US Government Shutdown Threat Returns Amid Congressional Row Over Israel, Ukraine Aid
19:39 GMT 01.11.2023 (Updated: 21:21 GMT 01.11.2023)
© AP Photo / David Becker / Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Las Vegas
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Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at the Black Agenda Report, and Dr. Linwood Tauheed, former president of the National Economics Association, predict Democrats and Republicans may broker unsavory deals to keep arming Washington's client states.
The US is facing a renewed threat of a federal government shutdown if Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on funding for conflicts in Ukraine and Israel.
US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led Republicans in a historic move to unseat now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, an effort that plunged the lower congressional chamber into a three-week stalemate after various politicians failed to clinch the gavel.
That was after US President Joe Biden let slip the two had a secret deal on federal funding that would see tens of billions more for Ukraine set aside for a later bill the Republican would help push.
A growing number of Republicans, including US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have called for aid to the Kiev regime to be cut off, with money re-routed to solving domestic crises such as the growing cases of illegal border crossings at the US-Mexico border.
Now, Biden has attempted to wring his $60 billion for the proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine out of Congress again by linking it to $14 billion in military aid to Israel — banking on limitless Republican commitment to Washington's client state in the Middle East.
Journalist Margaret Kimberley told Sputnik there was "a lot of deal-making" ahead on the issue, "some of which has to happen in the Republican Party."
She said Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, were "sick of the House and their antics."
"Democrats will compromise with Republicans and give them some of what they want," Kimberly said, warning that left-wingers like herself should "watch out for what the Democrats end up agreeing to."
Previous shutdowns have seen federal employees, excluding the armed forces, law enforcement agencies and emergency services, sent home without pay for periods and welfare programs temporarily suspended.
"I'm concerned for those people who will be impacted, those people who are employed by the federal government whose lives will be thrown into chaos," Kimberly said. "Politically, I don't really have a dog in the fight, but it will be interesting to see what kind of deals are made."
To date, House Speaker Mike Johnson - a religious conservative like many hard-line Republicans, has indicated Israel is first in line for arms hand-outs before Ukraine.
"I'm sure that the new speaker doesn't want to end up like the old speaker, so he knows better than to seek any help from Democrats," Kimberly said. "I suspect that on the Senate side, Republicans will help him out and help him come up with something that's palatable to his wing."
Kimberly further said she would be happy to see military aid to Ukraine entirely cut off, but argued Republicans only want to disengage with Russia in order to pick a fight with China over Taiwan.
"I say, can we do some peaceful coexistence and not fight anybody?" Kimberly urged. "Israel is getting more attention. But Biden's proposal is to give a lot more money to Ukraine than to Israel. It's difficult to say how they are going to work this out. I don't see House Republicans abandoning the Ukraine project altogether. I suspect that is one of the places where they will compromise with Republican Senate leadership and with Biden."
Few congressional politicians have backed a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza, the commentator noted.
"And even those who call for a ceasefire, they sometimes use weasel words, like [US Sen.] Bernie Sanders says there should be a humanitarian pause, and now [US Sen.] Elizabeth Warren," Kimberly added. "Excuse me, how do you have a humanitarian pause? You either have bombing or you don't."
1 November 2023, 15:29 GMT
Economist Dr. Linwood Tauheed told Sputnik that the "fiscal conservatives" demanding cuts to the federal budget every year could be found on both sides of the political aisle.
"Fiscal conservatives is a term that's in fact used to hide the fact that there are Democrats who are fiscal conservatives as well," he said, adding that Johnson's "working group" on the budget will reflect that.
"He's talking about a working group of fiscal conservatives that will be bipartisan," Tauheed stressed. "That term bipartisanship is very scary in this Halloween season, because what it means is that the president and the president's party, the Democrats, will put on this panel."
He warned previous cross-party agreements were off and further austerity measures could be on the horizon.
"When McCarthy was speaker there was a bipartisan deal with the Biden administration to cap the total budget for two years at the 2023 level. That was supposed to be the deal that Republicans agreed upon," Tauheed said. "Now, of course, Republicans are coming back under a new speaker. So I guess the deal doesn't hold and looking for additional cuts."
But he noted that the $60 billion figure Republicans were seeking to slash from the budget was conveniently the same as Biden's request for more arms to Kiev.
"But apparently the impetus here is to cut the $60 billion from US social programs to send to Ukraine," Tauheed said. "I would imagine in a bipartisan working group, if the Democrats proposed cuts for Social Security or went along with cuts to Social Security at $60 billion, that $60 billion would be magically available to send to Ukraine."
