Working for Small-Town South Dakota
by Sen. John Thune
I was recently back in Murdo for my high school reunion, which coincided with the town’s 120th birthday. Visiting my hometown always brings back fond memories of growing up in Murdo and the sense of community, belonging, and responsibility that it instilled in me.
I’ll always be the son of a small town in South Dakota, and the values I learned in Murdo help to guide my work in Washington. I think about what regulations and other mandates will do to businesses like the Star Family Restaurant, where I got my start. I think about people living paycheck-to-paycheck, or harvest-to-harvest, and work to make sure government doesn’t stand in their way and take all the extra money in their budget.
It was small-town South Dakota that I had in mind last year when Republicans were working on the landmark Working Families Tax Cuts. Without action from Congress, a typical South Dakota family would have seen a $2,500 tax hike this year. Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cuts, that tax hike didn’t come. More than that, Republicans delivered permanent tax relief, including raising the child tax credit and standard deduction, and we provided additional tax cuts on top of that. This landmark bill included no tax on tips and overtime and a new $6,000 senior deduction. All told, 97 percent of American taxpayers saw a tax cut this year, collectively saving $82 billion on their individual tax returns they would otherwise have sent to the IRS.
There was also good news in this bill for South Dakota’s Main Street businesses as well as the farmers and ranchers who are the lifeblood of our state. The 199A small business deduction and immediate expensing for new equipment are now permanent features of the tax code. These pro-growth tax policies free up cash so that small businesses, farms, and ranches can invest in their operations, whether hiring another employee or purchasing a new piece of equipment.
The Working Families Tax Cuts also protects a lot more family farms, ranches, and businesses from the death tax. It’s long been a priority of mine to lift this burden off of farmers, ranchers, and family businessowners, and I’m proud that these hardworking South Dakotans can breathe a sigh of relief because the Working Families Tax Cuts doubled the exemption threshold for the death tax. Now these folks can spend more time running their operation rather than worrying about the death tax and the estate planning that comes with it.
I’m a proud product of a small town, and I carry my Murdo values with me every day in the U.S. Senate. Whether it’s tax policy, agriculture policy, regulations, or anything else, small-town South Dakota is on my mind every day as I represent our state.
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I also grew up in a small town. One thing I learned is you have to take responsibility for your actions. You and this administration have added billions to the deficit for the man who sits in the White House for his vanity projects. It’s time you stood up for what’s happening in this country and stop being a yes man. Not sure you are living up to your home town values.
vanity projects? you mean the White House ballroom deemed necessary for security purposes, especially after the incident at the White House Correspondents’ dinner? The construction project which just happens to be directly over the subterranean bunker? The Presidential Emergency Operations Center was built in 1942. That’s what was under the East Wing, which has been torn down “to build the ballroom.” After 84 years you don’t think it was ready for renovations and expansion? The new one is going to be six stories deep. It’s being built to withstand modern weaponry, like hypersonic missiles and biologicals.
Trump decided to put a ballroom on top of a heavily reinforced concrete slab.
If the Democrats were not so determined to assassinate the POTUS, the Secret Service and White House Military Office would not be costing the taxpayers so much money.
When you actually find a DEMOCRAT who shot at Trump, let us know. So far it has been people in his own party.
Your whole paper-hanging approval of Trump’s deep destruction of national icons is duly noted.
They were both democrats.
No.
the East Wing was not a national icon. It was constructed in 1942 over the bunker. Prior to that the site was a terrace.
The whole point of it was to put something on top of the bunker
The ballroom will now be on top of the bunker.
I have a concrete slab over my septic tank. I put a dog house on it.
Trump forged ahead with no act of Congress permitting it to happen. A judge has confirmed that he needs one of those. He probably needed them for the whole torn up ring of destruction around the White House.
have other modifications to the White House required Congressional approval?
Serious question.
For 2 years I resided in a house owned by the federal government. We decorated the unfinished basement, built an office down there, installed carpet. Outside we made changes to the landscaping. We were not required to have any of these changes approved. It was understood that we could do anything we wanted to it, and we left it behind, there being no requirement to restore anything to its original condition.
Has anybody else lived in a house owned by the federal government, and what did you do to it?
