Veteran Suicide Rate Remains High Despite Spending Millions

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Veteran Suicide Rate Remains High Despite Spending Millions

(, The Center Square) Veterans die by suicide at roughly twice the civilian rate, despite the Department of Veterans Affairs spending more than $500 million a year to address the problem.

In 2023, the rate of suicide for veterans was 35.2 per 100,000, up from 34.7 per 100,000 in 2022, according to the most recent figures from the VA. By comparison, the national suicide rate was 14.1 per 100,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jim Whaley, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and CEO of Mission Roll Call, told The Center Square that official government figures may not fully capture the problem, suggesting the data undercounts the true scope. He also said the government has spent a millions on prevention with lackluster results.

“A lot of money has gone into suicide prevention, and it really hasn’t worked,” he said.

Whaley called for a national summit of veterans groups to address the issue. He said that in addition to the big, national organizations, small local groups need to be a part of the solution.

He also said the goal should be zero veteran suicides.

“Let’s not just try to reduce it,” he told The Center Square. “Let’s have a bold goal.”

Younger veterans, men, those with mental health problems and substance abuse problems are among those with the highest risks. Whaley said another difficult time can be during the transition from the military to civilian life.

Homelessness is another factor, Whaley said. While the two issues may seem separate, they are often linked. Homelessness, Whaley said, can be a path to suicide.

VA Secretary Doug Collins noted that his department is focused on solutions.

“Veteran suicide has been a scourge on our nation for far too long,” he said. “Most Veterans who die by suicide were not in recent VA care, so making it easier for those who have worn the uniform to access the VA benefits they have earned is key.”

Collins also said the department will, for the first time, take a look at how well the programs it already has are working.

He said it was “a serious effort to track the efficacy of the hundreds of millions the department spends per year in this area to ensure we have real solutions, not just rhetoric.”

War in Iran Shocks Markets, Costs U.S. Taxpayers $1 Billion a Day

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War in Iran Shocks Markets, Costs U.S. Taxpayers $1 Billion a Day

(, The Center Square) The escalating war in Iran has already rattled global markets and driven oil prices to their highest levels since April 2024. If the conflict persists, the strain on the global economy deepens and the burden on U.S. taxpayers grows.

With U.S. military operations costing more than a billion dollars each day, experts warn that a prolonged war could require a significant increase in defense spending, further affecting the federal budget.

The U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 after nuclear talks with Islamic Republic failed to produce a deal. President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have laid out four military objectives: Destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, neutralizing its navy, preventing the development of nuclear weapons, and ensuring the regime can’t direct terrorism beyond its borders.

Both Trump and Hegseth said the conflict is at the beginning. It’s unclear how long the war could continue, but Trump said it could be several weeks. On Friday, Trump said he would accept nothing less than Iran’s unconditional surrender.

U.S. gas prices surged to an average of $3.45 on Sunday, according to AAA, a $0.47 increase over the week. That’s the sharpest weekly rise since March 2022, when prices jumped $0.60 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Since the Iran conflict began, oil prices have soared from around $65 to over $90 a barrel as of Friday.

Desmond Lachman, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the economic hits could become more severe as the war continues.

He predicted gas prices could climb even higher, potentially exceeding $3.50 or even $3.75 per gallon.

“That has an impact on inflation and could also slow the economy. So it’s quite a big deal,” he said.

Shipping traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz is nearly at a standstill, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, an international group that tracks commercial shipping safety. The waterway usually handles about 20% of the world’s crude oil and natural gas shipments.

On average, about 138 vessels pass through the strait each day. That dropped to four earlier this week.

“This represents a near-total temporary pause in routine commercial traffic,” JMIC noted. “While no formal legal closure of the Strait has been universally acknowledged, the reduction stems from a combination of security threats, insurance constraints, operational uncertainty, and effective disruptions rather than a declared blockade.”

Lachman said the Strait of Hormuz is one problem, but Iran is also attacking oil and gas infrastructure, reducing supply.

“They are going after oil refineries and pipelines so there’ll be pressure on the United States to end the war,” he told The Center Square. “What’s happening right now is that those Gulf states are able to intercept the drones that the Iranians are sending, but the Iranians have got more drones than these states have got interceptors.”

