Tag Archives: John Thune

Senate GOP Leader John Thune Better Get Smart Fast

John Cornyn had to do one, simple thing to secure renomination for his U.S. Senate seat: Publicly pledge to vote for the SAVE Act. Ken Paxton, who just butt-kicked Cornyn, gave him the opportunity. He said that he’d leave the Senate race if Cornyn did so. Cornyn didn’t do so. He couldn’t do so, even if he wanted to. He owed John Thune and the GOP establishment in the neighborhood of $100 million in campaign monies. The old saying holds: He who pays the piper calls the tunes.

Now, understand Ken Paxton knew this. His offer wasn’t much of a gamble. What it did was set up a beautiful political moment. Paxton declaration was intended to be the coup de grace for Cornyn’s campaign, and it was.

Cornyn’s loss was a face plant for John Thune, the establishment Senate Republican leader. He’s Mitch McConnell’s old protégée. First, Bill Cassidy crashes and burns, and now Cornyn. Crashes and burns, mind you, not gets edged out. Both incumbents are smoldering wreckage.

Thune and his DC circle made a predictably stupid calculation. They decided that Donald Trump was a lame duck, so his grip on MAGA voters was waning. They’d stay home. Surely, the country clubbers would prevail.

Trump’s endorsements of Louisiana conservative Julia Letlow and Paxton wouldn’t tip the balances, Thune reckoned. In any event, dumping truckfuls of money on those contests would push two very lame establishment inbreds across finish lines.

Seems reports of Trump’s political death were greatly exaggerated. MAGA not only remains loyal to the president, but they’re voting. Earlier, seven-term Rep. Thomas Massie was sent packing. Downing Cassidy and Cornyn was a clear message to Thune. “Not only do Cassidy and Cornyn stink, but you stink,” Louisiana and Texas MAGA declared.

Resentment toward Thune and establishment Republicans has been building among Trump loyalists (read: the GOP’s base). Thune stubbornly refuses to bring the SAVE Act to the Senate floor. Check that. He was glad to bring it to the floor in a way that was sure to fail. The Act is one of those rare measures that’s popular across the political spectrum.

Passing it – or at the very least, fighting to pass it – would accrue to GOP candidates benefit. What’s not to like? Let’s see a show of hands. Who supports cheating in elections? No brainer, but not for Thune, who says he doesn’t have the votes in his caucus to pass the proposal. Democrats will filibuster. Democrats would hijack the debate during a filibuster or some such. Excuse after excuse.

Then there is Trump’s desire to make recess appointments for his judicial nominees, who Democrats are stalling in the Senate. Thune’s determination to block recess appointments to preserve Senate tradition is costing conservatives’ wins on the federal bench.

If public polling is to be believed, Thune’s popularity in his home state, South Dakota, has cratered. That speaks volumes. As Senate majority leader, Thune funnels many millions of dollars into South Dakota. Farmers and energy producers (both major industries) benefit. But voters are turning off. Why? Because the GOP is now the Party of Trump. MAGA is dominant. Stalling Trump’s agenda doesn’t win votes.

So, Thune has a choice. Get in step with Trump and start pushing his agenda, or risk adverse political consequences. Thune should be ousted from his leadership position by fellow GOP senators if he fails Trump. If he’s not, South Dakota’s MAGA voters may do the job in 2028.

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Senate Republicans Better End the Filibuster

The nation just experienced an historically long federal government shutdown. It cost Americans billions of dollars, disrupted services, and ended without any tangible results for the Democrats, who forced it.

President Trump has called repeatedly for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the GOP caucus to end the filibuster. The president wants his agenda acted on swiftly, and for the sake of the nation, he’s right. Yet, a dozen-plus Republicans have balked. They’ve balked because they’re living with the old politics – the old ways of operating the Senate. But the old politics are dead.

