Two Years And $113 Billion Later, D.C.’s ‘America Last’ Crew Has No Plan For Ending The Russia-Ukraine War
Another week has come and gone, and America’s political leaders are still focused on one thing: shipping more money to Ukraine.
On Friday, the GOP-controlled House advanced a rule allowing the lower chamber to pass what effectively amounts to a massive foreign spending package. The bills under consideration seek to ship U.S. taxpayer dollars to Ukraine, Israel (and Hamas-controlled Gaza), and Taiwan. A “divest-or-ban” bill that would prohibit TikTok from operating in the U.S. under its current China-based ownership will also reportedly be considered.
The aforementioned rule was passed Thursday night by the House Rules Committee with help from Democrats. The rule effectively allows the House to vote on each funding measure separately without having to combine them into one package before sending it to the Senate for consideration.
As Federalist Senior Tech Columnist Rachel Bovard explained, “[I]f each title passes, they will all be fused into one package without a final vote (known as a MIRV),” and that “package is then added as a House amendment to the Senate foreign aid bill (the two are effectively the same); in parliamentary speak, the House concurs in the Senate amendment with a House amendment.”
More Democrats than Republicans voted for the rule during Friday’s vote. The foreign funding bills are expected to be considered by the House on Saturday, according to The Hill.
The Republican-controlled House’s fast-tracking of the measures further puts to shame Mr. “Wartime Speaker” Mike Johnson, who has gone above and beyond to break his repeated pledge to secure the U.S.-Mexico border before advancing foreign funding. This betrayal — combined with his prior surrenders on major policy fights — has prompted at least two House Republicans to back a motion to remove Johnson as speaker.
[READ: Just Like Democrats And Joe Biden, Mike Johnson Supports An Open Southern Border]
No Plan and No Statesmen
It’s no secret that the D.C. political class cares more about fortifying Ukraine’s borders than America’s.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell let the cat out of the bag in May 2022 when he admitted that President Biden and congressional leadership agreed “the most important thing going on in the world right now is the war in Ukraine.” That sentiment was still true for Kentucky’s senior senator nearly a year later, when he regurgitated the same talking point during a Fox News interview.
“[D]efeating the Russians in Ukraine is the single most important event going on in the world right now,” McConnell claimed, as America’s southern border remained open, inflation rose, and the federal government abused its intel agencies to target Republicans.
Of course, neither McConnell nor any other D.C. politico who backs U.S. funding for Ukraine has ever bothered to articulate what America’s strategy is for accomplishing such a feat — and therein lies the main problem.
More than two years and $113 billion later, Ukraine isn’t any closer to beating Russia than the day Moscow launched its invasion. There has been no explanation from the Biden administration or any “Ukraine First” member of Congress on what they view as a reasonable resolution to the conflict.
Those claiming the end goal is a total defeat of Russia are living in a fantasy land. Russia is a nuclear power and possesses one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. Barring a sudden collapse of Russian governance, there is no scenario in which Ukrainian soldiers are going to be parading through the streets of Moscow, as blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags wave atop the Russian White House.
Instead of fantasizing, America’s leaders must recognize the current situation in Eastern Europe for what it is. And that means acting like statesmen and negotiating a settlement to end the bloodshed and blank checks.
You don’t have to be a Putin stooge to recognize that dumping endless amounts of U.S. funds into Kyiv without proper oversight and a clear, obtainable objective is a disservice to the American taxpayer and the tens of thousands of Ukrainians being slaughtered in a war they can’t win.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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