WASHINGTON—Donald Trump wants to shut down the federal government, again. This time it would happen at the end of this month – Sept. 30.
Like he did when he got them to kill a bi-partisan border bill, the convicted felon and current Republican presidential nominee is demanding congressional Republicans shut it down for him since he is not president himself.
The last time Trump actually shut the government, from Dec. 22, 2018-Jan. 25, 2019–35 days–it was to force lawmakers to fund his racist Mexican Wall. He failed. The corporate class, which first looked on benignly, turned against him when the shutdown’s impact began to bite into their profits. Meanwhile, “essential” workers toiled without pay.
This time, Trump is demanding Congress ban non-citizens from voting as his “price” for preventing a shutdown—a Trump lie, since federal and state laws already bar such votes.
Nevertheless, many congressional Republicans are kowtowing to Trump. But others, especially those who actually deal with money bills to keep the government going, the lights on, the airplanes flying and the Social Security checks coming, balk.
Multiple sources report Trump demands that any temporary money bill to fund the government beyond the end of fiscal 2024 on September 30 include the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. That’s a GOP “messaging” bill aimed squarely at throwing voters of color, especially Latinos, off the election rolls. It caters to the party’s nativist, white racist base.
No SAVE Act, demands Trump, equals no temporary money bill, called a continuing resolution, to fund the government.
And a continuing resolution will be needed. The House has OKd only six of the dozen money bills to keep federal agencies operating. Several have right-wing “poison pills” on social issues: Ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and defunding Planned Parenthood, to name two.
The Democratic-run Senate Appropriations Committee approved bipartisan versions of all dozen money bills minus the social issues, but the full Senate has yet to vote on any.
“This kind of bipartisan cooperation prevented any shutdown in the last Congress when Democrats had majorities in the House and in the Senate,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., reminded colleagues at the end of July.
Not even for a day
“Not one shutdown. Not even for a day. We didn’t shut the government down. Americans don’t want to see one this year.”
The SAVE Act is a favorite cause of the far-right House “Freedom” Caucus, the tail that wags the GOP dog in that narrowly Republican chamber. It says anyone registering to vote must present proof of citizenship, and it mandates states purge non-citizens from the voter rolls.
Right-wing Trumpite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott already has a jump on the SAVE Act. He’s bragged about purging a million Texans from the Lone Star State’s voting rolls in advance of this fall’s election.
Most are Latino, prompting the Texas Senate’s outnumbered Democrats to demand a Justice Department civil rights investigation of Abbott’s purge.
Trump, of course, has been screaming for years about illegal voters. They’re part of his massive lies about voter fraud in the prior presidential election. He lost those fights at the ballot box and repeatedly in the courts, but continues to lie. He’s going to lose the SAVE Act fight, too. The question is how.
Pressure is mounting on the House’s Republican leadership to hold a vote on attaching the SAVE Act to the continuing resolution. Trumpite Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appears receptive, but its passage is uncertain.
If the SAVE Act is on the money bill, the dwindling band of less-ideological House Republicans could join the Democrats and provide enough votes to torpedo the whole package. The GOPers’ resistance is stalling regular money bills.
But if the SAVE Act isn’t on the temporary money bill, the “Freedom” Caucus, which is much larger, rebels, the money bill goes down the drain, and the government shuts, except for “essential” workers, such as air traffic controllers, who must then toil without pay.
“The question really would be, does it get out of the House?” Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told The Hill. “And I don’t know.”
A money bill with the SAVE Act is dead on arrival in the Senate. Earlier, Democratic President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget declared he would veto the SAVE Act, if it reached his desk as a stand-alone bill.
“The president has been clear: He will continue fighting to protect Americans’ sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections, including by calling on Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act,” two Democratic-sponsored voting rights bills which Senate Republican filibusters and filibuster threats killed three and a half years ago,
“It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections,” OMB’s statement continued. “It is a federal crime punishable by prison and fines. The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods.”
Unlawful voting and false citizenship claims result in “removal from the United States” and a ban on ever returning, OMB added. States already safeguard voter rolls and the SAVE Act “would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged.”
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