Senate moves $40B Ukraine security bill forward

| May 17, 2022

In Ukraine’s battle against Russia, the US is poised now (pending Senate voting) to send $40 BILLION dollars to Ukraine for their defense. This is a massive increase in the hundreds of millions of dollars we’ve already sent. It’s also nearly SEVEN TIMES what Ukraine spent on their own national security in 2021 ($5.9 billion). This is coming from the Congress that couldn’t find $6 billion dollars to start the border wall, which at the highest end projections was estimated to cost $20 billion.

Only eleven US Senators are voting against the measure, all Republicans. They are led by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who had previously held up the “speedy passage” of the bill by insisting on having an inspector general assigned to monitor the fiscal use of this historically large sum of money. With Ukraine’s history for corruption, that would seem a prudent use of taxpayer resources.

Yahoo! News characterizes it as such;

Eleven Republican senators bucked their leadership and voted against a motion advancing a $40 billion security assistance package for Ukraine on Monday, a sign of growing GOP opposition to U.S. efforts aimed at countering Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody three-month-old invasion there.

The security package isn’t expected to pass until later this week because a single Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky, is objecting to a quick vote on the measure.

Paul has demanded the legislation give an inspector general authority to oversee spending, which he called unprecedented and fiscally unsound. But Democrats said that would require a re-vote in the House and burn precious time given Russia’s daily bombing of Ukrainian cities that is causing horrifying scenes of death and devastation.

In his floor speech earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) slammed Paul’s efforts to delay passage of the bill as “totally unacceptable,” saying that it “only serves to strengthen Putin’s hand in the long run.”

Ah yes, if you question the gospel of the Church of the Latest Thing™, you are a heretic and a pro-Russian shill to Putin.

I’m all for supporting Ukraine, which I think I’ve made clear. Most here also want to see them prevail against the Russians, but asking for some checks and balances to be in place before we send $40 billion to a country isn’t absurd. It’s absurd that we aren’t putting such checks in place. Republicans know that Biden and his family have had crooked, shady dealings in the country. Democrats were howling for the last two years about how Trump was conducting shady dealings in the country. It would seem there should be bi-partisan support in favor of the notion that Ukraine has issues with corruption. That runs afoul of the teachings of the Church of the Latest Thing™.

In three years when Peter Schweizer’s latest book details how our political class and their families profited massively off this aid package, I for one, will not be surprised.

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Foreign Policy, Ukraine

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2banana

Anyone remember when the congress and senate told Trump that his $6 billion request to secure the southern border as “too expensive?”

Anonymous

Questions are “racist,” comrade!
comment image

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Pepperidge Fahm remembehs.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

WOW, Holy Moley, Gadzooks, man that’s a lot of moola shmoola going over seas. In 37 years I havent handled that much in coin, currency, precious metals, securities and gems while working on my job. .

Deckie

“Yeah $40 billion… that’s cool. We could have used that, guess we’ll go fuck ourselves now.” — John and Jane Q. American

Anonymous

Who needs baby formula when we can throw money at Ukraine!

KoB

Welp, let’s see. We could buy 2 border walls, 8 Keystone Pipelines, several aircraft carriers, a number of semi-conductor plants, traincar loads of baby formula, and a sh^tton load of other things for 40 Real Large. Guess the Big Guy couldn’t get his 10% from those things tho.

Maybe we ought to keep about 10% of Kongress Klowne Kritters and get rid of the rest? Anybody know where we can find a pissed off JAL Widebody Driver? Or maybe some Kongress Kritters that want to start going to work with a walking cane? Bonus points for anyone that gets the last reference. Wonder how the non cane carrying Kritters will enjoy the Unintended Consequences of their actions. (Yes, Tox, most of us Gun Bunnies can and DO read…even books without glossy pictures of belly buttoned stapled wimmins…with magnum opuses…)

PHUQUE JOE XIDEN!

