$40 Billion to Ukraine
Acknowledging the potential negative consequences of sending tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine does not mean you can’t feel sympathy for the innocent Ukrainians caught in the middle of this war
A few weeks ago, at the very end of April, the Biden administration asked Congress to send $33 billion to Ukraine to aid the country in its defense against the ongoing Russian invasion. Congress quickly responded by increasing that number to $40 billion, which easily passed the House of Representatives 368-57. All of the 57 “no” votes were from Republicans, meaning every single House Democrat voted in favor of the bill. That fact brings into question the validity of the supposedly “anti-war” positions of the more progressive members of Congress, especially those who have come to be known as “The Squad”.
The bill was expected to quickly make its way through the Senate due to its wide amount of bipartisan support (a rarity in most cases, but apparently not when it comes to war) but was stalled for a week due to Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) “demanding leaders include a provision that would designate a special federal watchdog to oversee how the $40 billion is spent,” according to Politico.
“My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution … We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy,” Paul said. He also denied an offer from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to allow an amendment vote on the requested change because he instead wanted the language added directly into the bill. While this attempt at altering the bill itself never really stood much of a chance, it was still a worthy endeavor that at least shed some light on this fiscal insanity.
Rand Paul trying to ensure some oversight of the massive amount of money and weaponry this bill allocates to Ukraine caused him to receive a wave of backlash from both parties, but in my opinion, it’s a completely reasonable request. Just last month, CNN ran a piece with the headline “What happens to weapons sent to Ukraine? The US doesn’t really know” in which they cite an unnamed source who says the equipment “drops into a big black hole” after being shipped into Ukraine.
While writing about the same story for The Libertarian Institute, Kyle Anzalone touches on the dangerous potential of this situation, stating that “The US infamously armed the resistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, only to have many of those weapons fall into the hand of the Islamic State and other al-Qaeda affiliate groups.” He then goes on to mention how “Neo-Nazi groups like the Azov Battalion have been incorporated into Ukraine’s armed forces” implying that arms from the U.S. could easily fall into the hands of right-wing extremists within Ukraine, much like they’ve fallen into the hands of extremist groups elsewhere.
Given the history of U.S. weaponry falling into the wrong hands, and the fact that there are literal neo-Nazi groups inside Ukraine, the idea of shipping billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment to the country begins to seem like it could have negative consequences in the long run. And that’s without even considering the broader consequences of engaging in nuclear brinkmanship by using Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia. What amount of arms shipments, intelligence sharing, and overall financial and military support for Ukraine makes the U.S. a co-belligerent in this war? Some could argue we passed that point a while ago, but another $40 billion on top of the nearly $14 billion already sent — adding up to more than we spent annually on the war in Afghanistan — definitely seems like a huge step in that direction.
Aside from the concerns that could come from arming extremist groups within Ukraine and the possibility of this situation escalating into a hot war between the U.S. and Russia, we simply have too many problems here at home to be handing out billions of dollars to foreign governments. Inflation (which is primarily caused by the Federal Reserve printing money to fund reckless government spending) has only cooled down slightly since reaching a 40-year high a couple of months ago, supply chain issues, specifically when it comes to baby formula, are still a cause for concern — and when it comes to food in general, shortages are a problem that will be exacerbated by the current war in Ukraine — and in case anyone forgot, the national debt is more than $30 trillion and climbing every day. We simply cannot afford this level of aid to Ukraine, even if arming neo-Nazis and/or possibly causing a nuclear war weren’t strong enough deterrents already.
This bill also allocates $9 billion to replenish U.S. weapon stockpiles, meaning a large portion of the overall funding will go directly to arms manufacturers. This provides an incentive for the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex to prolong this war for as long as they can, as they’re set to profit off of the suffering of Ukrainians. This is yet another reason our representatives should have opposed this bill.
Even so, the legislation passed the Senate 86-11 on Thursday of this week. Once again, every senator who voted against it was a Republican, including Senator Mike Lee from my home state of Utah. The bill now goes to President Biden who will undoubtedly sign it into law. The funding is supposed to aid Ukraine for the next several months, but I won’t be surprised if we see much more military and economic aid get rushed through Congress in the near future.
Acknowledging the potential negative consequences of our government sending tens of billions of dollars to aid Ukraine in this war does not mean you can’t feel sympathy for the innocent Ukrainians who are caught in the middle of such a horrific situation, and it definitely doesn’t make you a “Putin-apologist”. Our involvement in this war can very easily have catastrophic results, and it will only prolong the violence and exacerbate issues here at home. The fact that this bill received such bipartisan enthusiasm in both chambers of Congress should be seen as odd at least, given our current political climate, but looking at it objectively involves viewing this bill as reckless and dangerous as it really is.
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