The White House is sending a massive $105 billion aid package to Congress that includes $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $14 billion for border security, $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific region, including Taiwan, and $10 billion for “humanitarian assistance.”
The measure is already in trouble. Nine GOP senators are demanding that Biden separate Israel and Ukraine funding.
“Israel is one of America’s greatest allies across the globe and we must stand firm with them in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 massacre that left more than 1,400 Israelis and 30 Americans brutally murdered,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told The New York Post.
“As we look for ways to help our friends, we anticipate there will soon be funding proposals for aid to Israel. My colleagues and I firmly believe that any aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions more dollars to Ukraine. These are two separate conflicts at different stages and cannot be considered as a ‘package deal.’”
Biden is indeed sending a very sweet pot to the Hill. In addition to the aid for Ukraine and Israel, Taiwan will get a nice chunk of change — a Republican priority — and who’s going to say no to $14 billion in funds to secure the border?
The problem isn’t just tying Ukraine’s and Israel’s aid together. Ukraine is in Eastern Europe. It’s a European war. The Germans, the French, and the British all have a big dog in this hunt. While they’ve given almost everything Biden has asked of them, the time to step up is now in order to prevent a spillover of the conflict into a NATO country like Poland. That would raise the prospect of a nuclear war with Russia — a scenario that can be avoided if the large EU economies pony up and match the U.S. in aid to Kyiv.
They need to do more. Full stop. End of story.
“History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” Biden said in his nationwide address.
Still, the proposal to spend some $5 billion a month in Ukraine is likely to meet opposition on Capitol Hill. Republicans there are divided on the issue and some have questioned the ongoing support, pointing to polls that show a notable minority of Americans say the U.S. is doing too much in Ukraine. GOP lawmakers also argue the money would be better used on domestic issues.
Israel will do what it has to in order to survive. The worry is that Israel could ignite a wider war by eradicating Hamas. Iran’s allies in Syria and Lebanon could join with the Houthis in Yemen and possibly even Iran in what would be a very destructive and costly war.
The hope is that Israel can finish off Hamas quickly. Resupplying Israel’s Iron Dome defense system and making sure the IDF has everything it needs are priorities that most in Congress can get behind.
But most Americans want to see a bigger effort from our NATO allies to repel the Russian invaders in Ukraine. And many in Congress want better oversight of where those funds are going. This is not Congress taking the side of Russia in the conflict. That’s a political talking point. Questioning where the Ukraine aid is going is exactly what Congress is supposed to be doing, and the resistance Republicans are getting in receiving a decent accounting of the aid’s destination is the executive branch interfering with the constitutional responsibilities of Congress.
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