mr. thunend mr. williams will have a fair opportunity to make their best cases and state their position on a wide range of issues. the questions are mine and do not been shared in advance. as moderate i challenge the candidates to talk about themselves, their views, their values, their experiences, and not go negative against their opponents. and ask all of you here in the holiday inn ballroom to be respectful of the candidates by avoiding applause and outbursts that could detract from the civility and the quorum of this debate. the candidates will each have one minute to respond to most of the questions. more time may be allotted as warranted. diane delahoussaye to doubt if it is is the official timekeeper and she will hold up morningside for the candidates as time runs down and then expires. the seating order an initial speaking order or determined by a coin toss earlier this afternoon. mr. thune will go first and then about halfway through the debate the speaking order will be reversed and m

thanks again. >> moderator: mr. thune. >> thank you, jack. thank you rotarianns and thanks for the opportunity to discuss issues. every election in my opinion is about the future. some of you heard i just had a granddaughter five weeks ago. it makes you more keenly aware of the things that we do, decisions we make and what they will do to shape the future those kids and grandkids will live in. elections are about differences. we have stark differences how we approach issues. one thing i will tell you that we have big challenges facing this country, on the economic front, domestic front, national security. we're going to need a strong voice in washington, d.c. and i have proven in the time i've been in office, that i am somebody who knows how to get things done. as i mentioned, i chair the come blesser science and transportation committee in the congress, in the senate. i serve on the finance committee. which has jurisdiction over health care, taxes, trade, social security. i serve on the ag, committee, our state's number one industry. i worke

. >> mr. thune. >> we are a great country made up of great people and with the right policies we can be even greater and i hope that when this election is said and done in the smoke clears in the dust settles we can work together and i will do that. i done that my entire time in office. i've stood up to presidents who i thought were trying to do things that were bad for south dakota. i've worked with presidents when i felt like they were doing things that were good for south dakota and that's what we need more of, people willing to build bridges and relationships and get results. my whole career has been built around getting results for the people of south dakota. i chaired a committee called commerce science and transportation committee which has jurisdiction over played, trains, automobiles, internet technology and the ranking democrat on my committee, bill melton, join me last week in rapid city this is in the underground lab and we worked together to pass numerous bills through congress this las

moderator: how would you address the budget deficit mr. thune -- tion mark sen. thune: we will be back to attorney and dollar a year deficits. it is only a matter of time afore we are going over cliff. if we do not do something about it soon, the country will be in huge trouble. tot weighs heavily on me think about our kids and grandkids. i think what you have to do is, two thirds of federal spending is mandatory spending. half to reform those programs to get them on a sustainable level if we are going to deal with the dead. that needs to be job number one. we need the political courage and will to figure out how we will address and reform entitlement programs. second is economy -- economic growth. moderator: mr. williams? mr. williams: we need to understand how the debt got here. when republican president bush took over, he had a -- eight years later after tax cuts and two , he gave president obama a $1.4 trillion deficit. -- he cut that from attended by two thirds. that is been done with spending cuts. if we went to address the debt, it is 0%

mr. williams: i have to thank you, jack, and the rotary club senator thune. i am a fourth generation south dakotan, a u.s. navy veteran was service in the vietnam war. as a navy pilot, served in europe and in the u.s. i am a veteran of the peace corps. i served in south america. degree from the university of wisconsin and a master of computer science from northern illinois university. as a high-tech software engineer, i work for texas industries in dallas, texas, and for two different high-tech software companies in silicon valley during the computer revolution. ourears ago, my wife and three children and i moved back to south dakota for a high-tech business right here. i have been operating the business and serving my community in various ways. on the school board, i was actually president of our rotary club. i do love rotary. if you can tell from my experience, i am not a career politician. quite the opposite. i have a lot of background. almost everybody who i need i can find something in common with. that will allow me, if elected, to go to washington and

mr. williams: i have to thank you, jack, and the rotary club here, and senator thune. i am a fourth generation south dakotan, a u.s. navy veteran was service in the vietnam war. as a navy pilot, served in europe and in the u.s. i am a veteran of the peace corps. i served in south america. i have a ba degree from the university of wisconsin and a master of computer science from northern illinois university. as a high-tech software engineer, i work for texas industries in dallas, texas, and -- texas instruments in dallas, texas, and for two different high-tech software companies in silicon valley during the computer revolution. 30 years ago, my wife and our three children and i moved back to south dakota for a high-tech business right here. i have been operating the business and serving my community in various ways. on the school board, i was actually president of our rotary club. i do love rotary. if you can tell from my experience, i am not a career politician. quite the opposite. i have a lot of background. almost everybody who i need i can find something in common wi

john thune came out against him. i would urge mr. trump to recalibrate and treat this as a potentially temporary separation, not a deeply divisive and irreparable divorce. >> who's head of the republican party right now? >> paul ryan. >> is he really? >> paul ryan -- >> and if you had a vote in this country among all republican voters -- >> paul ryan. >> paul ryan. >> republican voters. >> paul ryan. >> michael, do you buy that? i don't know if his name i.d. is that high. do you think that guy is the head of the republican party, rank and file? >> yes, wihe is. >> how do they even know about him? how'd they get to know him? >> i assure you rank and file republicans across nation know who paul ryan is. they've followed his career, know the work he's done, know the proposals he's put out. >> could he have beaten trump if he'd have gotten in? >> what was that? >> could he have beaten trump for the nomination? >> you know, that's a very interesting question. >> well, it's the question i just put to you guy. who's the leader? that's the g

mrs. clinton does taken. others look at it was not obstruction, obstructed this. your follow-up. thune: here's the thing. i've been in congress, i stood up without the coast interest me to be stood up for. i stood up to my own president when president bush was in the office. i stood up to president obama when i think he's wrong for south dakota. the coinage wanted somebody who will represent south dakota values and stand up for the things that are important in the best interest of our state. with respect to role models, hillary clinton has repeatedly lied to the american people about whether or not she sent or received e-mails on her private e-mail account. she has destroyed 33,000 e-mails after she received a subpoena, and told them, told her to keep them. she has been told or describe a james comey, did investigation as being extremely careless with national security classified information. that to me as if somebody that's a role model. williams: i don't want to belabor this point but the truth is, secretary of state clinton has actually been a role model for all women. i mean, she's been working for w

mr. williams. >> fundamental disagreements that senator thune and i have. take cap off the payroll tax. right now $120,000. the people that pay tax are hard working south dakotans, you only pay payroll to 120. we took that off and fund social security on to the future. and senator thune says we should raise the age for social security, well, that's because senator thune like me have never worked in a manual type job, if you spent your job swinging a hammer and working hard carrying things around by the time you get to be 62 your back is about 85. so raising the age of social security i don't think is a good thing for the regular hard-working people, the manual labor, i'm not in favor of that. we can fix that social security just by making everybody pay their fair share. >> with two-thirds of the budget going to entitlements and paying off interest on the debt, that leafs a third, the congress really has any discretionary authority over from year to year. in broad terms, where is the federal government spending too much money and where it's paying too little money. >> you have about a th