Did you blast out a whole wall to add on a two car garage and overhead bedrooms? Did you rip up the whole front yard to cover it in a concrete patio? Did you install a wrestling ring or stock car track in your back lot? Were you able to have the government pay for it all? Did you erect an arc d’triumph at the start of your cul de sac? Did you put your name on your neighbor’s house, or on the nearby elementary school? This question is a can of worms.
i would expect the rules to be the same for all government owned residences: there were no rules at all. We were not given a list of things we should or should not do.
Other Presidents and their wives have made changes to the White House..Did the Congree have to approve the changes or not?
At the scale of what was done, I say absolutely he needed approval from Congress, at least by their historic preservation boards. Every other person in the US has to abide by historic preservation laws.
The White House was built at the end of the 18th century. The East Wing and the bunker beneath it were built in 1942. I think you have the two structures confused.
It is absurd to suggest that historic preservation regulations apply to the East Wing! It housed office space. Nothing historic ever happened in there. It can’t even be claimed that it was where John Travolta danced with Princess Diana.
You mean like the vanity project that the communist sympathsizer FDR did when he put in a swimming pool? At the tax payer expense
actually I believe it was the March of Dimes which paid for FDR’s pool
How would a billion-dollar party room have stopped the attempt at an open-air rally or on a golf course or at an external event. The only way a ballroom would be effective security precaution would be to confine the president to the white house for their term of office.
Did your small town upbringing teach you that the president and his family and his businesses get IRS immunity? How is that good for South Dakotans? Would you have voted for it if it were for Biden?
You just made a criminal’s personal lawyer the Attorney General of the United States. The craven disregard for ethical government has now reached a new low in depravity. Congratulations. You are making consequential historic events happen.
yes we have this thing called the 6th Amendment to the Constitution which establishes that even criminals get fair trials and are entitled to legal representation, even if they have no money to pay for a lawyer.
So there are a lot of attorneys who have acted as a criminal’s personal lawyer at some time in their careers.
There has never been an A-G with such huge red flags pertaining to past performance, current ongoing HUGE conflicts of interest, duplicitous behavior and personal remarks indicating a preference to pursue partisan political policy over even-handed application of constitutional law.
The GOP has rubber-stamped the cruelest, most intellectually and morally bankrupt gaggle of cronies to high office under Trump. The world will preserve this horrid tale no matter how much our US history is altered. The GOP will own this forever.
Your gaslighting is noted.
you can have valid complaints about a lawyer but “he was a criminal defense attorney” is not one of them
How about the fact that he expressed “love” for the current president, indicating a valid presumption of favoritism in an office which must be an opponent of the president if laws are broken? His propensity to mislead or obfuscate when testifying to Congress is a matter of record as well.
How about Holder calling himself Michael Obamas husband’s wingman?
So you’re a “MOOSHELL OBAMA IS A MAN AMIRIGHTAMERICA?” person, eh? We have nothing to discuss.
There is a fair question about conflicts of interest, though. A defense attorney represents an individual defendant. The Attorney General represents the United States and advises the President. These are not the same thing, and it’s fair to ask about where the man’s loyalty rests.
John Thune is a gutless, little spoiled kid who is mad cause the people are finding out that he has little man syndrome. Because he has Small B****LLS, we will deal with him in Gitmo. The guy is a RINO, a democratic-socialist, probally worse than Tom Daschle. At least with Tom, we knew where he stood, and he told you honestly where he stood. We knew he was a socialist. John is a terrible person, and the only way he could beat Tom Daschle was by running as a Republican during a time the people were fed up with Democrats. Prior to 1997, John was a Democrat, as obvious today, we learn that his wife, and daughter are both Democrats. This should be a tell all sign that John is truly a democrat. So, Mr. Small B***LLS will meat his maker very soon if not done already. We never know, the Real John Thune may have already been executied, and this is an actor cause we know, we are watching a movie.
Right on. I can’t believe how out of touch some people on this site really are. Thune is probably the worst leader I’ve seen in my lifetime. He’s been paid at least 1.58 million that’s been reported to insure we don’t have secure elections and that’s not acceptable by any standard. He blames the democrats which is an obvious problem, but he has enough votes without them for reconciliation or a talking filibuster. He refuses to fire the parliamentarian who stands in the way of reconciliation who he doesn’t have to pay attention to in the first place. Like it or not, he’s obstructed the will of the people for his own greed.
