Bailout plan. Rescue package. Whatever you call it, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is now law and Sen. John Thune (R - SD) helped make that happen.

Although Thune said that nobody in Congress wanted to have to deal with the financial meltdown, which required lawmakers to decide whether the government should intervene or not. South Dakota's only U.S. Representative, Democrat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted against the bailout twice. Fellow Democrat and Sen. Tim Johnson voted it down, as well.

In an interview with KSFY's Drew Sandholm, Thune stood by his decision to vote for the bailout. From outside his Sioux Falls office Friday, they talked about that, this week's Vice Presidential debate, and why he doesn't think his friend and presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R - AZ) will back in South Dakota before the election. Here's how it went:

KSFY: This week, you voted for the economic bailout or rescue plan. Today, Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted against it. Again. Did that surprise you?

Thune: Well, everybody has their reasons for making the votes that they do and I'm not going to question anybody's motives for their votes. All I know is that based off the input that I got from people across South Dakota and don't get me wrong, there were a lot of people that were opposed to this and I don't blame them. There was a lot of anger about how we got into this situation, but after having visiting with a lot of people who are involved with the credit markets in South Dakota -- whether that's bankers or farmers or ranchers. We talked to hospital representatives, the Farm Bureau, the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce, AARP -- there was a broad coalition in South Dakota of people supporting this and the reason I think they're supporting it is they realize the impact it has on everyday South Dakotans and as I analyzed not only the problem, but the proposed solutions, it became clear to me that, at least for me, the right vote, the responsible vote was to support this because you've got farmers who are going to have a hard time getting production loans. Credit markets are drying up for auto loans. We've already seen that. We've talked to car dealers here in South Dakota. You're going to have small business people, in many cases, who finance their payroll, to make the payroll to make the payroll to the employees through the credit markets and when these credit markets freeze up, it creates kind of a spiraling effect and what we're starting to see is that has an impact on just on Wall Street, but more importantly, here in Main Street in South Dakota.

Frankly, I still believe that unless we have confidence in our financial markets in this country, that we're going to be in a world of hurt because once those credit markets freeze up, it impacts every sector of South Dakota's economy, which is why I think we heard from so many organizations and groups across South Dakota in support of this.

KSFY: What can be done in the foreseen future to prevent something like this from happening again? You would have to walk that tightrope between maintaining a free enterprise and government regulation to hold these people accountable.

Thune: Well, first off this stops the bleeding. We still have to get the patient into the hospital and I think that's what a lot of people want to see is -- what's the long-term solution to this? How do we prevent this from happening in the future and I frankly think that we are going to have to, in comprehensive way, look at our financial system in this country and what steps we can take to make sure that allowing organizations like FreddieMac and FannieMae, who had an implicit government guarantee behind them, to take all these risks. I mean, it all started when they started getting into subprime loans and this thing started unraveling, then they started selling these loans in the secondary market as securities. Financial institutions purchased them. They started having all this bad debt on their balance sheets. Well, now the chickens are coming home to roost and everyone is having to pay for it.

In the future, what we're going to have to do is make sure we understand that if you're going to have a private market, you're got to let that private market work. You've got to have a certain amount of regulation. Not too much regulation that it's strangles the market place, but the light touch of regulation that ensures that competition can thrive and prosper in the market place and I think what happened with FreddieMac and FannieMae was those two got fused together in a way that created a lot of incentive for private profit, but put the public at risk and we can't afford to let that happen again in the future and I think that's why there's going to be a lot of comprehensive reform of our financial system and structures when Congress returns next year, but the thing that we had to do this week and the reason there was such a big bi-partisan vote -- 74 votes in the Senate doesn't hardly happen on anything with conservatives like Tom Coburn from Oklahoma voting for it. You had both presidential candidates -- Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama -- saying we need to do this and President Bush has already signed it into law. The reason there is so much bi-partisan support for this is people realize that before we can get the patient into the hospital, we need to stop the bleeding and right now, the patient is bleeding.

KSFY: It will be interesting to see what kind of reform comes out of this when you do reconvene next year. I want to talk about this week's vice presidential debate. Did you watch it?

Thune: I did watch most of it. Yeah.

KSFY: What were your thoughts?

Thune: Well, I thought both candidates performed pretty well. I mean both of them did what they needed to do. Sen. Biden is someone who I serve with in the Senate. He demonstrated, I think, a knowledge on foreign policy. Gov. Palin on the other hand, I thought presented a confidence and a likability and an ability to identify with sort of your everyday American. I think people really appreciate her understanding of their kind of daily lives. She's raising a family. She's trying to pay the bills. All things I think people in this country relate to. So I thought she projected a real sort of sense of confidence and just a sort of a personality that people can identify with.

KSFY: You've been a big backer of Sen. McCain and his campaign for a long time now. What would you do if you were offered a position on his cabinet?

Thune: Well, I'm not interested in that. I like the job I have. After this last week, this was a tough week in the Senate because many of us were dealing with issues -- nobody wanted to be dealing with this financial meltdown and as a free market conservative, nobody wants to talk about having the government intervene like in a way we did this week, but at the end of the day, like I said before, I came to the conclusion based on my understanding of the information and all the facts that were in front of me, that we needed to take steps. We needed to take steps, decisive steps, and immediate steps to address and try and stop the bleeding in the economy, but you know what, hopefully we'll be able to focus on renewable energy and a lot of the things the things that impact South Dakota's economy and things that I care deeply about.

So, I'm going to be very happy staying where I am. Sen. McCain, if he's elected, I'm sure he'll pick good people to serve him in his cabinet, but I don't expect to be one of those.

KSFY: With little time left before the election, it is unlikely that either candidate will visit South Dakota. Do you think voters here are being cheated out?

Thune: Well, I think that the campaigns are going to concentrate on those key battleground states where the election is really going to be decided. It'd be great to get Sen. McCain back in here and Sen. Obama for that matter. I think it's always good for politics in South Dakota when presidential contenders come to our state, but I don't expect that to happen. I think South Dakotans shouldn't feel like they're being taken for granted, but I think that the candidates are going to have to concentrate on those areas of the country where this race is really close and really going to be decided. I think both campaigns have concluded that South Dakota probably is going to lean toward Sen. McCain and you know, that's a judgment call they're going to have to make.

KSFY: Interesting though because you of all people know that races can come down to just a few votes. So, you'd think they might cover more ground than that.

Thune: Well, that's why I say I think the candidates and you know, they've been here. McCain was here in August and I had him here a couple years ago for a big event, so he's visited the state. It'd be nice. I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps we get a visit from Sarah Palin. I'm not predicting that, but I think both campaigns, like I said, are going to concentrate on that handful of states that are probably going to swing the election either one way or another and even though you can't take any state for granted, it's a matter or resources and time and there isn't a whole lot of clock left in this campaign. So, I think they're going to have to end up focusing on those areas where they can get the highest return.

KSFY: Alright. Thanks, Senator and have a good weekend.

Thune: Thanks, Drew.

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