Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on the Senate floor he “looks forward” to hearing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s demands before Congress on Wednesday evening.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak and claim the $45 billion worth of aid designated for Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill is not enough support. Congress is weighing whether to pass the massive spending bill in addition to the $66 billion lawmakers have already approved of taxpayers’ money for Ukraine.
“I look forward to welcoming President Zelenskyy to the Capitol and to hearing from the Ukrainian people’s elected leader at a critical moment in their struggle for their safety and sovereignty against Russia’s unhinged aggression,” McConnell said.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, looks on as he meets soldiers at the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian invaders in Bakhmut, Ukraine, Tuesday, December 20, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
“The bipartisan government funding bill before this body is imperfect but strong. It will make huge new investments in our Armed Forces while cutting non-defense, non-veterans baseline spending in real dollars,” he continued. “Senators have two options this week: We will either give our Armed Forces the resources and certainty that they need, or we will deny it to them.”
On Tuesday, McConnell claimed funding the defense of Ukraine’s borders is the “number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans.”
Yet some Republicans have suggested securing the United States’ open southern border is the top priority. Establishment Democrat and Republican policies have led to nearly 2 million migrant encounters by border patrol, a 20 percent increase since fiscal year 2021.
While the U.S. southern border remains open, American taxpayers have given more aid to Ukraine than was sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined. The amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine also surpassed three of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in history.
On Sunday, the New York Times reported the U.S. “military spending next year is on track to reach its highest level in inflation-adjusted terms since the peaks in the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between 2008 and 2011, and the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II — a level that is more than the budgets for the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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