Additional disruptions could send oil prices above $100 a barrel, Lachman said.

Goldman Sachs Research economists Jessica Rindels and Pierfrancesco Mei estimated that higher oil prices could hamper the U.S. economy and push up consumer prices. Higher oil prices reduce disposable income, which in turn limits spending, they noted.

“History suggests that oil price spikes driven by geopolitical shocks can be short-lived if markets gain confidence that supply disruptions will be temporary,” they wrote in a report.

How long the war with Iran will last and how far it might spread throughout the Middle East remain unclear, Lachman said.

“The trouble is, nobody really knows how long it will continue,” he told The Center Square.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the “situation could spiral beyond anyone’s control.”

“All the unlawful attacks in the Middle East and beyond are causing tremendous suffering and harm to civilians throughout the region – and pose a grave risk to the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people,” he said. “It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations. The stakes could not be higher.”

In addition to the global economy, a long and costly war in Iran could hit U.S. taxpayers, Lachman said.

“This is costing over a billion dollars a day,” he told The Center Square. “So if this drags on, the U.S. is going to need a big increase in its defense budget, which can push interest rates up. You’ve just got to hope that this is a very short war; otherwise, there will be serious consequences.”

Trump is already looking to boost military spending. Trump previously proposed a $1.5 trillion budget for the Department of War, a 60% increase over existing levels.

On Friday, the nation’s largest defense contractors agreed to “quadruple Production of the ‘Exquisite Class’ Weaponry,” the president said in a social media post.

Obama Loophole Helping Chinese Nationals Give Birth to U.S. Babies

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Obama Loophole Helping Chinese Nationals Give Birth to U.S. Babies

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Recent legislation by GOP lawmakers highlighted a longstanding but little known loophole that allowed Chinese nationals to gain backdoor U.S. citizenship for their children via an Obama-era visa policy.

Reps. Tom Tiffany, R-Wisc., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced the One Nation, One Visa Policy Act in the House last week to prevent Chinese mothers from traveling to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, in order to exploit America’s controversial birthright citizenship practices.

“U.S. citizenship is valuable, not something foreign holidaymakers should be able to pick up like a hotel gift-shop souvenir,” Tiffany said in a press release.

A parallel Senate bill by Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Jim Banks, R-Ind.; and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., also sought to end a visa waiver program, first implemented in 2009, that granted 45 days of unfettered access to U.S. island territories in the Pacific for those holding a Hong Kong passport.

“In 2009, former President Obama created a categorical parole program that enabled Chinese nationals to visit the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) without a tourist visa and the vetting that entails,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to then-Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem and Interior Sec. Doug Burgum. “This has opened the United States to significant security threats by creating a veritable cottage industry of Chinese nationals giving birth in the CNMI and gaining access to U.S. citizenship.”

Mullin is now favored to take over Noem’s DHS position after she was reassigned on Friday by President Donald Trump.

The lawmakers cited “recent” reporting by the Wall Street Journal, although online records indicated that the newspaper first highlighted the concern about birth tourism in the Pacific territories nearly 10 years ago, after Trump first took office in 2017.

However, Trump has forced so-called birthright citizenship to the forefront in his second term, issuing an executive order on the issue and later calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to decide it after activist judges attempted to block the order with injunctions.

The case hinges on the 20th-century reinterpretations of the 14th Amendment that ignored the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in order to declare anyone born on U.S. soil an automatic citizen.

The prospect of “anchor babies” has since incentivized illegal immigration, with the problem coming to a head under the Biden administration’s open-border policies.

Yet, China’s backdoor birth-tourism industry poses a more sinister national-security threat, lawmakers noted.

“Communist China has a track record for exploiting America’s weaknesses to advance its interests and undermine our national security, and the horrific reports of how they have exploited an Obama-era visa program is a prime example,” Scott said. “… It’s time to shut Communist China’s back door into our nation by eliminating this reckless program and ensuring the full vetting of any Chinese national who wishes to come to our nation.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Nail Bomb Thrown at Anti-Islam Provocateur in NYC

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Nail Bomb Thrown at Anti-Islam Provocateur in NYC

(Headline USA) A counterprotester demonstrating against a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” event Saturday lit and threw a device containing nuts, bolts and screws at the protesting crowd after someone from that group used pepper spray on the counterprotest, police said.

