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In times like these, we all need a word of encouragement. From pastor and bestselling author Max Lucado comes the Max Lucado Encouraging Word podcast. With over 40 years of ministry and more than 145 million books sold in 50 languages, Max shares the greatest story ever told. The living savior who brings hope for a lifetime. Through rich biblical insight, heartfelt storytelling, you'll be reminded that God is always near, always for you, and always in you. Listen to the Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast where hope meets your day. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
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I'm Josh Hammer, and this is the Josh Hammer Show. Operation Epic Fury, the American military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, now well into its second week, there continues to be staggering military success. The big question now is exactly what happens next and what is the state of play exactly on the ground when it comes to the possibility of the baton, proverbially speaking, being passed from the United States to the Iranian people? A lot to unpack there. Eli Kohanem joined us later on the show to discuss all that. But for now, we begin with this. There's a lot happening on the domestic front. It's easy, given the current news cycle, to focus solely on what is happening over in Iran. And we are absolutely not trying to downplay what is happening over in Iran. It is extraordinarily big deal. These are truly historical times that we are living in. Because it is so historical, because it is of such grand significance in the annals of 21st century history, it is easy to not pay attention to what is actually happening here. On the home front. Well, on the home front, Donald Trump is really, really adamant about a particular bill. It was initially it was called the Save Act. Now it is being referred to as the Save America Act. It's essentially been re codified a little bit there. Donald Trump is really, really, really hands on and really, really enthus about the Save America Act. So this particular legislation is first worth discussing just a little bit more about what it is, if you are particularly online, if you are on social media, you probably have heard at least a little bit about that. So the, the Save act, which, which again is now being referred to as the Save America act, essentially is a universal voter ID requirement. It is a universal requirement when it comes to proof of citizenship for voting elections. It is the Republican Party's main election integrity electoral security bill that the Republican Party is now gung ho on and is now pushing. It was initially introduced in the House by, among others, Chip Roy, one of my absolute favorite congressmen. He's been a lead proponent of it. Mike Lee, center of Utah, has been probably the number one tip of the spear of this legislation over on the Senate side. So the Save act cleared the House back in February just, just last month on a essentially near party line, 218 to 213 vote. It is stalled in the Senate and that is where we currently pick up our tale. It's been stalling in the Senate now for weeks. And the main reason that it has been stalling in the Senate for weeks is that Senate Republican leadership is not being honest with you. They are lying to you. John Thune in particular, who is the Senate majority leader from South Dakota, is lying to his fellow caucus members. He is lying to be the people. He is lying to his own party. And frankly, now he's actually lying also to President Donald J. Trump himself. Donald Trump, in case you missed it over this past weekend, doubled down like he hadn't ever done before on the crucial imperative, dare I say, even indispensable imperative from Trump's perspective of passing the Save America Act. He actually put on Truth Social on Sunday. He wrote, quote, I as president will not sign other bills until this is passed and not the watered down version. Go for the gold, must show voter ID and proof of citizenship, no mail in ballots except for military illness, disability. The president wrote this was on Truth Social on Sunday. Now on Monday, earlier this week in Doral, the House Republican caucus had their grand caucus meeting. President Trump actually doubling down as well, speaking to the entire caucus there. This is in Doral, Florida. Earlier this week, Trump telling House Senate Republicans, excuse me, he said this will guarantee, this will guarantee the midterms. If you don't get it, then it's big trouble. So he was speaking there to the House Republican retreat, but really effectively speaking to Senate Republicans because again, this thing's already passed. The House is currently just stalling in the Senate. Now, Mike Johnson, this week of the House has not been particularly outspoken on this standoff. And yes, it is a standoff at this point between Donald Trump and between John Thune. The issue, as we had on Rachel Bovard a few weeks ago to discuss, is that John Thune is not acknowledging the fact that there is actually a way to potentially get this legislation passed. To wit, there are two specific mechanisms of breaking a filibuster. There is no filibuster in the House. The House is a might makes rights majoritarian chamber. It's the lower legislative House. And a bare 50 plus one majority gets it across the finish line. Not so much in the Senate. True, there is a reconciliation bill at least once a year. There are some procedural arcane ways to get it twice a year through the reconciliation bill. If the parliamentarian descent deems that the bill has the effect of reducing the budget deficit, then there potentially is a way to get it passed with a 50 plus 1 majority. But generally speaking, you have to pass a filibuster, which means that you have to invoke cloture, means that you have to actually get 60 senders. So there are two ways, wrote our friend Rachel Bovard at the Federalist a few weeks ago. There are two traditional ways to break a filibuster. First is the mechanical way, what I just described, which is invoking cloture, which means 60 votes. But there is a second way to do this, and this is where John Thune is lying to you. The second way of doing this, which has existed within the rules of the United States Senate since the inception, since the origins of the rules for the United States Senate, is by actually making senators talk, the so called talking filibuster. Think about the old Jimmy Stewart film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There's if you essentially, in this particular case, if John Thune and Senate Republican leadership were to make Democrats talk and talk and talk and eventually they stop talking, guess what? The filibuster's cleared. That's it. Then the bill essentially passes at that. John Thune, though, is just saying that the votes aren't there. For instance, we probably should listen to the man before we go on criticizing him even further. Let's play clip one of Jonathan explaining his position.
