John Kennedy Just Disclosed the JD Vance Trick That Could Save the SAVE Act
John Kennedy stood on the Senate floor Wednesday and said seven words Chuck Schumer never wanted to hear.“We can pass this bill with 50 votes.” And the move he just laid out could flip the entire SAVE Act fight before Democrats know what hit them. He’s talking about budget reconciliation – the same procedural weapon Democrats used in 2010 to ram through Obamacare after they lost their 60-vote Senate supermajority.
Here’s how it works. Budget reconciliation bills can’t be filibustered. They require only 51 votes – or 50 with JD Vance breaking the tie. Democrats used it to transform one-sixth of the American economy without a single Republican vote. Now Kennedy is asking why Republicans can’t use the exact same tool to require proof of citizenship to vote.
The SAVE America Act is simple: if you want to vote in a federal election, prove you’re a citizen. That’s it.
The House passed it in February. Every Senate Republican except Lisa Murkowski voted to advance debate this week. And Democrats are filibustering it like their lives depend on it – because their electoral survival does.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spent years telling Americans that only citizens vote, is now leading the charge to block a bill that would simply verify that claim. He told reporters his caucus is “prepared for every possible scenario” to kill it. Not slow it down. Kill it.
Majority Leader John Thune controls 53 Republican seats. He needs 60 votes to break the filibuster. He doesn’t have them – and he’s said repeatedly he won’t blow up the filibuster rule to get there.
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