Thune Joins Larry Kudlow on Fox Business

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.

On the Working Families Tax Cuts:

"[P]eople this year who are filing tax returns, the average tax return this year is going to be 24 percent higher than it was during the Biden administration. And if you're somebody … who claims a deduction for tips or overtime, or a senior who's getting the benefit now of this increased deduction for Social Security, those returns are up 50 percent.

"So there is a great story to be told here about how we're putting more money in the pockets of the American people so that they can spend it their way, and that gets the economic growth you're talking about. Certainty on the business side … things we made permanent there … I mean anything you can do to get the economy growing at a faster rate creates better paying jobs, higher wages, and that's ultimately what the goal and the aspiration here ought to be."

On funding ICE and Border Patrol:

"[T]his is narrow only because the Democrats forced us into this position because they refuse to fund ICE and CBP. We've got to take care of that with Republican votes, ensure that well into the future that those agencies are funded. The Democrats have adopted the open borders, defund law enforcement position. That's the position that politically they seem to be comfortable with … If we want to do a budget resolution and do a more comprehensive approach and use reconciliation in the way that you described, there will be an opportunity to do that."

On Iran:

"I think it's perfectly appropriate for [the president] to not allow Iran's extortion of an international waterway. And by … making it difficult for them to get into and out of Iranian ports is … a necessary and a brilliant move, because it's the last resort the Iranians have. They have been destroyed, they've been crushed militarily by the U.S. operation there, and so now they're resorting to the last thing that they have available to them to try and get leverage. And I hope, if nothing else, this gets them to the table and forces them to end their nuclear program, which is really … what a lot of this was all about in the first place."

On voter ID:

"[W]e … forced the Democrats to vote a couple of weeks ago on the narrow issue of just having to use … a photo ID to vote. We didn't get any Democrat votes for that, despite the fact that many of them had been out there openly advocating for voter ID … If there's a way in which we can structure [voter ID] so that it passes … the procedural hurdles we have to deal with here in the Senate and do it in a reconciliation bill, I'm certainly open to that."

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