Republican Opposition to Ukraine Aid Doubles in 2 Years

Nearly two years in the past, mere months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the House of Representatives accepted its second bundle of financial, humanitarian, and army funding for Ukraine. The $40 billion measure handed May 10, 2022, by an amazing margin of 368-57.

At the time, these 57 lawmakers voting in opposition to the invoice represented a cohort of Republicans who have been already skeptical of the U.S. technique for the Russia-Ukraine conflict and pissed off by the dearth of debate in Congress and oversight of taxpayer cash.

Today, that quantity has doubled. There at the moment are extra Republicans in the House opposed to extra Ukraine funding than those that support it.

Even so, the most recent Ukraine funding invoice—totaling $60 billion—was accepted Saturday with a 311-112 vote with the unanimous support of Democrats. All 112 lawmakers voting in opposition to the invoice have been Republicans. By comparability, 101 Republicans voted in favor of the invoice.

>>> Republicans Rebel Against $60 Billion Ukraine Aid Bill as House Passes Controversial Foreign Aid Package

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who voted in opposition to the $40 billion Ukraine invoice in May 2022, was a notable exception. He championed the Ukraine measure Saturday as a part of a four-bill overseas support bundle that totals $95 billion.

“I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson informed Newsmax. “We don’t want to have boots on the ground, and we can prevent that by allowing them to hold Putin at bay.”

In addition to the Ukraine funding ($60.84 billion), lawmakers additionally accepted separate payments for Israel ($26.38 billion); the Indo-Pacific ($8.12 billion); and the twenty first Century Peace Through Strength Act, a invoice that may impose extra sanctions on China, Iran, and Russia. They additionally adopted a measure requiring TikTok’s guardian firm to sever ties with the Communist Chinese authorities or stop operations inside the United States.

With the total bundle of payments anticipated to cross the Senate in the approaching days, it can mark the fifth time Congress has accepted funding to assist Ukraine.

Saturday’s vote, nevertheless, was the primary by a Republican-led House. The 4 earlier measures have been adopted in 2022 when Democrats led the chamber and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was calling the photographs.

The earlier 4 funding payments supplied a complete of roughly $113 billion to Ukraine, averaging about $900 per American household. The quantity might actually be as excessive as $125 billion, in accordance to info Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and different lawmakers obtained from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

Once the brand new $60 billion is added to the full, taxpayers shall be on the hook for extra overseas support to Ukraine at a time when they’re struggling to afford fuel, groceries, and lease.

Republicans objecting to the most recent Ukraine funding invoice cited quite a lot of causes for his or her opposition, though a dominant theme had to do with the failure to safe any significant modifications to President Joe Biden’s dealing with of the U.S. border crisis and as an alternative making overseas support the next precedence.

But different questions stay about Ukraine and its infamous popularity for corruption.

Writing for The Hill final week, Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts famous that issues conservatives started elevating two years in the past at the moment are proving appropriate, together with a failure to monitor army weapons equipped to Ukraine and embarrassing Pentagon accounting errors.

“Ukraine’s minister of defense was fired for questions around military graft. Billions in U.S. aid have flowed to economic aid rather than lethal weapons,” Roberts wrote. “More importantly, then as now, President Biden has presented no coherent strategy or plan for victory or peace in Ukraine to the American people, who are gradually losing patience with the bloody stalemate his administration has created.”

Two years in the past, when the $40 billion overseas support invoice reached the Senate, 11 Republican senators voted in opposition to the Ukraine measure. This time, the overseas support bundle will embrace cash for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and different laws included by the House, so figuring out if there shall be an identical consequence to the House vote could be tough to assess.

Still, the evolving outlook towards Ukraine displays a altering mindset amongst conservatives about U.S. foreign policy. The implications of constant to fund a overseas struggle, significantly in occasions of financial pressure at dwelling, will little doubt proceed to animate conservatives and divide Republican lawmakers.