Biden Ripped for Trying to Sell 'Disastrous Ukraine Policy to Skeptical Americans'
13:27 GMT 20.10.2023 (Updated: 10:27 GMT 30.01.2024)
© AP Photo / Evan Vucci
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US President Joe Biden's speech to the nation on Thursday night, vowing to send an emergency budget request to Congress to secure funding for Israel and Ukraine and dubbing assistance funneled to Kiev as a "smart investment," rankled with those US lawmakers who have long opposed using taxpayers' cash to bankroll the proxy war against Russia.
US President Joe Biden has been taken to task for trying to use Israel's fight against Hamas to push additional aid for the regime in Kiev. Weighing in on Biden’s address to the nation on Thursday, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, lambasted it as "completely disgraceful."
Vance took to the X social media platform (formerly Twitter) to denounce POTUS for using the latest flare-up of the Palestine-Israel conflict to “sell his disastrous Ukraine policy to skeptical Americans.” He added that these two were “not the same countries," and do not face “the same problems."
“This effort to use Israel for political cover is offensive. Hell no," the senator tweeted.
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In his address from the Oval Office, Biden announced he would be sending a budget request to Congress to “fund America’s national security needs,” and made the case for further funding NATO's ongoing proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and supporting non-NATO ally Israel in its fight against Hamas.
The senator's remarks rang true with many on the Internet, who commented under his post that it was high time for America to stop "funding any foreign conflicts," and stop "artificially linking" such issues as Ukraine, Israel, China/Taiwan, and the US border.
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As for Joe Biden's address, later on Thursday Vance appeared on US television to double down on his assessment of the Democratic POTUS' Ukraine funding effort.
"If he wants to sell the American people on $60 billion more to Ukraine, he shouldn't use dead Israeli children to do it. It was disgusting," Vance insisted, pointing out that "it is a separate country and a separate problem."
"We just can't afford it and we can't support the weapons necessary to fight a two-front conflict," Vance reiterated.
Ahead of Biden's address, Sen. J.D. Vance published an opinion piece in US media, joining forces with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. "Instead of holding up aid to Israel for additional Ukraine funding, Congress should give the situation in Israel the separate debate and vote that it deserves," Vance insisted. The op-ed also argued that European countries near Ukraine, such as Germany and France, should provide "considerably more assistance."
Vance previously joined 29 lawmakers in signing a letter addressed to the Biden administration demanding more transparency on how much is being spent in Ukraine, adding that until such concerns have been addressed, additional expenditures to support the Kiev regime would be “opposed.”
20 October 2023, 06:48 GMT
Amid the increasingly waning desire to pump financial and billions' worth of military aid to Kiev, the Ukraine funding debate has become increasingly controversial in Washington, with some Republicans long warning they would block any spending bill unless their demands are met, including removing any additional funding to Ukraine from the bills. Some of the most vocal Republicans in the House have been Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), while in the Democrat-controlled Senate, several Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have also espoused such a stance.
"We have problems funding Social Security, we have problems funding, Medicare, Medicaid, all the things that have already been promised to our people we have trouble funding, and we just don't have extra money just to be sending to another country," Sen. Rand Paul said earlier.
20 October 2023, 03:45 GMT
Disagreements over funding Ukraine brought the US to the brink of a government shutdown last month, with the spending debate raging ahead of the end of the fiscal year on September 30. At the time, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy passed a spending stopgap without the additional multibillion dollar Ukraine assistance sought by Biden, with the measure set to expire on November 17. The new supplementary funding request comes as the lower congressional chamber remains without a speaker after the ouster of McCarthy, and unable to clear any legislation.
