Democrats have used the filibuster now four times they stopped four bills via the filibuster and so

01:07pretty remarkable and honestly that the Democrats now are in love with the Senate filibuster and given

01:15the fact that every single Senate Democrat either voted for or campaigned in favor or I should say

01:25in favor of getting rid of the filibuster so it's a pretty remarkable turnaround not that hypocrisy is

01:32something that's new in this town but this seems to take it to a whole new level so and since we're not

01:37doing that we're going to move forward on nominations and confirm a lot of President Trump's nominees that's

01:43the process that we've undertaken and in the lieu of having a genius bill available for consideration on

01:48the floor and I would point out with respect to that subject that this is the first president that

01:56hasn't had a nominee that has been approved by voice vote or unanimous consent at this point in a in a

02:05Senate going back if you believe this to the Ford administration to the Ford administration so the

02:11Democrats have opted and chosen obstruction they've chosen blocking they've chosen delay as their means

02:18of kind of trying to manage the institution these days but we're going to in spite of that continue to

02:24press forward we're going to continue to move the Republican agenda which starts with getting the

02:29president's nominees into place as quickly as possible so that is the that is the agenda for this

02:35week and at some point hopefully the Democrats will come back to the table on the genius bill and we'll get to

02:39the point where we can put it back on the floor unfortunately we didn't have that opportunity

02:45this week because they chose to filibuster it last week

02:48Senator Brossom no okay yeah some of your Republican colleagues are voicing concerns with the House product on

02:57reconciliation whether it's Medicaid whether it's phasing out some of the clean energy tax breaks whether

03:03it's not doing enough to reduce the deficit how are you responding to these concerns and what is

03:08the plan in the Senate will you take up the House bill will you address something on a parallel track

03:13we are coordinating very closely with our House counterparts at the committee level at the

03:22leadership level and we know they have to get 218 votes and so they're going to do what it takes to get it

03:28done in the House and when it comes over here we will be prepared for various contingencies obviously

03:36one of which could be taking up the House bill and offering a Senate substitute but we'll see what

03:41ultimately they're able to get done but I think I feel very good about about where we are where they

03:45are and where ultimately we're going to be on that bill as well are you comfortable with president

03:51Trump taking ownership of this Atari plane and then possibly using it and then in the

03:55post-presidency as well all we know about that I think at this point I've said this before and I

04:02believe it's true I don't think there's anything official out there this is a hypothetical and I'm sure

04:07that if and when there is it it's no longer a hypothetical I can assure you there will be plenty of

04:13scrutiny of whatever that arrangement might look like well again I mean I just said there will be plenty of

04:25scrutiny there are lots of lots of issues around that that I think will attract very serious questions if

04:31and when it happens at this point all we've heard about is is something that might be a

04:35I think it could be your take on these Democrats going to this ice facility in Newark

04:41obviously you know members under one section six have you know protection here to conduct

04:48oversight but the idea that they might be arrested they might be sanctioned is that proper to talk about

04:54in those terms well I mean I think everybody we're all subject to the laws of the land and everybody has their

05:00rights under our first amendment to express themselves and people avail themselves of that

05:07opportunity on a daily basis in this country but they need to do it within the confines of what's lawful

05:12you think do you support president Trump's plan on prescription drugs the executive order well I it's an

05:21executive order my guess is that it'll be the subject of probably multiple lawsuits and I think the courts will

05:28probably have something to say about it but all I said before and I think is any new anything new in

05:33this proposal as in many of the others proposals the president's made this is something he passionately

05:38believes in it's something he's talked about for a long time and so you know he's trying through

05:44executive order to make some headway on lowering the drug prices for people in this country particularly

05:49seniors and and again we'll see how it how it plays out but I'm quite certain that there will be lots more to

05:57say about that because I suspect that it's going to be the subject of litigation for some time

06:01thank you all

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