One year ago, the House of Representatives passed a resolution affirming America’s determination to stand with the people of Ukraine in their battle against Russian aggression. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) delivered a speech from the House floor affirming U.S. support:
This resolution really does one thing. To tell the world in one united voice that the United States of America stands opposed to oppression. We stand with the people of Ukraine, and we stand against Mr. Putin’s aggression.1
H.Res. 956, Supporting the People of Ukraine, received close to unanimous congressional approval. This was an amazing accomplishment considering the level of vitriol between left and right on Capitol Hill. Only three Republicans cast nay votes. President Biden cheered bipartisan funding for the war. The people of Ukraine swiftly ascended to the top of the White House priority list and started to compete with the needs of Americans:
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration applauded House passage of the bipartisan funding bill, which delivers for the American people through critical investments in a range of bipartisan priorities—from securing historic support for the Ukrainian people, to launching the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, to investing in education, to tackling crime. The legislation will reduce costs for American families and business, support our historic economic recovery, advance equity, and further restore U.S. leadership abroad.2
With the exception of the billions in aid sent to show that Americans stand with the people of Ukraine, none of these other priorities were accomplished. Americans were crushed by inflation. Crime ravaged communities. Our economy faltered. Equity policies were deservedly labeled unfair at best, racist at worst. Education meant indoctrinating America’s children in fringe sexual lifestyles and CRT.
The president made a fool of America abroad. While Ukraine’s sovereignty became a taxpayer priority, America’s lack of a border was not even placed on Biden’s list despite a massive invasion of illegal immigrants and shipments of fentanyl from China and Mexico destined to kill tens of thousands of our citizens.
This is what America’s politicians should stand with
If our government doesn’t stand with the American people, where is our money going?
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced two resolutions inquiring how $113 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to date are being spent in Ukraine:
While the warmongers and the Biden Administration have sent over $113 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, our border patrol asked for just $15.46 billion to secure our southern border and stop the flow of Chinese-made, Mexican Cartel imported fentanyl and human trafficking into the United States.
President Trump’s border wall would have cost only $22 billion to stop the more than 6 million aliens that have invaded our country illegally since Biden took office. The 82,000 Russians invading Ukraine pales in comparison.3
House Chairman on Oversight and Accountability James Comer’s (R-KY) February 22, 2023 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power cited the corruption of Congress’s favorite foster child, warning:
These [Ukraine corruption] claims came one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired several top Ukrainian officials amid a corruption scandal. Ukrainian government officials allegedly engaged in bribery, used government vehicles for personal use, and purchased inflated food supplies for Ukrainian forces.4
Does your money stand with Ukraine corruption and human rights abuses?
The Biden administration State Department’s 2021 Ukraine Human Rights Report published a litany of Ukraine corruption and human rights abuses:
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings by the government or its agents; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees by law enforcement personnel; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious abuses in the Russia-led conflict in the Donbas, including physical abuses or punishment of civilians and members of armed groups held in detention facilities; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; serious restrictions on internet freedom; refoulement of refugees to a country where they would face a threat to their life or freedom; serious acts of government corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence; crimes, violence, or threats of violence motivated by anti-Semitism; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting persons with disabilities, members of ethnic minority groups, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.5
Fervent Zelensky supporter Biden has his own questionable ties to Ukraine:
The fact that copious amounts of U.S. money are being sent to a regime that, according to CATO Institute Senior Fellow Ted Carpenter, is very corrupt noting “Ukraine has long been one of the more corrupt countries in the international system.” The payment of millions of dollars from Ukraine to the Biden family for no show jobs reeks of corruption. Nor has there been any accounting of the billions already sent to Ukraine.6
Against this backdrop of human rights abuses, corruption, and the potential compromise of America’s president, both parties agree that the American people’s incomes must stand with Ukraine first and foremost while we suffer a myriad of attacks on our safety, economic security, and quality of life and an ongoing Biden administration insult at our southern border.
While our nation falters we are subjected to this bipartisan clarion call. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proudly announced voting on the first installment of $40 billion in aid in May 2022 so the Senate could start to deliver on a promise American taxpayers never made:
Today the United States Senate will keep its promise to stand with the people of Ukraine.7
Disagreement was not an option. Schumer resorted to Democrat Trump-Russia collusion lies to bully any opposition into submission:
It appears more and more MAGA Republicans are using the same soft-on-Putin playbook used by former President Trump. We all knew how President Trump reacted to Putin.8
Republicans including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) continue to join Democrats who argue for the sovereignty Americans are denied:
The whole world deserves to know the bravery of the Ukrainian people as they continue their fight for a sovereign and self-governing Ukraine. I will continue to work to support the people of Ukraine.9
The calls from Capitol Hill and the White House to stand with the people of Ukraine are unceasing. They precede the approval of massive aid packages without accountability, transparency, or even an end game, though the Biden administration has made no secret that this has at least as much to do with removing Putin as supporting the Ukrainian people and he is willing to risk nuclear annihilation to get the job done.
