Staff Reports
The Senate has finally approved a whopping $95 billion defense bill, and boy, oh boy, did this thing cause some political fireworks. Seventy-nine senators, mostly Republicans, gave the green light to sending this eye-popping sum of cash to President Joe Biden. The House had already passed the aid over the weekend, so now we wait for good ole Joe to sign off on it.
#BREAKING Senate sends Ukraine aid to Biden’s desk with majority of GOP supporthttps://t.co/5kjb75fbUG
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 24, 2024
So, what’s all this dough going towards, you ask? Well, over $34 billion is heading to Israel and Taiwan, two countries that are like the cool kids at school – everyone loves ’em. But hold onto your hats, folks, because here comes the big kicker: more than $60 billion is earmarked for Ukraine! And that’s where things get spicy.
You see, Republicans have been giving the ol’ side-eye to the whole situation in Ukraine for some time now. They’re not too keen on sending more of our hard-earned cash to a never-ending conflict that, let’s be honest, doesn’t really seem to be getting any better. And can you blame them? Former President Donald Trump wasn’t exactly gung-ho about diving into foreign wars, and many GOP lawmakers have taken a page from his playbook on this one.
But wait, there’s more! The bill caused an uproar not just because of the Ukraine money, but also because it didn’t include any provisions for beefing up border security. You can just picture the Republicans shaking their heads in disbelief at that one.
The aid almost didn’t make it through Congress, folks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a big Ukraine supporter in the GOP, tried to strike a deal with the Democrats on beefing up border security. But oh no, that wasn’t conservative enough for the House Republicans, so it got the boot.
Fast forward to Saturday, and Speaker Mike Johnson steps in and gives the Senate bill the go-ahead, but not without making a few changes first. They even tweaked $9 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine to be a “forgivable loan” at the behest of Trump. Oh, and they tacked on a forced sale of TikTok and put in some language saying we can use Russian assets to foot the bill for the war. Talk about a wild ride!
It’s a victory for McConnell and the Republicans, with some of those who initially opposed the bill doing a 180 and voting in favor this time around. McConnell even did a little victory dance, declaring, “I think we’ve turned the corner on the isolationist movement.”
But not everyone is clapping their hands and joining in the celebration. Some Republicans are still scratching their heads, wishing there had been some border security love in that bill. Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Democrats had their own little tiff going on about adding conditions to aid for Israel.
