Video: Thune Backs Ag, Preaches Magical Scaredy-Cat Budget

Senator John Thune held a one-hour town hall for about 90 interested citizens here in Aberdeen today. I’ll post video of the fourteen questions he fielded shortly, but first, here are his opening comments on agriculture, boosting GDP growth, and spending more on guns.

My camera ate the first part where Thune talked about the Farm Bill (which expires at the end of September 2018) and his Soil Health and Income Protection Program. But we do get Thune here talking about his work on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Thune hopes that Donald Trump includes rural broadband in his promised infrastructure initiative. Thune looks forward to selling off wireless spectrum. He says his CST committee has already reauthorized NASA and passed a weather bill, which will be good for agriculture:

Senator Thune then turns to his work on the finance committee. Here comes the magic: just make the economy grow, and we don’t have to make any hard policy decisions!

3 to 3.5% annual growth in GDP? Well, at least Thune isn’t promising Kristi Noem’s 9.1%. But he’s still got to deal with Piketty and other economics experts who say we are in a new era of slower growth. (And John, if you don’t stand up to Trump’s protectionism, growth will be even slower.)

Cutting taxes and regulations and wishing for yesteryear’s GDP growth seems an awfully thin policy agenda. But don’t be scared of John Thune’s lack of policy vision. Be scared of the world, which is “increasingly dangerous,” and which we must confront by buying more guns:

I would agree that the world is more dangerous with Donald Trump in charge of armed cruise missiles.  I would disagree with Senator Thune that the proper solution is to spend more money on national security. Actually, with Donald Trump’s finger on the button, the proper solution to global danger could be to spend much less on things Donald Trump can launch and detonate.

We’ll hear more from Thune on voodoo economics, guns and butter, the filibuster, and more in his responses to constituent questions, coming up on Dakota Free Press!