The FBI is reportedly investigating the incident as a potential act of terrorism.

Tensions continued to heighten when someone in the counterprotest lit and threw a device police described as smaller than a football into the protesting crowd of about 20 people.

The device struck a barrier and extinguished itself “a few feet from police officers,” police said. The same person then ran, and another person gave a him a second device, which he then dropped. The devices, which police said were smaller than a football, were wrapped in black tape with nuts, bolts, and screws, as well as a hobby fuse that could be lit. Police said it was unclear if they were functioning devices or a hoax.

All three people have been arrested, and an investigation is underway.

Police didn’t report any injuries during a news conference and said they believed Mayor Zohran Mamdani was not in the residence at the time.

Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Lang has also protested in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Tisch said about 20 people showed up to the protest tied to him on Saturday, and the counterprotest had about 125 people at its peak.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Even Dems Are Questioning Rep. Swalwell’s Eligibility to Run for Governor 

Luis Cornelio
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Even Dems Are Questioning Rep. Swalwell’s Eligibility to Run for Governor 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Rep. Eric Swalwell has long maintained his primary residence in Washington, D.C., despite representing large portions of California in Congress. Now that he is running for California governor, his apparent on-paper-only California residency is under scrutiny—even from fellow Democrats. 

Tom Steyer, a left-wing billionaire donor who is also running for the Democratic nomination for governor, called on California Secretary of State Shirley Weber to enforce the state’s residency requirements. 

Steyer’s campaign wrote to Shirley that Swalwell “appears to live in California on paper only” and is “unlikely to meet the basic residency requirements to run for Governor.” 

In a 55-page letter, Steyer’s attorneys argued that Swalwell has repeatedly failed to list a home address in campaign documents. 

For instance, Swalwell listed a law firm’s address in Sacramento as his address on a Candidate Intention Statement. 

Swalwell also designated his Eckington address in Washington, D.C., at 209 S Street NE as his principal residence in a deed of trust. 

Instead, Swalwell lists a California address on his voter registration form, but deed records do not show that he actually owns the property. 

The letter argued that “public records databases do not indicate Swalwell is a resident at that address.” 

The home is owned by a relative of Swalwell’s former deputy chief of staff and longtime mentor, Tim Sbranti. 

When Swalwell is in California, he stays in San Francisco hotels, according to campaign finance records. 

Steyer’s letter is not the first time Swalwell has faced accusations that he does not actually reside in California. In January, Swalwell was sued over his D.C. residency, with the lawsuit alleging that he does not live in the state and is unqualified to run for governor. 

“Tom Steyer has sunk to a new low, peddling far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert’s tired talking points. Gilbert is a quack who has published that Bruce Lee is alive and Paul McCartney is dead,” a spokesperson for Swalwell’s campaign said in remarks to Politico.  

“Billionaire Steyer is personally going after a public servant who has long rented in his East Bay Congressional district. California’s renters don’t need to be shamed by an out-of-touch billionaire,” the campaign added. 

In a statement, the California Secretary of State’s office said candidates will only appear on the ballot “if they meet the candidate qualifications and requirements outlined in the 2026 California Election Guide.” 

Zohran Mamdani’s Wife Caught ‘Liking’ Pro-Oct. 7 Attack Posts 

Luis Cornelio
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Zohran Mamdani’s Wife Caught ‘Liking’ Pro-Oct. 7 Attack Posts 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday defended his wife after social media activity appeared to show her endorsing content tied to the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel carried out by Hamas. 

Speaking to reporters in New York City, Mamdani sought to downplay the likes by claiming that his wife, Rama Duwaji, is a private citizen who held no formal role in either his campaign or his administration. 

“My wife is the love of my life and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall,” Mamdani claimed. 

“I, however, was elected to represent all eight and a half million people in this city, and I believe that it’s my responsibility, because of that role, to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions,” he added. 

