Quote:US taxpayers are paying the salaries of EVERY first responder in Ukraine—all 57,000 of them.

We’re also paying Ukrainian seeds and grain, which have been flooding nearby Poland.

Oh and we’re subsidizing Ukrainian small businesses to keep them in business.

Pretty sure there are some American farmers, small businesses, and border patrol agents that could use that money. Or better yet, let’s not spend money we don’t have!

Not one more dime.

Report Uncovers Our Taxpayer Dollars Are Going to Far More Than a War Effort in Ukraine

Quote:Ukraine has been begging America for billions of dollars since its war with Russia started and Washington has been more than happy to fork it over by the truckloads as a means to weaken Putin, but as it turns out, our money has been enriching Ukraine, not just helping it fight a war.

This report comes from CBS of all places. In a segment on "60 Minutes," reporters went to Ukraine to see how our money was being spent. Sure enough, they found war machines and weapons, but then they left the front.

While some of the money is being given to other war-adjacent efforts such as the training of rescue dogs and bomb detection in the rivers and creeks of Ukraine to keep unexploded bombs from harming civilians, our money is going to Ukraine's economy in various ways.

As it turns out, our money is also going to farmers, purchasing seeds and fertilizer:

American taxpayers are financing more than just weapons. We discovered the U.S. government's buying seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers… and covering the salaries of Ukraine's first responders – all 57,000 of them.

We're also subsidizing Ukraine's businesses:

Russia's invasion shrank Ukraine's economy by about a third. We were surprised to find that to keep it afloat the U.S. government is subsidizing small businesses…

…like Tatiana Abramova's knitwear company.

According to 60 Minutes, USAID has helped Abramova's knitting business find customers overseas. The reason we're paying for her business? According to Abramova, the Ukrainian economy is the backbone of the war.

Given the amount of money we've sent, it seems that the American taxpayer is the real backbone of this war:

In total, America's pumped nearly $25 billion of non-military aid into Ukraine's economy since the invasion began – and you can see it working at the bustling farmers market on John McCain Street in central Kyiv.

We're also paying the salaries of Ukrainian first responders. All 57,000 of them.

While it's probably not surprising that billions of our taxpayer dollars are going to things other than the war effort, what really chaps American backsides is that all of this help is going to non-military Ukrainians while Americans are struggling in a myriad of ways themselves, especially in places like Maui where a fire sent the death toll to around 1,000 and the destruction they suffered was met with the Biden administration handing them a paltry $700.

As Honolulu Civil Beat noted, the Biden administration sought more aid for Maui to the tune of $12 billion, but tying $24.1 billion in more aid to Ukraine to it, forcing Republicans to block it:

But the effort to get a speedy appropriation has foundered after the Biden administration sought $12 billion in emergency funding that would extend disaster relief programs while simultaneously requesting some $24.1 billion in military spending for Ukraine in the same package.

That means that funding Hawaii’s needs for Maui’s recovery has been tied to funding to back Ukraine’s military, an increasingly unpopular topic in some Republican circles. When the House passed its fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill early this summer, a contingent of several dozen House Republicans sought to prohibit additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

As all of this is happening, more and more is being revealed about the corruption in Ukraine. As RedState reported, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul himself denounced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenski for canceling Ukraine's elections and the ruling party effectively becoming tyrants:

They've banned the political parties, they've invaded churches, they've arrested priests. So no, it isn't a democracy, it's a corrupt regime. Are the Russians any better? No, the Russians are worse, but at the same time, we don't always have to pick some side to be on, but the ultimate reason I'm against this is we don't have the money and when we borrow more money it leads to more inflation, leads to more likelihood of recession in our country, and so we can't keep doing it.

We're funding Ukraine to the detriment of the American people, and it would seem Democrats are more than willing to hurt the American people more in order to make Ukraine better. We don't have the cash to fund Ukraine, and we especially have better uses for what we borrow here in the States. However, the Democrats are continuously choosing America last.

They're certainly putting the Ukrainian people first.

