Richard Cowan, Moira Warburton and Patricia Zengerle
ReutersSun, 21 Apr 2024 05:27 UTC
© Yasin Ozturk / Gettyimages.ru
WASHINGTON,
April 20 (Reuters)
- The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a
$95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners.
The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. U.S. leaders from Democratic President
Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had been urging
embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote.
The Senate is set to begin considering the House-passed bill on Tuesday, with some preliminary votes that afternoon. Final passage was expected sometime next week, which would clear the way for Biden to sign it into law.
The bills provide
$60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine, including $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stocks and facilities; $26 billion for Israel, including $9.1 billion for humanitarian needs, and $8.12 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his thanks, saying U.S. lawmakers moved to keep "history on the right track."
"The vital U.S. aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger," Zelenskiy said on X.
The Biden administration is already finalizing its next assistance package for Ukraine so it can announce the new tranche of aid soon after the bill becomes law in order to meet Ukraine's urgent battlefield needs, a White House official said.
It was unclear how quickly the new military funding for Ukraine will be depleted, likely causing calls for further action by Congress.Biden, who had urged Congress since last year to approve the additional aid to Ukraine, said in a statement: "It comes at a moment of grave urgency, with Israel facing unprecedented attacks from Iran and Ukraine under continued bombardment from Russia.
"The vote on passage of the Ukraine funding was 311-112. Significantly,
112 Republicans opposed the legislation, with only 101 in support."Mike Johnson is a lame duck ... he's done," far-right Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters afterward.
She has been a leading opponent of helping Ukraine in its war against Russia and has taken steps that threaten to remove Johnson from office over this issue. Greene stopped short of doing so on Saturday, however.
During the vote, several lawmakers waved small Ukrainian flags as it became clear that element of the package was headed to passage
. Johnson warned lawmakers that was a "violation of decorum."Meanwhile, the House's actions during
a rare Saturday session put on display some cracks in what generally is solid support for Israel within Congress. Recent months have seen progressive Democrats express anger with Israel's government and its conduct of the war in Gaza.
Saturday's vote, in which the
Israel aid was passed 366-58, had 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans in opposition.
Passage of the long-awaited legislation was closely watched by U.S. defense contractors, who could be in line for huge contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners.Johnson this week chose to ignore ouster threats by hardline members of his fractious 218-213 majority and push forward the measure that includes Ukraine funding as it struggles to fight off a two-year
Russian invasion.
The unusual four-bill package also includes a measure that includes a threat to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok and the potential transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine.Some hardline Republicans voicing strong opposition to further Ukraine aid argued the United States can ill afford it given its rising $34 trillion national debt. They have repeatedly raised the threat of ousting Johnson, who became speaker in October after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by party hardliners.
"It's not the perfect legislation, it's not the legislation that we would write if Republicans were in charge of both the House, the Senate, and the White House," Johnson told reporters on Friday. "This is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations.
"Representative Bob Good, chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Friday that the bills represent a "slide down into the abyss of greater fiscal crisis and America-last policies that reflect Biden and (Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer and (House Democratic leader Hakeem) Jeffries, and don't reflect the American people."
But Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump, who carries huge influence in the party, on April 12 voiced support for Johnson and in a Thursday social media post said Ukraine's survival is important for the U.S.Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Moira Warburton and Andrea Shalal in Wilmington; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis, Daniel Wallis and Michael Perry
Comment:
1)
Of the USD 34 trillion in debt, if one adds the numbers,
8 trillion are held by other countries. What this means for each person is that, the total US debt corresponds to
more than USD 100,000 per US citizen, with almost a quarter owed to other countries. The new 95 billion amounts to a mere USD 270 per person.
2)
It appears from the language of the article that if a US politician living in a country with a staggering USD 34 trillion national debt, opposes more aid to Ukraine and the Military Industrial Complex, then some journalists will qualify them as "far right" (1 instance) or "hardline" (5 instances). This is interesting when considering the statement in the article: "
Passage of the long-awaited legislation was closely watched by U.S. defense contractors, who could be in line for huge contracts to supply equipment for Ukraine and other U.S. partners."
3) From the same source there was:
Donald Trump says Ukraine's survival is important to US
By Reuters April 18, 2024 08:35 PM GMT Updated 4 days ago
They quote Donald Trump:
[...]
"Why can't Europe equalize or match the money put in by the United States of America in order to help a Country in desperate need?" he wrote on Thursday.
"As everyone agrees, Ukrainian Survival and Strength should be much more important to Europe than to us, but it is also important to us! GET MOVING EUROPE!"
Trump's post came the day after he praised Poland, following a meeting at Trump Tower in New York with Polish President Andzrej Duda. The former president and the Polish leader discussed Duda's proposal that NATO members spend at least 3% of their gross domestic product on defense, a campaign official said. Currently, they are required to spend at least 2% of GDP.
[...]
When Trump writes: "As everyone agrees, Ukrainian Survival and Strength should be much more important to Europe than to us, but it is also important to us! GET MOVING EUROPE!" we know that what is planned by NATO and the Ukrainian nationalists is the entry of Ukraine into NATO. This is an extension of the
Englargement of NATO, in German
NATO Osterweiterung. It can be interpreted as having a historic parallel in
Generalplan Ost, of the 1930ies and early 1940ies.
4)
In English there is an expression, to tip one's hat (
Wiktionary,
Merriam-Webster), with the first source explaining the meaning as: "To briefly remove or tap one's hat as a gesture of greeting, deference, or respect." In this perspective, some noted that not only was April 20, "a rare Saturday session", a
Shabbat, it was also the birthday, the 135th to be precise, of a renowned leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. To counter such speculations, one could argue, that since life must go on, meaning something of importance happens, or has happened, on every day of the year, and since none of these above coincidences were planned for, the US Congress tipped their hats to nobody, it is independent and act in its own time.
See also:
I pledge allegiance . . . to Keeeeeeeeeeeev5) This article was a group effort, as seen from the list of people involved, though the bio, (see below) reveals a main author, and a main responsible. Is this a new trend, to spread the work load and the risks?
Patricia Zengerle has reported from more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China. An award-winning Washington-based national security and foreign policy reporter who also has worked as an editor, Patricia has appeared on NPR, C-Span and other programs, spoken at the National Press Club and attended the Hoover Institution Media Roundtable. She is a recipient of the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence.
Easy money for the Nazi crime syndicate in Kiev - they are never going to allow the war to end whilst the gravy train is in full flow.
They do not give a damn If that means Ukraine no longer exists at the end of it all