His defense came after reports surfaced showing that Duwaji had liked Instagram posts of the Oct. 7 attacks that left more than 1,200 people dead in southern Israel near the Gaza border. 

“Breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation,” read one of the images posted by The Slow Factory. 

The post was published on Oct. 7, 2023, just hours after the massacre began in Israel. 

Duwaji also liked a post from the People’s Forum NYC showing pro-Palestinian activists taking to the streets in support of the attacks. 

“FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!” read the caption, referring to a slogan widely recognized as calling for the destruction of Israel and its people. 

“Thousands have taken to the streets in #NYC to stand with Palestinian resistance and call for an end to all U.S. aid to apartheid Israel,” the same caption read.

More than 1,200 people were killed in what became the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. 

Two Afghan Nationals Plead Guilty in Chicago Nightclub Rape Case 

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Two Afghan Nationals Plead Guilty in Chicago Nightclub Rape Case 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Two Afghan nationals, including one who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, were sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to raping an intoxicated woman they encountered at a Chicago nightclub in 2023. 

The men — Sarwar Khan, 48, and Quribullah Mohammad, 24 — received more than 10 years each for aggravated criminal sexual assault causing bodily harm. 

Police records reviewed by Headline USA show that, in addition to sexual assault, Khan and Mohammad had also been charged with kidnapping and robbery. 

Khan entered the U.S. more than a decade ago, while Mohammad had lived in Milwaukee before entering the U.S. a year ago. 

Judge Domenica Stephenson noted that both men must serve at least 85% of their sentence and register as sex offenders, according to CWB Chicago. 

According to CWB Chicago, the suspects encountered a 22-year-old woman who had recently moved to Chicago and was out with coworkers in June 2023.

The two men entered a gay bar where the woman was located. Khan offered to buy her a drink while she waited in line for the restroom. She accepted the drink reluctantly and, upon leaving the restroom, told Khan she felt “extremely intoxicated.” 

Despite her stating she planned to go home, Khan then “forcefully guided her” toward the front door, where he met Mohammad. 

The men forced the woman into a vehicle, where Khan sexually assaulted her in the back seat. She was so intoxicated that Mohammad had to carry her to the second floor of Khan’s residence, according to the outlet. 

Inside Khan’s bedroom, the men took turns raping the woman. She managed to call 911 after 2 a.m., but Khan allegedly knocked the phone from her hand. 

As recounted by CWB Chicago: 

“Mohammad fled the apartment and hid the woman’s wallet in a nearby yard before police arrived. Khan went downstairs to meet the officers when they arrived. Not satisfied with his presence, they contacted the woman by phone, persuaded her it was safe to come outside, and summoned an ambulance. She was taken to a hospital for treatment of ‘extensive’ injuries consistent with sexual assault, along with abrasions and marks on her body, prosecutors said.” 

Court records show Mohammad has remained in the custody of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office since his arrest.

Biden State Dept. Gave Tax Dollars to Research Gay, European Hookup Spots

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Biden State Dept. Gave Tax Dollars to Research Gay, European Hookup Spots

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A recent hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee brought renewed attention to a taxpayer-funded initiative to make maps “more gay” by allowing visitors to pin LGPT hookup spots in central Europe and elsewhere.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., pressed Sarah B. Rogers, undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, on Thursday to explain the Biden-backed program “Queering the Maps,” which enables LGBT users to share stories about their romantic encounters.

“The platform provides an interface to collaboratively record the cartography of queer life —from park benches to the middle of the ocean — in order to preserve our histories and unfolding realities, which continue to be invalidated, contested, and erased,” according to the website. “From collective action to stories of coming out, encounters with violence to moments of rapturous love, Queering the Map functions as a living archive of queer life.”

For example, one pin at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. recounts that “on a spring break trip, i [sic] met the prettiest boy ever, i wish we could have gotten to know each other more.”

Another pin, on the White House lawn states, “Pence walked up to me and we kissed,we will never be alone ever again-orange.”

In addition to sexual trysts, users also are able to post anecdotes including their “coming out” memories and other miscellaneous milestones, even off-topic rants.

A pin near the White House asks, “what if we overthrew the government…. jk… unless?” and two others simply state, “F**k Trump.”

