Running out the clock won’t save the majority

In the first three months of the Trump administration, Americans were stunned by President Trump’s breakneck pace: executive orders overturning onerous Biden-era regulations, massive reductions in force, and rescissions eliminating billions in waste. Republicans notched some of their highest approval ratings in months. Democrats looked rudderless.

For the first time in years, it felt like Republicans were taking the country back — unapologetically.

The task remains what it was 365 days ago: Save the country, secure future elections, and restore the American dream.

Fast-forward a year, and the public mood has turned bleak. A recent Fox News poll found that 52% of voters would support the Democrat candidates in their House districts this November — reportedly the highest level of support for either party since 2017. More jarring: Voters favor Democrats by 14 points on affordability and helping the middle class and by 21 points on health care.

President Trump’s worries about the midterms, typical swings aside, look justified.

But plenty of time remains, enough to change the trajectory — if Republicans are willing to spend time and effort instead of conserving both.

The problem sits in the mirror. Despite ample runway to tee up major legislation through a second round of reconciliation — the tool Republicans can use to deliver big wins without a single Democratic vote in the Senate — too many lawmakers have acted as if the moment already passed.

The Republican Study Committee produced a blueprint aimed at making the American dream affordable again by tackling the same pressures families feel every day: rising costs, rising premiums, and a fading path to home ownership for younger Americans.

Yet too many Republicans have decided to run on last year’s accomplishments in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, hoping “tax cuts” can substitute for finishing the America First agenda.

Voters aren’t buying it — and they have reasons.

Spending and priorities

Just days ago, 76 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a consolidated appropriations package that included millions in earmarks for clinics providing “gender-affirming care” and $5 billion for refugee resettlement — while declining chances to strip the bill of the pork Republicans claim to oppose.

Days before that, 46 Republicans voted against an amendment to defund rogue activist judge James Boasberg’s office. Eighty-one Republicans voted against an amendment to defund the National Endowment for Democracy — which, contrary to its name, functions as a rogue CIA cutout that fuels global censorship and domestic propaganda.

While basic conservative principles get betrayed in plain sight, Senate Republicans too often hide the ball, using procedure as an excuse for inaction.

RELATED: 3 debunked Democrat claims about the SAVE America Act

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

The Senate can act

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act and the new SAVE America Act have passed the House a combined three times. Lawmakers and pundits insist it’s a nonstarter in the Senate. Passing it, they say, would require “nuking the filibuster” — a risky move when 51 votes for major conservative policy cannot be taken for granted.

But to voters, it looks like business as usual: elected officials trying to save their seats rather than save their country.

And voters are right.

Contrary to the lazy narrative, enforcing a talking filibuster does not eliminate the filibuster.

The talking filibuster has been permitted under Senate rules since 1806 and served for more than a century as the primary way to delay or block a vote. Cloture came later. Today, the minority can simply signal its intent to filibuster, triggering a 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture, end debate, and move to final passage by simple majority.

Enforcing a talking filibuster on the SAVE America Act would not change Senate rules or eliminate the minority’s right to filibuster. It would require the majority leader to keep the bill on the floor — and force the minority to sustain a real filibuster as long as the majority maintains a quorum.

Time and effort stand between us and an immensely popular voter ID law.

RELATED: Noem urges swift passage of SAVE Act to prevent illegal aliens from disenfranchising American voters

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Finish the job

Out-of-control spending keeps burying families in debt and shrinking what their dollars buy. Between backroom deals and broad inaction, politicians seem to be counting the days until a Democrat House returns with subpoenas and impeachment resolutions. The status quo won’t cut it.

The task remains what it was 365 days ago: Save the country, secure future elections, and restore the American dream.

No one believes the job is finished, so stop pretending it is. With months left before November, members of Congress need to prove why voters should keep them in office. Only a dogged push to finish the America First agenda will do.