CrimsonPhantom
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RE: US Money Committed to Ukraine Has Already Exceeded Cost of First 5 Years Afghan War
Biden demands $13.7 billion MORE for Ukraine
Quote:As Congress prepares to return to Washington and talk about plans to fund the government, President Joe Biden is asking them to send another $13.7 billion to Ukraine on top of the already $60 billion the US has sent the country since February.
According to the Associated Press, the Biden administration's request for more money to send Ukraine is part of a larger spending package of $47 billion dollars the president wants funded which would see money also allocated to issues related to Covid, monkeypox, and natural disasters across the country.
"We have rallied the world to support the people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and we cannot allow that support to Ukraine to run dry," said Shalanda Young, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
In June of last year, Shalanda Young pushed for "racial equity" in budget talks and said it was necessary to replace the word "woman" with "birthing people" for the sake of inclusion.
By mid March, the Biden administration had already sent a total of $2 billion to Ukraine for security assistance since the start of the war. Much of that assistance took the form of direct transfers of equipment from the Department of Defense to the Ukrainian military.
In May, President Biden requested an additional $33 billion for Ukraine, but then on May 10 the US House of Representatives approved $40 billion in "additional military and humanitarian aid" to help Ukraine's defense against the ongoing Russian invasion.
A few days later the Biden administration announced an additional $100 million in arms funding to Ukraine on top of that newly approved $40 billion aid package.
On June 15, Biden announced that the United States would be sending an additional $1 billion in weapons to Ukraine along with another $225 million in humanitarian aid.
In early August, the Biden White House provided Ukraine with an additional $4.5 billion, increasing the total budgetary support sent to the country since February's invasion by Russia to nearly $60 billion.
Biden's request for a $47 billion dollar spending package comes after his recent student loan forgiveness plan that will cost taxpayers between $300 billion and $980 billion over the next 10 years, his $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act from August, and his back-to-back $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill spending plans from 2021.
Under Joe Biden's presidency the country has faced consistent record high inflation, unprecedented supply chain shortages, citizens laden with record breaking debt, and an economy in recession.
Americans Are Paying The Bill For Our Government’s ‘Unwavering Support’ Of Ukraine
Quote:Is there an amount of military aid for Ukraine the U.S. won’t approve? Within the past two weeks alone, the Biden administration has committed nearly $4 billion in security assistance by allocating $3 billion and $775 million in separate packages. The grand total of military aid delivered to Ukraine since President Biden took office in January 2021 is a whopping $13.5 billion, and that number is only set to increase.
What is particularly pernicious about the weapons gravy train is the lack of a clear endgame in the conflict itself, an ugly feature of U.S. engagement in proxy wars. When asked how long the war in Ukraine and, by extension, military aid will last, variations of “indefinitely” seem to be the going answers from U.S. leaders.
Such a position is amorphous and unrestrained, plunging the United States into deeper subsidization of European security and repeating the same mistakes made in arming proxies.
The latest round of military aid announcements underscores the absence of restraint on the part of U.S. leaders. In the aid announcement on Ukrainian Independence Day, the Department of Defense said the weapons package demonstrates “U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine over the long term — representing a multi-year investment to build the enduring strength of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.”
Further, $3.5 billion in weapons from the nearly $4 billion pot will be made by the U.S. defense industry rather than come from existing U.S. stockpiles — a nice payday and additional job security for the military-industrial complex.
In the fast and furious arming of Ukraine, it seems both Congress and the White House forgot to ensure billions of dollars worth of weapons actually reach Ukrainian forces and don’t fall into the black market.
At a July press briefing, a senior DOD official was quoted saying, “We are not tracking weapons … And quite honestly, I mean, we feel pretty good that the Ukrainians are using the weapons that we’ve provided to them and have not seen any indications that those weapons have gone anywhere else other than to fight against the Russians.” This is quite the assertion to make if weapons aren’t being tracked.
The rapid delivery of weapons, entrenching the U.S. in years of new weapons contracts, and the complete lack of oversight in arms delivery is setting up U.S. involvement in Ukraine to become the latest in a string of U.S. proxy war failures that produce no tangible gains for U.S. security interests.
What is an acceptable end to the conflict that would bring U.S. support to a close? The large-scale arming of Ukraine is taking place with no clear mission or operational objectives. Buzzwords like “long-term gains,” “enduring strength,” and “defending democracy” communicate nothing practical.
Biden, parroting his European counterparts, said the U.S. will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” But the inability of U.S. leaders to connect billions in support for Ukraine to respond to a tangible threat directly impacting U.S. security is a symptom of a larger problem. European powers have spent decades relying on U.S.-funded defense via NATO, allowing defense spending and readiness on the continent to lapse. Rather than put pressure on Europe to own a large share of the responsibility in supporting Ukraine, the U.S. welcomed two new ill-equipped nations to NATO.
Such a dichotomy is problematic as it empowers Ukraine and the largest players in NATO to define for the U.S. the acceptable amount of arms, the conditions under which the conflict could end, and that the war in Ukraine must be considered a top national security priority. Ukraine has already taken such liberties.
In response to a question about Americans concerned with the level of spending on Ukraine, President Zelensky said, “As long as we are resisting it [Russian aggression], the integrity of the United States will continue, therefore we are giving our lives for your values and the joint security of the world… Inflation is nothing, Covid is nothing…”
With all due respect to Zelensky, American families facing skyrocketing living costs have every right to be skeptical of their government’s unrestrained and undirected support of a war in which the U.S. is not a declared participant. Further, Zelensky recently said his country will press on fighting Russia without “any concession or compromise,” a stance that puts the U.S. in an impossible position to suggest any peace negotiations that could end the war.
The U.S. committed itself to the war in Ukraine the moment the first package of military aid was announced post-Russian invasion. In undertaking yet another proxy war, the White House and Congress utterly failed the American people by abandoning all restraint.
Congress could have capped emergency spending. The White House could have toned down the “unwavering support” rhetoric. The Department of Defense could have put in place controls to track weapons deliveries before one bullet crossed into Ukraine. No facet of the U.S. government defined an endgame. As the threat of China’s retaking of Taiwan looms, cooler heads need to rise above the negative PR and devise an exit strategy for the U.S. from arming Ukraine.
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US Money Committed to Ukraine Has Already Exceeded Cost of First 5 Years Afghan War
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