The SAVE America Act, if passed, will require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. That' s common sense. Pew Research Center found 83% of Americans support it. Gallup found 84%—including 98% of Republicans, 84% of independents, and 67% of Democrats. The House passed it. By any measure, it is one of the most broadly popular pieces of legislation in recent memory.
But in late February 2026, a reporter for punchbowl news named Andrew Desiderio published a piece declaring the bill had “almost no chance of becoming law.” His source was Senate Majority Leader Thune, the 1 man in Washington who decides what reaches the Senate floor and what disappears. Thune had “declared” there was no viable way forward.
That’s the visible story but, what about the reality behind it.
Punchbowl News was founded by 3 reporters who had all come from politico’s playbook franchise: jake sherman, anna palmer, and john bresnahan. Punchbowl would become the most essential newsletter for the people who actually run the place. They’ll tell you they have 240,000 subscribers—every congressional office, 90% of ten Hill staffers, every Fortune 100 company. That number is real. But it hides something—the actual paying audience is around only 7,500 people. The premium subscription—the real-time legislative intelligence—reaches 7,500 insiders. That’s it. Everyone else gets the free morning edition. sherman said nearly 90% of punchbowl’s $10 million in 1st-year revenue came from corporate sponsorships, not subscriptions. Put plainly, the 7,500 insiders are not the customers; they’re the bait.
The real customers are corporations paying to put their name in front of those 7,500 people punchbowl describes as "lobbyists, policy and private sector professionals," 100% of Senate and House offices, and 90% Hill staffers, where your laws get made. Content between a corporation paying $300,000 and an outlet that covers Congress—whose rules explicitly prohibit promotional or lobbying work. The credential also gives punchbowl something no lobbyist can buy outright—free access to the hallways outside every senator’s office. A K Street lobbyist needs a scheduled appointment to walk those halls. A punchbowl reporter walks them freely.
Now, follow the money.
On September 5, 2025, punchbowl launched Fly Out Day. Senate Majority Leader Thune was Episode 2. He controls what comes to the Senate floor. A bill can have 51 co-sponsors and 83% public support and still die without ever getting a vote because the Majority Leader decided the floor was needed elsewhere.
According to OpenSecrets, Thune’s top career contributors through 2024 are dominated by institutions with active interests in federal regulation—blackstone group at $121,649, wells fargo at $100,295, Goldman Sachs at $95,572, comcast at $75,750. These are not companies from Thune's state. They have spent decades lobbying the Senate Finance Committee that Thune now chairs. Cross-reference that list with punchbowl’s sponsor history; goldman sachs has partnered with punchbowl since the outlet launched. Goldman is Thune’s 12th-largest career donor and Punchbowl’s longest-tenured financial sector partner. The other names on Thune’s donor list—blackstone, comcast, wells fargo—are also sponsors of punchbowl.
punchbowl published in February 2026 that the SAVE America Act had “almost no chance of becoming law,” The piece closed with the Senate’s direction treated as settled fact, not contested politics. Thune “declared” there was no path. That framing hit 7,500 Hill staffers, lobbyists, and government affairs directors. Staffers who brief senators every morning read it. Lobbyists advising corporate clients on what’s legislatively “achievable” read it. Legislative directors deciding whether to schedule meetings on a given bill read it. Once punchbowl says something is dead, the 7,500 people who execute Washington’s daily agenda stop working to keep it alive.
Here is the lesson. punchbowl’s pricing is designed specifically to attract corporations with active government affairs operations — you don’t spend $225,000 a week for nothing. Those corporations need something from the Senate Majority Leader. He controls their legislative priorities: what comes to the floor, what gets a committee hearing, what gets quietly deferred indefinitely. punchbowl gives those sponsors proximity to the 7,500 people who shape the Majority Leader’s daily environment. It gives them events where lawmakers appear alongside their brand. It gives them content built around their agreed-upon themes. And it gives the Majority Leader a platform that reaches every relevant person in his professional world — which means every piece of reporting that frames his positioning as pragmatic, his skeptics as base-pandering, lands with maximum amplification across exactly the audience that matters.
Nobody is corrupt. Nobody needs to be. A senator isn’t taking orders. He’s surrounded by an information environment built and funded by the same institutions that built and funded his career. The conventional wisdom he absorbs every morning was authored by a publication that earns 90% of its revenue from those same institutions. By the time he walks into his 1st meeting, the Overton window for what’s “realistic” has already been set — by people whose financial interests and editorial interests have been aligned since 2021. It’s a business model. And a business model is more durable than a conspiracy, because nothing has to go wrong for it to run perfectly.
Between 2021 and 2024, congressional offices paid punchbowl News over $1.5 million from taxpayer-funded House operating accounts, documented in the House Statement of Disbursements. Your representatives subscribed, with your money, to a publication earning 90% of its revenue from the corporations those representatives vote on. What they sell is the room.
Supplemental Info:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/03/the_election_fraud_debate_how_are_votes_really_stolen.html
https://justthenews.com/government/security/analysts-hid-chinese-2020-meddling-intel-vulgarian-trump-over-opposing-his
https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/17/democrats-recycled-lies-about-the-save-act-are-so-lazy-theyre-racist/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=democrats-recycled-lies-about-the-save-act-are-so-lazy-theyre-racist&utm_term=2026-03-17
But in late February 2026, a reporter for punchbowl news named Andrew Desiderio published a piece declaring the bill had “almost no chance of becoming law.” His source was Senate Majority Leader Thune, the 1 man in Washington who decides what reaches the Senate floor and what disappears. Thune had “declared” there was no viable way forward.
