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A top Republican lawmaker made the case for sweeping election reforms by talking pasta.
In a Tuesday interview with CNBC, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was asked about the SAVE America Act, a GOP-backed bill that would require new voters to show proof of citizenship. The measure narrowly cleared the House in February, but it faces long odds in the Senate.
“When you think about something like Save America, which is at the heart of democracy, just saying show picture ID to vote,” the Louisiana lawmaker said. “For God’s sake, you can’t go get pasta at Olive Garden without a picture ID. Why not be able to show a picture ID to vote?”
Scalise appeared to be referencing the chain’s “Never-Ending Pasta Pass,” which grants customers 13 weeks of unlimited pasta, breadsticks, soup and salad for $100. In order to redeem it, customers must present a photo ID that matches the name on the pass.
Olive Garden revived the promotion last week after a 6-year hiatus, offering the pass to 10,000 customers.
The comparison fits neatly into a broader Republican messaging strategy: pointing to everyday situations where identification is required to argue that voting should be no different.
For instance, elsewhere in his interview, Scalise reached for the example of air travel. “You get on an airline, you show an ID,” he said. “Shouldn’t you show an ID to vote?”
Similarly, last week, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke exclaimed on NewsMax: “You need have an ID to go to Costco!” While in February, Wisconsin Rep. Brian Steil pointed out that he needed to show his ID when buying a six-pack of beer. “I just think it's nuts that we protect our beer more than our ballots,” he told Fox News.
While Republicans frame the SAVE America Act as a matter of long-overdue, common sense security, Democrats counter that the bill solves a problem that barely exists, emphasizing that voter fraud is extraordinarily uncommon.
They’ve also warned that the new legislation — the signature policy of the Trump administration’s multi-pronged attempt to police election security — could make voting overly burdensome and dampen turnout.
In March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the measure as “one of the most despicable pieces of legislation I’ve come across in the many years I’ve been a legislator,” calling it “a voter suppression bill” driven by Trump’s belief that Republicans are poised to lose seats in the midterms.
Skepticism is not confined to Democrats. Some Senate Republicans have also broken ranks. Last week, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski laid out her opposition in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “Why I’m Voting Against the SAVE America Act.”
“As written, the SAVE America Act isn’t a simple fix to safeguard elections, as proponents claim,” she wrote. “It would impose costly new barriers and prevent some, perhaps many, from voting, while also creating chaos before the November elections.” Murkowski noted that the bill would effectively eliminate online voter registration, forcing many rural Alaskans to travel long distances—and spend hundreds of dollars—just to register.
Amid the resistance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledged last month that he lacks the votes to overcome a filibuster and pass the measure.
Trump, for his part, has made clear he views the bill as a top priority ahead of the midterms. “America’s Elections are Rigged, Stolen, and a Laughingstock all over the World,” he wrote on Truth Social in April, reviving his longstanding and unsubstantiated claims of fraud. “We are either going to fix them, or we won’t have a Country any longer.”
Public opinion remains divided. A May Politico survey found that 37 percent of Americans support the SAVE America Act, while 21 percent oppose it; 42 percent said they neither support nor oppose the bill or are unsure.
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