A land acknowledgement on its website explains that “Queering the Map was initiated on the unceded traditional lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation,” aka Montreal, Canada.

Despite the dubious benefit for U.S. taxpayers, the platform, which purports to be volunteer-moderated, reportedly benefited from a Fulbright–Hays research grant of over $72,000. The grant was awarded to Dragan Katarina Mikulin (pronouns ze/hir) “to conduct a geolinguistic ethnography of queer and trans Slovaks and Czechs.”

Rogers, who assumed her current State Department role in October, confirmed during the House hearing on Thursday that the State Department had funded the so-called research.

“You know, since the age of cartography, we’ve had pretty good maps, but maybe they weren’t gay enough,” she replied after Mast, the committee chair, puzzled incredulously over how the State Department had sought to turn the maps gay.

“…. I do understand that the maps that we were trying to make gay were, I think, of Czechia and Slovakia, so maybe those countries asked for it,” Rogers added. “I doubt it, but I don’t know.”

The exchange went viral, prompting Rogers to issue an apology to the former Soviet nations affected by the unsolicited DEI initiatives.

“Czechia and Slovakia are great countries. I’m sorry that my predecessors ‘queered’ your maps!” she wrote. “This is why future public diplomacy grants will be streamlined, accountable — and channeled toward real American interests, like free speech and sports diplomacy.”

Mast, for his part, urged Rogers to provide the names and receipts for the wasteful spending.

“We do have real things to work on in Congress, like what’s going on with the imminent threat of Iran, and it is embarrassing that we have to talk about the fact that things like this were funded,” he said. “…And would absolutely love to know the individuals specifically that were busy writing these grants, because they have no business receiving another paycheck from the people of the United States of America.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Gov. Spanberger Seeks to Force-Indoctrinate Va. Students about J6

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Gov. Spanberger Seeks to Force-Indoctrinate Va. Students about J6

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Democrats in Virginia announced the latest blow in their reign of terror since regaining the governor’s mansion in January: forcing classroom teachers to promote the unsubstantiated claim that the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising at the U.S. Capitol was an “insurrection.”

A proposed bill from Delegate Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, also would prohibit the characterization of J6 as a “peaceful protest” or any suggestion that election fraud may have impacted the outcome of the 2020 election.

The unwavering efforts by left-wing propagandists to label J6 as such have repeatedly failed in lawfare attacks like the 2024 scheme to boot then-candidate Donald Trump off the ballot in Colorado and elsewhere.

As legal expert Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, noted, the term “insurrection” has a very specific legal meaning — one that the four-hour protest during the Joint Session of Congress to confirm Joe Biden as president failed to meet.

“The FBI investigated thousands after January 6th and charged hundreds. Not one was charged with insurrection or conspiracy to overthrow the country,” Turley wrote. “Indeed, the Supreme Court effectively reduced many of the charges to mere trespass in later litigation, rejecting obstruction claims.”

After winning re-election in 2024, Trump promptly pardoned all of the nonviolent J6 political prisoners as one of his first executive actions.

Turley said the Democrats’ desperate effort to force indoctrination was a clear indication that they were losing the broader historical and legal debate.

He also pointed out the sheer hypocrisy from the emboldened Left after newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger duped supporters into believing she would govern as a moderate.

“While many on the left advocate censoring ‘disinformation,’ they are far less circumspect in promulgating their own disinformation,” Turley noted.

“Likewise, where Democrats have objected to the pressure put on universities for greater diversity of viewpoints as an attack on academic freedom, these Democrats see no problem in mandating the teaching of positions that are demonstrably false,” he added.

Speculation has run rampant that intelligence agencies such as the FBI and CIA — where Spanberger previously served as an agent — were, in fact, the true instigators of Jan. 6, planting undercover operatives in the crowd to foment violence, in order to prevent Republicans from issuing procedural challenges to the Electoral College votes that may have undermined Biden’s installment as president.

Since assuming office, Spanberger has been slammed by critics for reneging on her previous pledges to govern as a centrist — even while her congressional voting record showed her to be an extreme leftist.

