US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: A South Dakota Summer

thuneheadernew John_Thune,_official_portrait,_111th_CongressA South Dakota Summer
By Senator John Thune

I spent the busy August work period crisscrossing South Dakota, meeting with South Dakotans and taking in the sights and sounds of everything that our great state has to offer in the summertime. I attended fairs from Butte-Lawrence County to Brown County to Turner County and this year’s state fair in Huron; held town hall meetings in Lemmon and Buffalo; wished Godspeed to the 155th Engineering Company; and summer wouldn’t be complete without spending a day on Lake Oahe and checking out the sunset over the Missouri River.

As I traveled the state, I shared news of the good work the Republican-led Senate has accomplished in Washington in just the first few months of the new Congress, and while much was accomplished, there is much more work yet to do. I also shared with South Dakotans the many challenges we face in Washington with a president who is determined to fight us nearly every step of the way. As the old adage goes, “it takes two to tango,” and as long as this president is in the White House, Republicans are going to be left to dance alone. That doesn’t mean we’re giving up the fight, though.

The Obama EPA, for example, is out of control. We will continue to work to stop the EPA’s burdensome overreach, like the so-called “Clean Power Plan” rule, which can be more accurately described as a backdoor national energy tax. This EPA rule will have a devastating impact on small businesses and American families – particularly those who can afford it the least. In fact, this national energy tax will make it harder for families to make ends meet and more costly for businesses to survive – exactly the opposite kind of policy we need from leaders in Washington.

Then there’s the Obama IRS. The American people have never held the IRS in high regard, and after D.C. bureaucrats used their power to target conservative groups for purely political reasons, what little respect remained was lost. The IRS has a long way to go in order to restore the trust and confidence the American people expect and deserve, and I’m glad that Congress will continue to use its oversight ability to investigate this agency and hold bureaucrats accountable.

The work doesn’t end there either. We will continue to vote to repeal Obamacare, fight President Obama’s illegal amnesty, secure our borders, work to redirect federal funding from Planned Parenthood, and make sure the American people’s voices are heard on the president’s flawed Iran nuclear agreement. Where President Obama opposes us, we’ll continue to fight until we have a new president who is willing to work with Republicans to meet the challenges we face.

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3 thoughts on “US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: A South Dakota Summer”

  1. John, I know this is not germain to this post, but I’m waiting for your aids to post your next press release about the cyber security “work” you’re doing.

    You are selling privacy of Americans down the drain and creating a dark future for everyone. Quit it.

  2. John: Quit lying to yourself. The GOP Senate and House are complete failures. Quit blaming the President and defund something. Just please quit whining.

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