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Or maybe some Kongress Kritters that want to start going to work with a walking cane?”

That wouldn’t reference “Unintended Consequences”, now, would it?

Kinda sorta, Tox, but no seegar. 22May 1856 South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks used his walking stick to beat hell out of Taxachussettes Senator Charles Sumner. Sumner had insulted Brooks’ cousin, SC Senator Andrew Butler, a sickly, feeble, old man. A lot of this stemmed from the recent passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of ’54 that had basically nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820. There are other examples thru-out history of Kongress Kritters getting physical with one another. Personally, I’d like to see a return of duels. Instead of Kongress Kritters pitting We, The People, against one another, they could settle differences like gentlemen.

Graybeard

I’m all for supporting the Ukraine, as well.
But this has “boondoggle” and “money laundering” plastered all over it.
Any guess what % of $60B will end up in Hunter’s crack pipe?

The Stranger

Well, when you consider how the politicos on both sides of the aisle pilloried Rand Paul for wanting to include an inspector general…hell, he’d vote for the fucking thing if there was someone to keep track of the money. Sounds reasonable to me!

AZRobert

Did they deduct the 21% or so pay increase that they gave themselves from the last bill in this Bill? I don’t think so…

Next is UFO’s over Ukraine for the dark winter to hide the kickbacks, they’ll say it wasn’t us, it was Aliens.

Sapper3307
Deckie

I can’t unsee this now.

A Proud Infidel®™

Schumer and his ilk pimping that spending along with Malig-Nancy Pelosi having gone there tells me that D-rat pols are getting kickbacks.

tom reynolds

Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. They and the dictator Zilinsky deserve not 1 penny of our tax dollars. Our corrupt politicians (demonrats and the rinoscum) are waiting for their kickbacks. Shameful as hell!

Green Thumb

To bad we cannot recoup those billions left in Afghanistan….

BennSue

Sorry, but I don’t give 2 Hoots about Ukraine. I firmly stand behind the Monroe Doctrine. This is a complete waste of resources in particular with what is occurring here with prices and shortages.

USMC Steve

The Monroe Doctrine is kinda obsolete. We cannot really hole up and hope our half of the world does not go batshit crazy, a la Venezuela. For better or worse, this world economy thing is not going away. And I still remember how much help the Soviets/Russians and their buddies were to the Dinks in taking over South Vietnam. Anything we can do to help people kill Russians and blow up their shit is fine by me.

HT3

$40B? Let’s see…the Big Guy’s 10% cut gets him a cool $4B on the backs of Ukrainian’s and US Taxpayers…par for the course.

Spending billions of dollars that the government doesn’t have has nothing to do with 40-year high inflation <heavy sarcasm, eyeroll>.

I enjoy seeing dead Ivans stacked like cord-wood as the next guy, but we can help theUkrainians with a cheaper price tag.

A Proud Infidel®™

We currently have hordes of not only illegal aliens pouring over our Southern Border, but they’re also carrying drugs as well as criminals coming AND just how many of THEM have been jabbed for teh Covid? Apparently, Ukraine and the money laundering it provided for the Bidens is more important than our Border and it appears that Pelosi and other D-rats are on the take from Ukraine as well now.

USMC Steve

Based upon their performance against the “russian army” such as it is, they don’t need our arms or money. And most of Europe is already shipping them the good stuff. But it is TRENDY. so it will go through.

5JC

‘We should assume within 90 days, Putin will have Ukraine” Gen (R) Barry McCaffrey

5JC

In 2020 total US foreign aid was $51B. Aid to Ukraine in 2022 will be about 1/2 of the total. All for a war encouraged by the current idiot in chief.

Hondo

Yeah, you’d think any POTUS would be smart enough to realize that encouraging a dictator with expansionist goals, who controls a large military, and who has a proven willingness to use same isn’t exactly a good idea.

Then again, we are talking about the poster boy for senility. So perhaps he doesn’t “get it” any more – if he ever did.