OPINION:
Government shutdown season has returned. The contrived, end-of-fiscal-year spectacle rarely ends well for Republicans, but House Speaker Mike Johnson is at least considering something that adds a dash of entertainment to the show.
The Louisiana Republican is leaning toward an option that would have Democrats fumbling over themselves to explain why they don’t want to do anything to stop people who aren’t supposed to vote from voting.
By attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, to the continuing resolution due Sep. 30, Mr. Johnson forces the Democrats to choose between preventing illegal aliens from participating in elections and avoiding temporary disruption in the paychecks of nonessential federal employees.
While this bill cleared the House in July, it never had a chance in the Senate under Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer. Democrats loathe the idea of eliminating the pernicious loophole allowing illegal aliens to check a box on a form that says they’re citizens so a mail-in ballot can be generated for the use of ballot harvesters on Election Day.
The SAVE Act stops this by requiring proof of citizenship prior to registration. It also forces elections officials to go back and purge the dead and otherwise ineligible from voter rolls. Preventing such chicanery isn’t a high priority for the political party that has encouraged tens of millions of foreign nationals to cross our southern border illegally.
Deep blue cities, including Washington, allow illegal immigrants to vote in local elections, yet Democratic Party apologists insist that the very people they’re training to go to the polls won’t do so in a presidential election. With no procedure in place to catch such misconduct, however, there’s no way to know for sure.
If Democrats believed illegal alien voting never takes place, they wouldn’t object to the SAVE Act. House Republicans hope to hit the campaign trail, battering the lawless position of Democratic candidates who are countenancing fraud.
It’s a bold plan, but it’s hard to see a path for the SAVE Act to become law. Ever since the GOP pulled the shutdown trigger in the 1990s and lost a presidential election as a result, the party has become gun-shy. All subsequent shutdowns have ended with the GOP bowing to the Democrats’ demands — including the 2019 shutdown over border wall funding.
Shutdown stunts tend to cost the public more than they would have if Republican lawmakers had negotiated a better deal upfront. This is not entirely the fault of GOP lawmakers. It’s difficult to overcome the impact of feigned media outrage that flows whenever Uncle Sam momentarily runs out of other people’s money.
Democratic activists who call themselves journalists can’t resist providing wall-to-wall coverage to every melancholy child turned away from an anticipated visit to a national park. No matter what the Democrats do, the chattering class reflexively blames the GOP — and that terrifies Republicans running for reelection in marginal districts.
More level heads would realize that failure to pass appropriations legislation is less consequential now than it has ever been. The largest federal expenditures are on autopilot, and federal employees sent home during a shutdown know they will automatically receive full back pay when the government reopens.
Most Americans won’t be affected by a shutdown, and they likely have no idea how broken the voter registration system has become. Leveraging the situation to drive awareness could lead to some needed change.
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