He canceled the biggest housing bill in 30 years to force through a law that thins out the voter rolls.
I wrote a while back about the Republican Party admitting something they usually keep quiet about. It’s worth bringing up again, because of what just happened.
Today, Trump canceled the signing of the biggest housing bill in 30 years – a bill both parties voted for, a bill that’s supposed to bring housing costs down. He killed it about an hour before he was set to sign it.
Why? He says he won’t sign anything until Congress passes a different bill first – a voting bill called the SAVE America Act. He’s calling it a national emergency. So housing relief is a hostage now, and the ransom is a law that makes it harder to vote.
Here’s what that voting bill actually does.
To register, you’d have to show proof of citizenship in person – for most people, that’s a passport or a birth certificate. About half of Americans don’t have a passport. And if you’re a woman who took your spouse’s last name, your birth certificate doesn’t match your legal name – so it might not count. That’s up to 69 million women with a problem. It also wipes out the ability to register by mail or online for most folks.
They say it’s about stopping people who aren’t citizens from voting. But that’s a lie. Utah went through more than 2 million voters one by one – they found one person registered who shouldn’t have been, and zero who actually voted. One. The thing they say they’re fixing barely exists.
So if it’s not about fraud, what is it about?
Here’s the part they keep telling on themselves. Senator Mike Lee tied this bill straight to how Republicans do in the next election. Senator John Thune said if it doesn’t pass, they’ll use it against Democrats in the fall. They’re not hiding it – they think fewer voters is good for them.
Same thing I caught them saying last year. Back then, the party put it in a court filing, under oath. They didn’t say more voting led to fraud – they said it led to Democrats winning. They called easier voting a problem because it cost them.
Now it’s a year later and they’re doing it with a bill instead of a brief. Hold up housing for working families by demanding a law that thins out the rolls.
When a politician has to make it harder for you to vote to win – that’s them telling you they can’t win you over. They can only win without you.
Sources
- NBC News – Trump cancels plan to sign major housing bill as he fights with Congress over the SAVE Act
- CNBC – Trump cancels housing bill signing, demanding voter-ID provision
- Bipartisan Policy Center – Five Things to Know About the SAVE Act
- FactCheck.org – Q&A on the SAVE America Act
- Vote.org – The SAVE Act: What every American voter needs to know