Democrats controversially reversed the Youngkin administration’s past cooperation with ICE — resulting in the public murder of 41-year-old mom Stephanie Minter at a Fairfax bus stop by an illegal immigrant with a lengthy rap sheet.

Moreover, the leftist legislature in Richmond is pushing a referendum that will allow it to “temporarily” gerrymander the state for an electoral advantage in the next two election cycles — even though voters recently passed a constitutional amendment to prevent partisan redistricting.

Spanberger previously denounced GOP-led redistricting and claimed as a candidate that she had no plans to interfere with the electoral maps.

Democrats in the state also passed massive tax increases, even after campaigning heavily on “affordability,” while also voting to give themselves a more than 300% pay raise.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Rep. Luna Has a Plan to Force Neocons to Support SAVE Act

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Rep. Luna Has a Plan to Force Neocons to Support SAVE Act

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) With Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., ignoring calls to use a talking filibuster to help pass the SAVE Act, conservatives are speculating about ways to force the hand of the RINO leader.

Pro-MAGA Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., suggested that the legislation to close election-integrity loopholes by mandating voter ID, among other things, might be hitched to the perennial FISA reauthorization that allows deep-state agencies to conduct mass surveillance under the pretense of national security.

“If the Senate is unwilling to do the right thing and pass the SAVE AMERICA Act by breaking the standing filibuster, the only way to get this done is to stick it on FISA,” Luna wrote in a post on X.

Luna initially floated her plan in February. “Voter ID is one of the most important issues in the world. …  And I think that if that’s the way that you have to do it, then so be it.”

The reauthorization of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and its post-9/11 enhancements have been a frequent sticking point in the legislature due to concerns over intelligence agencies’ past abuse of it to spy on private U.S. citizens.

The act became a centerpiece in the Russia-collusion hoax waged by the Obama administration, in which the secretive FISA court gave the FBI the authorization it needed to open an investigation into then-candidate Donald Trump and wiretap his phones.

Meanwhile, the SAVE Act has been a crucial focal point in the Trump administration’s current agenda. In addition to securing safe elections, it also addresses immigration issues and transgender surgeries, thus covering several top conservative priorities that enjoy widespread public support.

Thune inexplicably has refused to move the legislation, claiming that it lacks the needed support and that the Senate has no time to pass it in between the legislature’s frequent vacations.

However, Luna isn’t the only one strategizing solutions that would force the hand of the do-nothing senators. In Texas, current attorney general and senatorial candidate Ken Paxton, who faces a primary runoff against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican nomination, left the longtime RINO lawmaker between a rock and a hard place.

Amid calls for the GOP to coalesce around a single candidate in the must-win race, Paxton has said he intends to keep fighting but would consider dropping out if Cornyn used his influence to get the SAVE Act passed.

Conservative pundits, including Texas-based influencer Alexander Muse, praised the strategy, saying it was a win for Paxton either way.

“By tying his potential withdrawal from the race to passage of the SAVE America Act he has transformed a campaign dispute into a test of governing competence,” Muse wrote.

He said Thune’s reticence may be sheer laziness to lead in a political culture that rewards senatorial inaction — particularly for those in safe red states who can use their institutional power and fundraising advantage to quash any challengers.

“The institution has grown accustomed to procedural shortcuts and quiet stalemates that allow members to return home and claim that Washington is simply gridlocked,” Muse wrote.

“There is also an unspoken fear behind this reluctance,” he added. “If voters discovered that determined senators could actually pass major legislation, especially on issues that command something like 85% public support such as election integrity, they might begin expecting that level of effort all the time.”

On Saturday, Cornyn expressed his support for forcing a floor vote via the talking filibuster, which would require Democrats to try to impede the vote through actual debate instead of a cloture workaround.

“I have supported the Save America Act from day one,” Cornyn said. “I will happily support the ‘talking filibuster’ if that’s what it takes to pass this into law.”

However, Muse remained skeptical, further challenging Cornyn to lobby the four remaining GOP holdouts: Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

McConnell and Tillis have both indicated their plans to retire after the current term. However, Collins faces what is likely to be a heavily contested re-election bid in November and may need help from her fellow senators with fundraising.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

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