The lines have been drawn in Congress over funding for the war in Ukraine and border security. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) gave what was, in effect, an ultimatum to the president: no Ukraine funding without substantial money for border security.
It appears that the Democrats were trying to avoid political dynamite by not voting for border security, hoping Republicans would help pass a national security bill. That legislation would give $15 billion to Ukraine to fight the war against Russia and another $10 billion to Israel.
Democrats say the bill would also provide more than $5 billion in emergency funding for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and about $2.3 billion to ICE.
But there's no reform of asylum rules and no abandoning of "catch and release. There are no funds to complete the wall, although there's more money for border agents and immigration judges to speed the asylum process up.
“The battle is for the border,” Johnson said. “We do that first as a top priority, and we’ll take care of things.”
This is the reality for Biden and the Democrats; there is going to have to be revolutionary changes in border policy and enforcement or there will be no aid for Ukraine. That reality has supporters of Ukraine in a foul mood.
“I just don’t think there’s any question that we are about to abandon Ukraine,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the key negotiators on the border package. “When Vladimir Putin marches into Kyiv and into Europe, Republicans will have to live with the fact that our sons and daughters will be over fighting when Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country. They will rue the day that they decided to play politics.”
Ukraine has taken everything that Russia has thrown at it and given it back in spades. Murphy hasn't been paying attention to what's been happening on the battlefield.
Besides, Putin is a long way from marching into Kyiv. These sorts of scare tactics might frighten little children but no one else.
“We have to seriously contemplate the possibility that we’re not going to get this done,” said Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.). “Ukraine is in desperate need of confidence that we will continue to keep our word.”
If the rest of NATO finds this threat existential, they will provide a lot more assistance than they have in the past two years. These are rich countries with big armies and profitable arms industries. If NATO collectively can't come up with $15 billion to replace what the U.S. is not giving Ukraine at the moment, then NATO should cease to exist.
Schumer set up the classified briefing in an attempt to make it more difficult for Republicans to vote against Ukraine aid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to brief the senators via videoconference in the secure room beneath the Capitol but had to back out for reasons senators did not disclose.
In the briefing, Cotton raised his voice at Schumer, who blamed Republicans for injecting border policy demands. Cotton retorted that the blame should be on the president. Other Republicans, unified in their intent to redirect the briefing to the issue of security on the U.S.-Mexico border, also engaged in the argument. Cotton then asked the briefers for an exact date when funding for Ukraine would run out. A group of Republicans walked out in protest just 30 minutes after the briefing began.
There is still a majority of Congress willing to back Ukraine. But the days of giving Biden and Volodymyr Zelesnkyy a "blank check" are over. It's not treason to ask for an accounting of where the aid we've given Ukraine so far has gone, nor is it disloyal to ask the president about what sort of endgame President Zelesnkyy would accept.
Ukraine is not going to march into Moscow any more than Russian troops are going to march into Kyiv. Ukraine is going to have to make a deal, or it won't be only Republicans who will oppose further funding for Kyiv.
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