As Florida was reeling from the impact of Hurricane Ian, Congress approved a short-term spending bill on Friday to keep the government open through mid-December. The measure included sending another $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine at a critical moment as Ukrainian forces are on the offensive and liberating large swaths of territory from the Russian occupiers.
But Donald Trump Jr. and other MAGA Republicans are shamelessly using Hurricane Ian in an effort to undermine the Biden administration’s efforts to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.
Passage of the legislation averted a government shut down just hours before Congress was set to recess until after November’s mid-term elections.
“This package comes at a critical moment,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, pointing to Ukraine’s recent success on the battlefield in Ukraine and the Biden administration’s commitment to support Ukraine.. “With this supplemental, we take another strong step toward honoring that pledge, our country’s pledge.”
In the House, the bill passed on almost a straight party-line vote, 230-201, with only 10 Republicans voting in favor. Republicans offered various reasons for opposing the measure, including the need to spend more money on defending the southern border rather than Ukraine.
A day earlier, the Senate passed the temporary spending measure by a vote of 72-25. The Republican caucus was split in half — with 25 senators opposing the bill, including the usual suspects like Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley..
The vote was indicative of the deep split within GOP ranks over Ukraine. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell supported the spending bill:
“Assisting Ukraine is not some feel-good, symbolic gesture — it’s literally an investment in our own national security and that of our allies,” said McConnell, who led a delegation of Republican senators on a visit to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in May.
But it didn’t take long for MAGA Republicans to take to make the ridiculous argument that the additional $12.3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine comes at the expense of aiding victims of Hurricane Ian.
And of course in the Magaverse where one goes, they all go. So Twitter and other social media are full of MAGA Republicans (and likely Russian trolls) regurgitating these memes that aid to Ukraine somehow will deprive victims of Hurricane Ian of the aid they need. This meme has been repeated ad infinitum regarding other GQP priorities such as border security and inflation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
And when it comes down to it $12.3 billion is just a drop in the bucket in terms of spending. Despite the recent decline in the stock market, the U.S. has about 700 billionaires with several trillion dollars in wealth.
For Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, $12.3 billion would amount to litle more than pocket change.
In the big picture, the U.S. government could easily provide aid to Ukraine and take care of the victims of Hurricane Ian. It’s GQP members crying crocodile tears who had no problem voting against aid to California after the recent wildfires or New York-New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy.
And even if they succeeded in reducing spending to help Ukraine fight the Russian occupiers where do you think money would go?