When Republicans swept into full control of Congress alongside Donald Trump's second term, the assumption was that passing conservative priorities would be a layup. Instead, a handful of GOP senators have turned into human speed bumps, and none more enthusiastically than North Carolina's Thom Tillis, who is retiring and apparently treating the Senate floor like his personal farewell tour of obstruction.
As Conservative Brief reported, Tillis went public Thursday with a threat to use "every device" available to him to grind the Senate to a halt if Republicans try to move the SAVE America Act through budget reconciliation before the midterms. The legislation, formally called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo ID to cast a ballot. Polling shows 75 to 85 percent of voters across party lines support these provisions, which makes Tillis's heroic last stand against it a truly fascinating strategic choice.
"If I see a reconciliation bill come from the House with another failed attempt to confuse this election, I will use every device I have available to slow down the wheels of government until people cop a clue and do the math," Tillis said. Imagine telling 80 percent of the country to "cop a clue" while you block what they want. Bold stuff from a guy who won't be facing voters again.
Tillis argued the bill is "fundamentally flawed" and impossible to implement before the election. He even got a little punchy about it: "Whether it's the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, the new SAVE legislation that's being proposed in the House, SAVE goes to Hollywood, SAVE goes to Hawaii, whatever the sequels are, all of them are fundamentally flawed and impossible to implement by this election." Someone's been workshopping that line for a while. The problem with his timing argument is that he's been part of a small group of Senate Republicans blocking this legislation for nearly a year. That is, conveniently, about the amount of time states would have needed to implement changes.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the issue ahead of Trump's primetime address Thursday evening. "I think all Americans, Democrat, Republican, should agree that we are the greatest country in the history of the world. We should have the safest and most secure elections in the history of the world," she said.
Tillis suggested he'd be open to taxpayer funded grants to help states set up voter ID systems. What he didn't address is the minor detail that most Democrat run states have shown zero interest in implementing tougher voter ID or proof of citizenship requirements regardless of how much grant money you wave in front of them. So his alternative plan is essentially handing out checks to states that will promptly ignore the purpose of those checks.
Nothing says "I'm on my way out the door" quite like a senator threatening to blow up his own party's top legislative priority while offering a solution everyone knows won't work. Retirement really does free a person up.
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