Monday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) pledged to fight any efforts to send more military aid to Ukraine.
The Kentucky Republican questioned how Ukrainian government workers would be paid with U.S. aid to the war-torn nation while U.S. government workers would not in the event of a government shutdown.
“A significant chunk is non-military — a bunch of it is going to government salaries,” he said. “I’ve also read that it’s going to government pensions, and you’re right to add insult to injury. If there’s a shutdown, U.S. government workers will not be paid, but Ukrainian workers will be paid by the U.S. taxpayer. There’s nothing in the Constitution that allows for spending like this to another country.”
“The spending clause in our constitution says that Congress can spend according to its enumerated powers, the powers given to it by the Constitution, and also for the general welfare,” Paul continued. “So it’s illegal for the U.S. government if they wanted to give $100 billion to my state of Kentucky. They can’t do it that would violate the general welfare clause. What do you think it violates to send it to another country? Our framers never imagined in their worst nightmare that we would send that much money overseas, but it violates every precept of the Constitution, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop them from sending any more.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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