Over the past few years we have lost over one million Americans to COVID-19 during a pandemic politicized by partisans who deliberately shut down the economy and schools and destroyed any notion we had about what freedom in America is all about. Overt cowardice in the face of China’s aggression and new revelations about the CCP’s role in covering up the release of their gain of function engineered virus continue to question the president’s motivation in refusing to stand up to our greatest foe.
Despite White House propaganda that the economy is just fine, the cost of living is far from fine and regressively hurts our most vulnerable whose taxes help to fund the war effort.
There is no better example of our government’s refusal to stand with the people of America than the Biden administration’s lukewarm, half-hearted response to the East Palestine rail catastrophe. This is the penultimate symbol of how the American people have been treated since January 2021. Someone needs to stand for us, but even members of the GOP back White House funding to stand with the people of Ukraine while promises about accountability and securing the border lead to hearings and little else.
Resting on our laurels: our government must stand with the people of America.
It often seems that Joe Biden thinks we are still living in the 1950s. The economy is booming. Anything and everything are within America’s grasp. Our best years are ahead of us. Did he check with Chairman Xi first?
Democrat and Republican politicians alike insist that their support, which means the support of American tax dollars, will not waiver. There is unquestionable bilateral agreement that waving the American flag for Ukraine is imperative for America’s future. We never receive a cogent explanation of why this is the case, though President Biden assures us that Ukraine is “fighting for our own liberty.” While that may or may not be true, it’s time the government we fund starts to stand with the people of America. There is genuine need here at home that will not be helped by $113 billion sent overseas. As Marjorie Taylor Greene pointed out last week:
President Trump’s border wall would have cost only $22 billion to stop the more than 6 million aliens that have invaded our country illegally since Biden took office. The 82,000 Russians invading Ukraine pales in comparison.10
Or at least they pale everywhere but the minds of congressional lawmakers and a president searching for better sources for their solicitude than the people they represent.
Let me know what you think. Who should top our government’s priority list, the American people or the people of Ukraine?
Sources
1”McCaul Speaks in Favor of Resolution in Support of the People of Ukraine.” foreignaffairs.house.gov. March 3, 2022. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-speaks-in-favor-of-resolution-in-support-of-the-people-of-ukraine/, retrieved February 28, 2023.
2“FACT SHEET: Biden-?Harris Administration Applauds House Passage of Bipartisan Government Funding Bill.” whitehouse.gov. March 10, 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/10/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-applauds-house-passage-of-bipartisan-government-funding-bill/, retrieved February 28, 2023.
3”Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Reintroduces Resolution of Inquiry Demanding an Audit of Taxpayer Dollars Sent to Ukraine.” greene.house.gov. February 24, 2023. https://greene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=348, retrieved March 1, 2023.
4”Comer & Oversight Republicans Request Transparency from Agencies on Billions in Taxpayer-Funded Ukraine Assistance.” oversight.house.gov. February 22, 2023. https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-oversight-republicans-request-transparency-from-agencies-on-billions-in-taxpayer-funded-ukraine-assistance/, retrieved March 1, 2023.
5”2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine.” state.gov. https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ukraine/,retrieved March 1, 2023.
6”Gosar Opposes Giving a Blank Check to Ukraine.” gosar.house.gov. November 16, 2022. https://gosar.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=MBY47KGKO5QT6FDBS6CNGTNH3U, retrieved March 1, 2023.
7”Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Ahead Of Today’s Vote To Approve Emergency Military, Humanitarian, And Economic Aid For The People Of Ukraine.” democrats.senate.gov. May 19, 2022. https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-floor-remarks-ahead-of-todays-vote-to-approve-emergency-military-humanitarian-and-economic-aid-for-the-people-of-ukraine, retrieved March 1, 2023.
8Ibid.
9”Stefanik Votes to Support the People of Ukraine.” stefanik.house.gov. March 2, 2022. https://stefanik.house.gov/2022/3/stefanik-votes-to-support-the-people-of-ukraine, retrieved February 28, 2023.
10”Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Reintroduces Resolution of Inquiry Demanding an Audit of Taxpayer Dollars Sent to Ukraine.” greene.house.gov. Op. cit.
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