The US Congress should not provide a "blank check" for further military aid to Ukraine, two Republicans, Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio) have told US media.
The GOP lawmakers, who are set to be the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs and head of the Intelligence Committees, respectively, in the wake of the November midterms, echoed earlier statements by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on aid funneled to the Kiev regime by Washington. Both Republicans revealed that they had every intention to push for more “oversight and accountability" regarding fiscal support to Ukraine.
"I think everybody has a voice in Congress. And the fact is, we are going to provide more oversight, transparency and accountability. We're not going to write a blank check," McCaul was cited as saying.
While adding that aid to Ukraine would continue, he indicated that it would be done “in a responsible way."
"The issue, obviously, is we don't need to pass $40 billion, large Democrat bills that have been passed to send $8 billion to Ukraine," Mike Turner said, in reference to the emergency aid package for Kiev that President Joe Biden signed in May.
Turner also questioned simply handing over sophisticated US military equipment to Ukraine - something that the Kiev regime has been demanding for months - given how long it could take to train the Ukrainian military to use it.
Both McCaul and Turner also confirmed in their media interview that in January, their committees would go ahead with investigations into the hasty US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, scrutinize the handling of the US-Mexico border crisis, and probe Hunter Biden and his family’s dubious business dealings.
'Money Spigot'
The pledges of greater oversight regarding Ukraine aid from the two Republicans echo similar statements from many others within the GOP. Kevin McCarthy, now on course to become the next speaker of the House, warned in October that the American people were "going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine."
"... And then there’s the things [the Biden administration] is not doing domestically. Not doing the border and people begin to weigh that. Ukraine is important, but at the same time it can’t be the only thing they do, and it can’t be a blank check,” McCarthy said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier vowed to "hold our government accountable" for spending. J.D. Vance, who won the US Senate race in Ohio on November 8 against Democratic candidate Tim Ryan, said earlier that the United States would have to “stop the money spigot to Ukraine eventually.” J.R. Majewski, a fellow Ohio Republican, criticized President Biden for “[cutting] billion-dollar checks to Ukraine” as inflation raged on the home front.
As for polled Americans, among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, 32 percent told a Pew Research Center survey earlier that the current level of aid to Ukraine was “too much” — up from just 9 percent when the conflict first began.
Even so, amid rising food and gas prices Joe Biden's administration, which has provided more than $60 billion worth of aid to Ukraine, has said it will continue to prop up the Kiev authorities for “as long as it takes.”
Russia, which began its special military operation on February 24, responding to calls for help from the breakaway People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk amid intensified aggression by the Kiev regime, has warned that assisting Kiev is only drawing out the conflict, and could cause further conflagration as NATO risks being drawn fully into the conflict.