When Democrats had a majority in 2021, they came within a hair of ending the filibuster. But for the efforts of former Democrat senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), they would have opened the dam to radical changes impacting our election system, economy, and much else. Manchin and Sinema were practically run out of their offices by their fellow Democrats. The next time Democrats control the Senate – and that could be as soon as 2027, following the midterm elections – they’ll move to abolish the filibuster. They’ll push a far more radical agenda because the energy is on the left.

Then what? Then they’ll renew the push to enact their 2021 agenda and worse. Back then, House Democrats passed the “For the People Act.” Had this radical measure passed the Senate, it would have “expanded early voting, automatic voter registration, restored voting rights to felons, limited gerrymandering, and imposed new disclosure rules on campaign donations.”

That was for starters. One more example. The “Build Back Better Act” was a gargantuan $3.5 trillion spending measure that “included universal pre-K, expanded Medicare benefits (dental, vision, hearing), paid family leave, child tax credit expansion, housing aid, and clean energy investments. A full version required filibuster elimination, as it exceeded reconciliation limits; a scaled-back iteration passed in 2022 as the Inflation Reduction Act.” Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act spent money on an economic stimulus that wasn’t needed. It caused the inflation that stripped Americans of their buying power. It was a disaster enough.

This nation is at a crossroads. President Trump has a small window to reset the country’s course. We have a chance to be a more prosperous, freer, and decent society or we can spin off into the dystopian world that Democrats and the left are striving to create. Open borders will return, police will be prevented from doing their jobs, and Uncle Sam will spend us into a bona fide fiscal crisis. And expect limits on free speech the likes we’ve never seen on these shores.

Is all that an exaggeration? Not a bit, unless like Senate Republicans, you want to deny that only two maverick Senate Democrats in 2021 staved off ending the filibuster, thereby protecting the country from woes most of us can’t imagine. Republicans need to end the filibuster before the Democrats do to enact measures that set the nation on a healthier course.

President Trump is right. The next time, Senate Democrats won’t fire and miss.

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Will House RINOs Bail on the One, Big, Beautiful Bill?

By J Robert Smith

  • July 2, 2925
  • 2-min read

Reports Breitbart, July 1:

“Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Briefing” that President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” domestic policy package passed by the Senate has at least 20 Republican Representatives who are currently no votes.”

Never put treachery or cowardice past RINOs. But bailing on Trump’s signature legislation would cost so-called moderate Republicans dearly. The president has a lot of tools in his toolbox to deal with recalcitrant House Republicans. There are dozens of favors that the White House could withhold from representatives who are up for election next year. Speaker Mike Johnson, likewise, could withhold monies and favors, including reelection support.

The leverage that the RINOs enjoy, however, is that the GOP has a razor-thin majority in the House. The Republican majority couldn’t function without the support of moderates. It’s something of a standoff, but an angry Donald Trump might not care. If moderates fail to support the continuing resolution, Trump is capable of going scorched earth.

What will happen is that Speaker Johnson and his team will make some accommodations to his members who have issues with the Senate version of the CR. The amended version will go to a conference committee (that’s a House-Senate confab) that will negotiate further compromises. The conference bill will then be voted on by the House and Senate.

Frost admitted that Republicans – moderates and fiscal conservatives like Chip Roy – are more than likely to cave. Said Frost:

“Now we’ve got to be honest all the time, the moderates on the Republican side always fold. They put up a little fight. So that way, they have some footage that they can put behind their ads during election time, and then they fold right away. The far right kind of Freedom Caucus folks, most of the time, they fold. Sometimes they stick to it. So we’ll see. Right now, we’re having conversations with a lot of them behind the scenes. But you, one of the most important conversations, the most impactful ones, are actually constituents and the people reaching out. That’s why the big strategy right now is delay, delay, delay. Every minute we keep this bill from passing, it becomes even more unpopular.”

There you have it. Delay is the Democrats’ big weapon. Mike Johnson and John Thune need to move heaven and earth to get balky Republicans onboard and pass the One, Big, Beautiful Bill no later than next week, latest. Twist arms, trade favors – whatever. Get it done.

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