It has been 17 years since Republicans in the Senate were led by someone other than Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. But on November 13, they chose a new leader—South Dakota Sen. John Thune, McConnell’s deputy since 2019. Among his priorities is regulatory reform: “We will work to make America prosperous again,” Thune said at a press conference following his election, “by streamlining the bureaucratic machine and overturning costly Biden-Harris regulations.”

Thune is relatively prosperous himself. More remarkable is the fact that virtually every dollar he’s ever made has been thanks to the government, despite the fact that he’s a small-government conservative. Since he graduated from business school in 1984, the now 63-year-old appears to have worked solely in government, government-adjacent non-profits or lobbying. His largest assets today, as Forbes estimates it, are his federal pension and federal retirement account. Beyond that, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota home worth around half a million dollars and some diversified investments worth between $330,000 and $1,000,000 round out his financial picture. Add it all up and Forbes estimates that he is worth $3 million today, almost all of it courtesy of taxpayers.

Thune was born in Pierre, South Dakota’s capital, in 1961. His father was a Navy pilot in World War II and later a teacher at Thune’s high school; his mother was a librarian. Thune left for California to get his bachelor’s at Biola University, then returned and secured an MBA from the University of South Dakota in 1984. That same year, he........

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