John Thune Quotes

The House Republican leadership has simply run out of ideas.

While we face economic obstacles that challenge every decision made in Washington, decisions made merely for political gain must stop. It's time to restore civility in Congress. It's time for action where action is needed - all politics aside.

The best thing to hold down spending is to have a Democratic President and a Republican Congress.

The [political] system is too responsive now. It responds to every short term whim without regard to the long term.

I told New Jerseyans that I would find ways to work for commonsense, bipartisan solutions to some of our greatest challenges.

Our objectives are clear. Let's keep the government open and protect our constituents.

You can make tough decisions that I believe voters for years have asked us to do.

Washington doesn't have just a spending problem, or just an entitlement problem, or just a taxing problem. We have a leadership problem. Fix that, and the first three problems are solved.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the House right now seems to have been strangled by the tea party.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

I am proud of the President's leadership. I am proud to support him in saying: Yes, we are going to do what is necessary now when it is less painful and less expensive.

The Senate needs 60 votes to pass anything. They have to compromise with liberal Democrats to spend more money. Even though arguably we have control of the Senate, we really don't.

Managing a country is like managing a company in many ways. It maybe involves more complicated issues, but it's the same skills.

At the start of his second term, one wonders less about Obama's fitness than his willingness: Why doesn't he do more to build and maintain the relationships required to govern in era of polarization?

I don't want foreign policy developed just by one party and ride roughshod over the other party.

Twenty-five years ago, I created the Taxpayer Protection Pledge at the federal level. Then I brought it to the state and local level. About 97 percent of the Republicans in the House and 85 percent in the Senate have signed on, and the number of candidates who have taken the pledge is even higher. It's become a party position.

I think that Governor Romney needs to talk about the fact that what he tried to do in the state of Massachusetts was him seeing what could be best for his state, but maybe it didn't work out as well.

I learned some valuable lessons about the legislative process, the importance of bipartisan cooperation and the wisdom of taking small steps to get a big job done.

I want to spend 100 percent of my time focused on what I think I can make the biggest difference on as the governor of California.

Democrats can neither control nor predict whether our GOP counterparts are really ready to play chicken with the U.S. economy. But we can assure the American people that our party takes the nation's faith and credit seriously.

You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress.

Sustainability is a very tough thing in our government because there are so many different competing priorities.

If you really want to live like a Republican, vote Democratic because we give you a better economy.

Government is about hard choices.

The Congress must regain the will to govern.