They have almost no functioning economy, so I’d imagine we are paying for everything. Government, pensions, salaries, teachers, roads, electricity, health care… I think it’s safe to assume we are, because I haven’t heard otherwise.

Anything for the “cause.”

As soon as we stop, we'd hear death to America chants from them.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has “relaxed” who can be drafted. And by relaxed, they mean expanded. Now women up to 60 are supposed to report to draft offices if they are pharmacists, paramedics, or nurses.

They are working on creating a data base for border patrol so they can put them on lists to prevent them from leaving, but thousands left in a matter of days when they heard the news.

(09-25-2023 12:00 PM)gdunn Wrote:  As soon as we stop, we'd hear death to America chants from them.

And we would deserve it. We did this to them.

(09-25-2023 12:05 PM)Todor Wrote:  

(09-25-2023 12:00 PM)gdunn Wrote:  As soon as we stop, we'd hear death to America chants from them.

And we would deserve it. We did this to them.

Well, actually Bill Clinton did it to them and his Democrat Brethren, Obama and Biden didn't back him up on his promise.

Washington Funds Ukraine Forever War While Our Own Soldiers’ Barracks Rot

Quote:House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backtracked on his pledge to remove U.S. aid to Ukraine from House Republicans’ defense spending measure on Saturday, telling reporters that such funds will be included in the legislation after all.

On Friday, McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol that U.S. aid to Ukraine would not be included in House Republicans’ defense appropriations bill and would instead be voted on separately by the lower chamber.

“It would be out and voted on by itself,” McCarthy said. According to Just the News, the proposal to fund the Pentagon included a provision providing Ukraine with $300 million amid its ongoing war against Russia.

When asked about the issue on Saturday, however, McCarthy flip-flopped, claiming, “It became too difficult to [remove the Ukraine funding], so we’re leaving it in.”

The speaker’s backtrack came days after President Joe Biden announced during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his administration would send an additional $325 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, including “air defense capabilities, cluster munitions, [and] anti-tank weapons.” Zelensky, who routinely swindles Western nations into funding his country’s war with Russia, was in Washington, D.C. last week to do exactly that, according to NBC News.

The Biden administration and Congress have worked relentlessly to ensure the well-being of Ukraine’s military, but the same cannot be said when it comes to taking care of America’s men and women in uniform. On Tuesday — two days before Biden’s meeting with Zelensky — the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report detailing the horrific living conditions of the barracks at several U.S. military installations.

According to Military.com, the extensive analysis contains numerous examples of “substandard conditions,” including reports of “bedbugs and roaches,” which the outlet noted “were a common issue at six of the bases that the GAO visited.” Water quality was also a notable issue, with one group of service members telling GAO investigators that their water “is often brown and does not appear safe for drinking.”

Other reported issues at the installations visited by GAO investigators included broken windows, inoperable air conditioning units, and lax security. Inadequate waste disposal and mold were also commonly cited problems.

In summarizing its report, the GAO placed the blame for the aforementioned issues at the feet of the Department of Defense (DOD) and specifically noted how the agency “conducts inefficient oversight” of its members’ living conditions.

“DOD does not track information on the condition of barracks or facilitate collaboration on initiatives to improve barracks,” the report summary reads. “Insufficient oversight hampers DOD’s ability to identify and address long-standing challenges in barracks conditions across the department.”

The GAO further indicated that the Pentagon’s lack of attention and knowledge to this issue impairs its ability to acquire “complete funding information” about how much money it requires to maintain livable barracks. According to the GAO, the DOD requested roughly $15 billion from Congress for “overall facility sustainment” for the 2024 fiscal year “but could not identify how much of this total would be spent toward barracks.”

“The GAO concluded that leaders at the Pentagon are not only failing to provide oversight — instead choosing to largely punt the issue to the branches — but they also don’t consider it a priority,” Military.com summarized in its analysis of the GAO report. “The result has been bureaucratic finger-pointing, with no one office or leader willing to own the issue.”

Substandard conditions at U.S. military barracks are estimated to be plaguing “at least thousands” across the service, according to the report.