That’s the visible story but, what about the reality behind it.
Punchbowl News was founded by 3 reporters who had all come from politico’s playbook franchise: jake sherman, anna palmer, and john bresnahan. Punchbowl would become the most essential newsletter for the people who actually run the place. They’ll tell you they have 240,000 subscribers—every congressional office, 90% of ten Hill staffers, every Fortune 100 company. That number is real. But it hides something—the actual paying audience is around only 7,500 people. The premium subscription—the real-time legislative intelligence—reaches 7,500 insiders. That’s it. Everyone else gets the free morning edition. sherman said nearly 90% of punchbowl’s $10 million in 1st-year revenue came from corporate sponsorships, not subscriptions. Put plainly, the 7,500 insiders are not the customers; they’re the bait.
The real customers are corporations paying to put their name in front of those 7,500 people punchbowl describes as "lobbyists, policy and private sector professionals," 100% of Senate and House offices, and 90% Hill staffers, where your laws get made. Content between a corporation paying $300,000 and an outlet that covers Congress—whose rules explicitly prohibit promotional or lobbying work. The credential also gives punchbowl something no lobbyist can buy outright—free access to the hallways outside every senator’s office. A K Street lobbyist needs a scheduled appointment to walk those halls. A punchbowl reporter walks them freely.
Now, follow the money.
On September 5, 2025, punchbowl launched Fly Out Day. Senate Majority Leader Thune was Episode 2. He controls what comes to the Senate floor. A bill can have 51 co-sponsors and 83% public support and still die without ever getting a vote because the Majority Leader decided the floor was needed elsewhere.
According to OpenSecrets, Thune’s top career contributors through 2024 are dominated by institutions with active interests in federal regulation—blackstone group at $121,649, wells fargo at $100,295, Goldman Sachs at $95,572, comcast at $75,750. These are not companies from Thune's state. They have spent decades lobbying the Senate Finance Committee that Thune now chairs. Cross-reference that list with punchbowl’s sponsor history; goldman sachs has partnered with punchbowl since the outlet launched. Goldman is Thune’s 12th-largest career donor and Punchbowl’s longest-tenured financial sector partner. The other names on Thune’s donor list—blackstone, comcast, wells fargo—are also sponsors of punchbowl.
punchbowl published in February 2026 that the SAVE America Act had “almost no chance of becoming law,” The piece closed with the Senate’s direction treated as settled fact, not contested politics. Thune “declared” there was no path. That framing hit 7,500 Hill staffers, lobbyists, and government affairs directors. Staffers who brief senators every morning read it. Lobbyists advising corporate clients on what’s legislatively “achievable” read it. Legislative directors deciding whether to schedule meetings on a given bill read it. Once punchbowl says something is dead, the 7,500 people who execute Washington’s daily agenda stop working to keep it alive.
Here is the lesson. punchbowl’s pricing is designed specifically to attract corporations with active government affairs operations — you don’t spend $225,000 a week for nothing. Those corporations need something from the Senate Majority Leader. He controls their legislative priorities: what comes to the floor, what gets a committee hearing, what gets quietly deferred indefinitely. punchbowl gives those sponsors proximity to the 7,500 people who shape the Majority Leader’s daily environment. It gives them events where lawmakers appear alongside their brand. It gives them content built around their agreed-upon themes. And it gives the Majority Leader a platform that reaches every relevant person in his professional world — which means every piece of reporting that frames his positioning as pragmatic, his skeptics as base-pandering, lands with maximum amplification across exactly the audience that matters.
Nobody is corrupt. Nobody needs to be. A senator isn’t taking orders. He’s surrounded by an information environment built and funded by the same institutions that built and funded his career. The conventional wisdom he absorbs every morning was authored by a publication that earns 90% of its revenue from those same institutions. By the time he walks into his 1st meeting, the Overton window for what’s “realistic” has already been set — by people whose financial interests and editorial interests have been aligned since 2021. It’s a business model. And a business model is more durable than a conspiracy, because nothing has to go wrong for it to run perfectly.
Between 2021 and 2024, congressional offices paid punchbowl News over $1.5 million from taxpayer-funded House operating accounts, documented in the House Statement of Disbursements. Your representatives subscribed, with your money, to a publication earning 90% of its revenue from the corporations those representatives vote on. What they sell is the room.
Supplemental Info:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/03/the_election_fraud_debate_how_are_votes_really_stolen.html
https://justthenews.com/government/security/analysts-hid-chinese-2020-meddling-intel-vulgarian-trump-over-opposing-his
https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/17/democrats-recycled-lies-about-the-save-act-are-so-lazy-theyre-racist/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=democrats-recycled-lies-about-the-save-act-are-so-lazy-theyre-racist&utm_term=2026-03-17
In my opinion the American People only have one way forward to overcome the negativity of the punchbowl.
That way is to keep expanding the handwritten letters and phone calls demanding the SAVE Act be passed. It is also critical that the Democrat Senators also get those handwritten letters from everyone and also phone calls from their constituents.
If you can afford it, send a telegram from;
Telegram Online from American Telegram https://americantelegram.com/#send
If we could get several thousand telegrams delivered to the Senate it would wreck havoc on the opposition to the SAVE Act.
Please pass this around to everyone you can.
The Tradesman
Replies
I believe we must all work together to get the SAVE Act passed before the mid-terms or we could lose it all.