Politics and views in the United States.

The dust settles from the Harris-Trump debate. Speaker Mike Johnson nixes a vote on a CR with a noncitizen voting amendment attached, and lawmakers hear about how to keep Social Security solvent.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I intend to create an opportunity economy, investing in small businesses, in new families, in what we can do around protecting seniors.

As the dust settles from Tuesday's presidential debate, some want more clarity and direct answers from Vice President Kamala Harris.

Though she displayed calm and snap polls said she won the face-off, a portion of undecided voters say they didn't get enough on her plans for the country, or why some of her positions shifted.

But Trump's debate performance sent shockwaves through the GOP.

Allies say the former president missed opportunities on border policy where he polls well.

Instead, they say Trump repeated a conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating people's pets.

In Springfield, they're eating the dogs, the people that came in.

They're eating the cats.

They're eating the pets of the people that live there.

This is what's happening in our country.

Vice presidential candidate J.D.

Vance is doubling down on the story, despite Springfield city leaders saying it's baseless.

He also says if he were vice president in 2021, he wouldn't have certified the 2020 election.

I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters.

Meanwhile, House leadership pulled a stopgap funding measure with an election rule amendment from a floor vote.

The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, even though it's already against the law for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

With the government shutdown looming, Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution, but Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida says the SAVE Act is also necessary.

There are clearly loopholes that must be addressed.

Current law doesn't require you to submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

All you have to do is, if you've seen the form, you just check a box.

So noncitizens are on voter rolls.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes testified to Congress that noncitizen voting isn't a real problem.

He pointed to Arizona's 2004 Proposition 200, which required proof of citizenship to vote.

Fontes says when he was the Maricopa County recorder, his office found tens of thousands of legitimate American citizens who were denied the ballot by the law.

Many, many thousands of them, duplicate forms, where voters tried and tried and tried again to register.

And after thorough research, 47,000 eligible American citizens were found to have been denied the right to vote because of that law.

A 2016 Brennan Center for Justice study of more than 40 jurisdictions found noncitizens cast just one out of every 10,000 votes.

A separate congressional hearing looked at how to keep Social Security solvent.

Social Security Administrator Martin O'Malley testified that record low staffing is exacerbating growing problems.

You've heard the calls and you've heard the cries.

Hour long waits, sometimes an hour and a half on the 800 number.

Financial hardships inflicted oftentimes on our elderly and most vulnerable citizens through no fault of their own.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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