Biden must present a Ukraine plan – Republican leader

The administration of US President Joe Biden must clearly outline its end goals in the Ukraine conflict, and how any further funds will be spent, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said, as the White House desperately needs congressional approval to maintain the flow of weapons to Kiev.

The US must secure their own border before it secures anyone else’s, Speaker Johnson affirmed in his Sunday interview with CBS. This echoed the main focus of House Republicans’ opposition to the combined aid package pushed for by President Biden in late October 2023, over $60 billion of which was to be for Kiev. Republicans at the time insisted on locking their support for the package behind funding for stricter border controls with neighboring Mexico.

Blocking the bill last year was a Republican “message to the White House that they were not being clear with the American people,” Speaker Johnson explained. 

“What is the endgame in Ukraine? What is our strategy? What is the objective? How will we have proper oversight over these precious taxpayer dollars?” he remarked.

In order to send more money to Ukraine, the US effectively has to borrow it from somewhere else, Johnson observed, noting that federal debt has reached $34 trillion. “What we’re saying is, let’s do this in a rational manner… we need accountability for the people who are funding that,” the politician insisted, saying that the “White House has not been forthcoming with those answers.”

The situation with Ukraine aid is nothing short of “dire,” Shalanda Young, the director of the US Office of Management and Budget admitted to journalists last week. She warned that without the congressional support for supplemental funding, the US may have to stop assistance altogether.

Since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in early 2022, Kiev has received more than $200 billion in combined international aid, according to Moscow’s estimates. The US provided Kiev with the latest $250 million package of weapons late in December. Russia insists that Western military aid does little to turn the tide of battle, and only prolongs the fighting and increases the casualties, while making Kiev’s sponsors a direct party to the conflict.

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