Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a not-so-subtle message to House Republicans on Tuesday as he highlighted the lower chamber’s push to separate support for Israel and Ukraine.
Refraining from further calling out GOP tricks, McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement from the Senate floor that the US would be naive to ignore how the crisis is connected.
“At the risk of repeating myself, the threats facing America and our allies are serious and they are interconnected,” he said. “If we ignore that fact, we do so at our own peril.”
“The Biden administration’s defense budget request has systematically ignored this growing threat,” McConnell added. “The president’s additional requests to address multiple crises occurring on his watch are an acknowledgment of this failure.”
Earlier this month, the White House released a $106 billion proposal, seeking $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $14.3 billion for Israel, and $14 billion for immigration enforcement.
Mitch McConnell is pushing Republicans to support President Biden’s $106 billion supplemental package. ZUMAPRESS.com
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has publicly urged the Ukrainian and Israeli components to “bifurcate” as he grapples with a GOP conference skeptical of further support for Kyiv.
Instead, House Republicans plan to release $14.3 billion in Israeli aid later this week as a standalone bill, paid for in part by cutting IRS funding appropriated under the Biden Inflation Reduction Act — a plan the White House called a “non-starter. ” Monday night.
“We cannot allow Vladimir Putin to win in Ukraine because I don’t believe it will stop there and it will probably encourage China to move on Taiwan,” Johnson told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview last week. “We will not leave them.”
Mike Johnson got a standing ovation from GOP hardliners when he agreed to push for a stand-alone bill to deal with the war in Ukraine.Getty Images
However, Johnson also said Ukraine aid needed stronger oversight, while the war in the Middle East was a more urgent matter.
“The House GOP bill is woefully inadequate and has the hard-right’s fingerprints all over it. It makes aid for Israel, which has just faced the worst terrorist attack in its history, dependent on a poison pill that rewards wealthy tax cheats,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in response to the Republican proposal.
On Tuesday, McConnell also made clear his preference for combining the two parts of aid.
Chuck Schumer points out that a stand-alone House bill on Israel is a non-starter.AP
“Our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee now have the opportunity to provide the critical resources that our military and defense industrial base has to compete with growing threats and support our partners,” he said.
Unlike Democrats, McConnell has a more delicate dance to perform, simultaneously advocating for more foreign security aid while avoiding alienating more of his conference’s isolationist members.
Kentuckian has previously sought to counter critics of Ukraine’s GOP such as Sen. JD Vance of Ohio by emphasizing further aid to the Kyiv government would help American industry rebuild the US military with newer, more advanced hardware.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova largely echoed Mitch McConnell’s calls for more aid to the Russian-attacked country.WLKY
On Monday, the 81-year-old Senate Republican leader led a talk show in Louisville with Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the US.
During his speech, McConnell denounced “loud voices on both sides of the aisle” who oppose further aid for the beleaguered Eastern European nation.
“The path to greater security for all of us is simple: Help Ukraine win the war,” he said.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan quartet of House lawmakers urged Johnson Monday to take the full $106 billion package up for a vote.
In addition to negotiating the fight over aid spending, the new speaker has until November 17 to pass legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
