Democrats Just Say No
By Sen. John Thune
Soon after Republicans took control of Congress last year, it became clear that if we were going to accomplish anything for hardworking Americans, we would largely have to do it alone. There is always some partisanship in Congress, but Democrats took it to a new level since last year, and they have shown themselves to be completely out of step with the American people.
At the top of Republicans’ priority list for this Congress was preventing a massive tax hike that was set to hit working families this year – a tax hike that would have cost a typical South Dakota family $2,500. But Democrats weren’t interested in working with us, and every single Democrat in Congress voted against providing tax relief to the American people. They voted against no tax on tips and overtime, against cutting taxes for working people, and they even voted against an additional deduction for seniors and raising the child tax credit for working families.
Democrats have also opposed Republican-led efforts to reduce costs. They opposed our efforts to block a tax on natural gas that they imposed during the Biden administration, which would have contributed to higher household energy costs. They have also opposed legislation Republicans put forward to block Biden-era regulations that would have forced Americans into costly electric vehicles and raised the price of appliances. And just recently, they blocked progress on bringing down energy prices, including a bill to protect hardworking Americans from increased energy costs associated with data centers.
Democrats have said no to more money in Americans’ pockets, reducing energy costs, and even to funding the basic functions of the federal government. One year ago, Democrats shut down the entire government for 43 days over a nonpartisan spending bill. At the beginning of this year, Democrats reprised that playbook and shut down the Department of Homeland Security over their refusal to spend even one dollar on Border Patrol and immigration enforcement. What was once a fringe position in their party – defunding law enforcement – is now an article of faith among Democrats.
It’s clear that, for my Democrat colleagues, hardworking Americans take a backseat to their political agenda and opposing President Trump and Republicans. Democrats are blocking the farm bill and the annual defense bill, they opposed keeping men out of women’s sports, and they rejected bipartisan efforts to bring down energy costs. What will it take for Democrats to put the American people ahead of their political interests?
Despite the incredible amount of obstruction from Democrats in this Congress, Republicans have managed to accomplish a lot these past two years – from regulatory relief to a secure border and the Working Families Tax Cuts. We have more work to do, and we’ll continue our work this year and in the next as Republicans remain focused on making life better for working families.
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Oh my goodness! Whose world do you live in?
When I think about it, I get mad when I read these Republican gaslightings, blithely handed to us by people we have our votes to for the last forty or fifty years in many cases.
I get mostly mad at Mike Rounds. He was a highly regarded and effective governor, and KNOWS what good national governance should look like. He has the combination of grassroots smarts and political instinct honed by his executive bona fides, that SHOULD come back to us in actions that rebalance the corrupt tilt Trump has shoved this country into. Yet he does and says virtually nothing.
I’m a little less mad at Thune, he’s more of a captive hothouse flower of Washington, I don’t expect as much of him as I expect of Rounds.
I wish we still lived in the normal pre-Trump world.
We’d still be the greatest nation on earth in reality, not only in Trump’s dreams.
Did you not live through the Biden administration?
I lived very well during Biden, and if you tell me it was a hellscape and we’re in the clover NOW I will know you are a liar.
Of course, we’re not “in clover”. The nation has some severe problems (in particular, massive federal overspending and debt) that took many years to develop. Certainly, the Republican Party is not the answer to all our problems. They may not even be the answer to most of them. But today’s Democratic Party is the source of almost every single one of them.
Lie.
I’ve been saying it since 2008. Liberal’s have in large part become Anti American!
The main reason they lost heavy in 2024, is when they shut down the country over a flu virus. The china flu hoax.
The same flu that would kill over 3/4 of a million people every year for decades!
RLTW
Decades ago, when I first supported your entry into public life, I believed we shared a fundamental understanding of what governance ought to be—a pursuit of the Good, a commitment to what is just, proper, and elevating for the people of this country. I saw in your early career a reflection of those higher ideals, a genuine desire to serve the whole of our community. Today, reading “Democrats Just Say No,” I am struck with profound grief by how completely that vision has been abandoned.
The path you and your party are walking is no longer oriented toward the betterment of humanity. Instead, it is a descent into something deeply fractured, cynical, and detached from the daily reality of everyday Americans.
You speak of tax relief for working families, yet this narrative is a shadow cast to hide the reality of the legislation. You know as well as anyone that those popular provisions for untaxed tips and overtime were bundled into a 2025 reconciliation bill that slashed the medical welfare and healthcare subsidies everyday people rely on. To hold the physical well-being of the vulnerable hostage in order to secure permanent financial advantages for the top 1% is not public service. It is a profound moral failure.
When you lay the blame for the historic, agonizing shutdowns of 2025 and 2026 entirely at the feet of your opposition, you ignore the shared, sacred responsibility of governance. Forcing partisan cuts into the basic funding of our government and then pointing fingers when the system inevitably breaks is an illusion of leadership. True leadership seeks unity and the collective prosperity of the whole. It does not engage in a relentless drive to consolidate wealth and power for a select few while dismissing the crushing weight falling upon the rest of us.
I am writing this not out of partisan anger, but out of a deep, abiding sorrow. The weight of what is happening to our country is becoming unbearable for those of us not insulated by immense wealth. The direction you are taking us is abhorrent to any true measure of justice. A society’s greatness is measured by how it lifts its most vulnerable, not by how efficiently it enriches its most powerful.
I mourn the ideals I once thought we shared. The road you are on now does not lead to what is best for humanity, and it breaks my heart to see you walk it.
From Google and the CDC: annual deaths from seasonal flu in the United States range from 12,000 to 50,000.
Lol, my favorite covid death was when my uncle dies in a car accident, yet cause of death china flu.
Well better look before 2020!
I did a quick Google ( too ) just now that said 63,000 to 720,000.
I actually saw over 23 offering different numbers.
I wouldn’t trust the cdc, especially after gates fauci..
I do trust medical doctors and scientists not connected to the cdc which is where I get my numbers! BBC is a good source.
My numbers are correct.
RLTW
Is there no end to the inflammatory b-s that comes out of you? Evidently not.
STHU