Almost every Republican in Congress supports an $826 billion Pentagon budget. But when it comes to $24 billion to help Ukraine dismantle the Russian army, it's another story.
Many supporters of Ukraine aid also note that European nations are years away from providing the kind of military aid the U.S. can offer now.
“If Trump came out tomorrow and said Ukraine deserves our support, you’d have 100 percent support from Republicans,” Smith claimed. He said part of the problem is that the debate over Ukraine has been framed for voters as a choice between spending money on, for example, border security at home, and spending that money in a country 5,000 miles away.The silent majority?The first, those who have consistently supported U.S. aid, is probably the most influential on paper.
But the third faction—the Republicans whom Johnson and other pro-Ukraine Republicans would like to ignore—is the most revealing in order to understand the party’s trajectory: those who supported Ukraine aid at first, but have since turned against it or simply gone totally silent. In the same interview, Reschenthaler compared Zelensky favorably to Biden, who he claimed was failing to sufficiently counter Russia.
Reschenthaler was one of 13 Republicans to vote for the initial 2022 aid package who voted for the Gaetz amendment and one of 20 Republicans in the same category with the Greene amendment. His office did not respond to questions about why he changed his position on supporting Ukraine.Talk to a GOP lawmaker who is skeptical or opposed to Ukraine aid, and you’ll typically get a response that raises concerns about how the money has been spent and if the U.S. can afford to spend on Ukraine at all.
Other GOP lawmakers have gone much further, engaging less with the actual facts and more with the false narratives. Many have created their own reality with respect to sending aid to Ukraine, wherein there’s hardly any accountability—where there’s rampant fraud, questionable outcomes, and the money goes from the U.S. taxpayer’s wallet to a Ukrainian bank account.
“For corruption to happen,” she said, “you’d have to believe that Ukraine doesn’t care about supplying its soldiers on the frontlines.” Given the large amount of taxpayer money flowing to Ukraine, the chaos of war, and Ukraine’s past struggles with corruption, lawmakers and experts agree that strong oversight of aid dollars should be a top concern.
“I’m not for a blank check or whatever it takes… but I do support giving them what they need to defend themselves,” Cornyn continued. More often, though, Republicans took the question as an opportunity to restate why they were opposed to Ukraine in the first place. Some Republicans look at the situation and see not proof that the U.S. aid effort has worked, but proof that Russia is weaker than anticipated—something, they point out, that U.S. intelligence missed in its assessments that Kyiv would fall quickly.
“What’s our purpose?” Biggs asked. “What are we there for? And what’s the exit strategy and when do you declare victory and come home?”“Look,” Smith told The Daily Beast, “the president has been clear from the very start that our policy has two goals: one, maintain a sovereign, democratic Ukraine; and two, don’t get into a war with Russia.”
For starters, what does a long-term U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine look like? Does continued help risk escalation? And what does commitment toward Ukraine mean for the U.S. ability to counter China? Rep. Mike Gallagher , who supports Ukraine aid, told The Daily Beast it is important to “leverage” the military assistance to make sure it’s getting to its intended destination and to “get the Europeans to step up and do more.”
That was a point many Democrats made in response to arguments like Hawley’s, though they also noted how a potential conflict in Taiwan would be completely different from a military and weapons standpoint and require different sets of resources. The infusion came at a critical moment in the war. Boosted by early help from the U.S. and other allies, Ukraine defied expectations, exposing a disorganized and confused Russian military.
Murphy said he gets a lot of questions from friends in Ukraine and other supporters of the country in Europe. In truth, McCarthy seems somewhat agnostic on the issue—characteristically preferring to do whatever is in his best interests politically rather than whatever is in the U.S. interest practically.failed for the second time in three days
By the time Congress does approve one, it’s possible the amount allocated for Ukraine’s defense could be below the $24 billion request. As advocates of Ukraine aid see it, the real cost of failing to provide those funds would be incalculably greater than the dollar amount in question.
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