It’s Time for Congress to Vote for New Aid to Ukraine
The stakes could not be higher. Members of Congress, get it done!
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced plans to hold one vote on aid packages for Ukraine and Israel as early as next week (Dec. 4), following Biden’s billion-dollar request. That’s excellent news. As I explained on Substack earlier this month, there is strategic significance in having a single vote on aid to Israel and Ukraine. Namely, its purpose is to demonstrate to Putin in Moscow and mullahs in Tehran that we understand how these wars are intertwined.
As I explained in “The Case for Supporting Ukraine Is Crystal Clear” in Foreign Policy last week, U.S. aid to Ukraine is not a gesture of charity but a hard-nosed and clear-headed investment in U.S. security objectives. The moral argument for supporting Ukraine is clear, and those in Congress who cherish international law, human rights, and democratic values should not find it hard to pick a side. But if moral arguments are not enough, there are four compelling realpolitik arguments for continued assistance to Ukraine: (1) A Ukrainian victory will dramatically diminish the threat from Russia, allowing us to spend less on European defense and send fewer soldiers to NATO bases in the Baltics; (2) A Ukrainian victory will make Chinese President Xi Jinping think harder about invading Taiwan; (3) A Ukrainian victory would be a win for all those wanting to preserve the rules-based international order established and maintained by the United States since the end of World War II; and (4) A Ukrainian victory will advance democratic ideas around the world, including in neighboring Russia and Belarus, and in our great power competition with China and Russia in the 21st century, our democratic values are one of our greatest advantages.
The stakes could not be higher. Members of Congress, get this done!
Seems like our mainstream media could help out here and make clear what a small part of the US budget goes to Ukraine or foreign aid in general. Today's Letters from an American Substack by Heather Cox Richardson had this good quote:
"Foreign affairs writer Tom Nichols of The Atlantic explains that foreign aid is normally about 1% of the U.S. budget—$60 billion—and 18 months of funding for both the military and humanitarian aid in Ukraine have been about $75 billion. Israel usually gets about $3 billion; the new bill would add about $14 billion to that. (For comparison, Nichols points out that Americans last year spent about $181 billion on snacks and $115 billion on beer.)"
Yes indeed. Nor is the vote a great stretch on our resources. As noted in a WSJ article today, the combined GNP of the EU and the USA is twenty times that of Russia. All that is needed is willpower to get the Ukrainians the sustained support they need, and have shown themselves more than willing to employ with great skill and determination, to preserve their independence from a rogue, mafia-like state that Putin has created in Russia.