Biden Finally Gets To Sign Ukraine Aid Bill. Buncha Republican Senators Still Too Busy Licking Putin's Boots To Vote 'Yea'
It got done.
At long last, months too late, President Joe Biden got to sign a Ukraine aid bill today. After House Speaker Mike Johnson made his deal to fuck over the devil (Marjorie Taylor Greene) and pass aid for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan, the final package went back to the Senate, where the original versions passed months ago. The Senate broke the filibuster yesterday afternoon and voted 79-18 to pass it, and bing bong! Bill becomes law. (Do not congratulate Mike Johnson.)
This package comes to a total of $95 billion, including $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and Gaza (over $9 billion is for humanitarian aid), and $8 billion for Taiwan. It also includes a section that requires TikTok to separate from ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns it, because 85-year-old lawmakers are pretty sure threatening the children’s TikTok is a good idea.
This time around in the Senate, it actually had more support than the Senate’s original attempt, which was a 70-29 vote. That was virtually the same package, except for how the new one includes provisions to make around $10 billion of the Ukraine aid a (forgivable) loan. Punchbowl thinks it might be because Donald Trump was comparatively less bitchy-moany about it this time, which gave a few more Republican senators room to breathe. (Perhaps because he’s busy being all alone in that freezing New York courtroom with his printouts. Plus, Trump has taken Mike Johnson’s side, because even he appears to recognize that the single person most likely to lose the GOP its congressional majority in November is Marjorie Taylor Greene.)
The bill was about Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and TikTok, but the reason this took so long, the reason for the Republican opposition to the aid package, was Ukraine. These are the Republican senators who chose to stick with being Vladimir Putin’s bootlickers instead of voting “yea” last night:
John Barrasso (WY)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)
Mike Braun (IN)
Ted Budd (NC)
Ted Cruz (TX)
Bill Hagerty (TN)
Josh Hawley (MO)
Ron Johnson (WI)
Mike Lee (UT)
Cynthia Lummis (WY)
Roger Marshall (KS)
Marco Rubio (FL)
Eric Schmitt (MO)
Rick Scott (FL)
JD Vance (OH).
Isn’t that just a Most Wanted list of people you wouldn’t leave America in a dark closet with? If Tommy Tuberville, Rand Paul, and Tim Scott seem like they’re missing from the list, it’s because they didn’t vote. (Tuberville still had time to spout Russian propaganda in the New York Times, should you be interested. Speaking of, here’s your list of Republicans in the House who voted with Putin. It is also the usual suspects.)
The other three “no” votes came from Democrats Jeff Merkley (OR) and Peter Welch (VT), plus independent Bernie Sanders. Their “no” votes were for Israel reasons.
But anyway. The bill is passed. The White House is celebrating, and Biden says he looks forward to getting arms shipments to Ukraine going “this week.”
Punchbowl says this happened, ultimately, because Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “locked arms” early on (Schumer’s words) and made certain it would be so. Schumer credits the fact that they agreed to never split Ukraine aid apart from Israel aid:
“We made a pact that we were never going to split them,” Schumer told us. “And that pact never broke in all the times the House and some of the righties in his own caucus were saying just do Israel.”
In the ensuing months, Schumer and McConnell spoke multiple times per week to strategize over how to get a comprehensive aid package through the Senate. The two grew closer over their shared desire to get it over the finish line. In the meantime, they were able to get government funding and FISA reauthorization done, too.
“I never wanted to give up on this, even in the lowest moments — and there were many,” Schumer added.
In other words, Schumer and McConnell were always going to be together on this, and they were always going to keep Ukraine and Israel funding tied together. (Meanwhile in the House, Mike Johnson had to distract his morons with laser pointers by splitting up the bill into four pieces, then sending them to the Senate tied back together in the same gift basket.)
Now, Schumer is also celebrating:
“Our allies around the world have been watching Congress for the last six months and wondering the same thing: When it matters most, will America summon the strength to come together, overcome the centrifugal pull of partisanship and meet the magnitude of the moment?” [Schumer] said on Tuesday. “Tonight, under the watchful eye of history, the Senate answers this question with a thunderous and resounding ‘yes.’”
Also should have added a resounding “Sorry about how it took six months, but the Republican Party is now a mere insurgent faction that lives up Vladimir Putin’s ass, what can we say?” But we won’t tell Schumer how to do his job.
Meanwhile yesterday, after the Senate voted to break the filibuster, clearing the way for the package’s passage, Mitch McConnell took a second to make fun of Tucker Carlson as he declared victory:
Mitch McConnell, a staunch backer of Ukraine aid, says the anti-Ukraine movement began with Tucker Carlson, “who, in my opinion, ended up where he should have been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin.”
He’s not fucking wrong.
Would be nice to give President Biden a fully Democratic Congress in his second term so this horseshit can be avoided in the future. We are just saying.
Here’s Biden’s victory lap:
[Punchbowl / New York Times / Manu Raju]
Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.
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I hate war and I would never commit violence myself. That said, the world is a messy place, and one does not halt war by giving conquerors what they wish. That emboldens those who start wars, and ultimately increases the spread of war. In light of that, my refusal to engage in violence even in self defense could be rationally see as wrong, or at the very least unproductive.
I don't see it that way. We must constantly struggle with the tension between harm reduction and eradication. If we are to reduce the harms of war between now and the day the last war ends, we must have people who stand up to fight against invaders and war mongers. If we are to ever see the day that the last war ends, we must have people who stand as examples of principled non-violence.
I hold myself to stringent standards of non-violence and hope that this is enough to provide a positive example to some, but I do not condemn self-defence, and respect that in this world it must be a right of individuals and nations who choose it.
For that reason, I am glad that the United States will be sending military aid to Ukraine, and triply glad that it will be sending humanitarian aid to Gaza, other parts of Palestine, and Israel.
I feel deeply conflicted over the military aid going to Israel, because I do not trust the Netanyahu government to limit itself to defense. There is a need for defense, certainly. But there is a tradition of Israeli governments, especially Netanyahu's, of exceeding the needs of defense, of disrespecting the humanity of Palestinians.
My heart is going to continue to slowly tear itself apart over what's happening in Israel, Gaza, and Palestine, and I don't know how to fix that or this war. Indeed, it is the inability to constrain the violence of war once unleashed -- even and perhaps especially when unleashed for good reason -- that makes me so resolute in never taking arms, never firing a shot, never striking a blow, no matter the cause.
Next year in Jerusalem I wish only a safe and lasting peace.
If you can click on it, the photo is worth the proverbial thousand words...
ukraine
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For those who were upset with 🇺🇦 flags in the Congress - 🇺🇲 flags in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).
We value your support, USA!
https://www.threads.net/@ukraine/post/C6HFPzXNNfJ