He is not just a rino. He is a backstabbing, traitorous, bought and paid for swamp rat. Years ago he campaigned on cleaning up the corruption in DC, now he is the corruption.
He has received millions from leftist pro illegal immigrant group, go figure.
By the way thunes lap dog rino rounds is no better.
Lies.
5:23 AND 5:41 Both total whack jobs They are going to run Wall World out of aluminum foil before the day is out.
We’re not communists. We believe in integrity, something you obviously have no clue about. All you have to do is a little research and you’ll find the truth. Where you get your information is more than likely legacy media and the haven’t told the truth since before you were born. You are a product of the DNC’s idea of education (indoctrination). The dumbing down of America.
Covering one self in foil esp on the head doesn’t imply one is a commie. It means the wearer is a paranoid, delusion, conspiracy riddled nutbag
“All you have to is a little research….”
This depends entirely on how you do it, I guess. If you are reading peer reviewed material, sure. If it’s facebook and internet conspiracy groups, probably not. And this is where the rubber frequently meets the road for many people. Their idea of “research” is reading internet posts from people who say what they want to hear.
You’ve got that right!
The death tax thing again?
The thing literally no family farm paid and KKKrusti made up having to pay?
This is a gift to high worth individuals and nothing more.
The swamp rat thune is a traitor to every voter in So. Dak. and the country. He lied when he said he was going to DC to clean up the corruption, he has become the corruption. He did not try to get the votes for the Save America Act, that is his job. He has not fired the leftist parliamentarian hired during the Obama administration when he can replace her at any time. Look up her record. There is only one reason for a republican to keep someone like that, he is being paid to keep her. Then he lies with one excuse after another for not doing the job he was sent to DC to do.
There are only two explanations for his latest midnight treachery.
First he is the most incompetent moron to have ever lead anything,
Second he is bought and paid for and has no interest in what the peasants have to say.
getting back to this issue of small town viability, just this week I heard the usual mantra of “when you lose your school you lose your town,” & I said “you lost your town when you forgot to make babies.”
If you don’t make babies you are within 18 years of your school closing and your town dying.
Increasing the child credit and the standard deduction should help to remind people that small towns need a supply of babies to keep the schools open. Too many people fail to make babies and then complain to their elected representatives that they need more money to keep their schools open. Giving tax credits to parents is about the only way to save small towns.
A study from United Van Lines said in 2024 that the total outbound migration from the state was 53% (52.8%) while the inbound migration was 47% (47.2%). Two Midwest states made the top 10 outbound moves; North Dakota was sixth, and Nebraska was ninth [Rae Yost, “More Move from South Dakota Than In, Study Says,” KELO-TV, 2025.12.05].
Perhaps it would be better to improve the SD economy, which Thune has helped to make more unaffordable.
The only people who use professional movers like United Van Lines and Allied Van Lines are the ones who have their moving expenses covered by somebody else, like an employer. Everybody else rents a UHaul or a Ryder, because professional moving companies charge too much and break and lose your stuff. So statistics about how many people are using United Van Lines doesn’t necessarily mean anything unless corporations are using the state as hunting grounds for talent.
According to google AI, we have positive in-migration here. The population increased by about 8000, while births outnumbered deaths by only 2600. immigrants outnumbered emigrants by 5400.
Google AI? Really now, that’s not even doing research, that’s just being a lazy AI slop consumer.
But are it’s numbers accurate, or not?
Every person here who claims to be “mad” at Thune for blocking the SAVE act, is the real criminal here. That act only has election security for TRUMP. It is the most viciously disgusting dismantling of free elections since some smart klansman invented the first poll tax. Shove your fake worthless outrage up your fanny packs ok? You are obviously activists working for directly for Trump. You’ve probably never even BEEN to this state. The venality of this is stifling and stultifying.
Republicans are a bunch of fascists…..wrapped in an American flag and carrying a bible.
Even if that were true, it’s better than a communist wrapped in the flag of the CCP carrying a qaran.
When you see one let me know. Meanwhile we can actually see all kinds of GOP support with red hats and confederate flags, or face masks and nazi regalia.
Can you define Communism? Do you know which president has purchased stakes for the government in 30 private companies? Can you name me a president who has done that before? You guys are a bunch of fox news cultists.
Venality AND stultifying in the same sentence, let alone a lifetime YOWZER