Funding for Ukraine is causing a lot of political drama – did you notice how I did not use the word “war”? Some politicians want additional funding for Ukraine, some do not, and there is a report suggesting we might want to rethink foreign aid.
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It seems there is an issue with corruption.
Ukraine is deeply corrupt. Don’t take my word for it; that’s according to the White House. It is so corrupt that unless President Zelensky cracks down on that corruption, future aid will likely be in jeopardy. This comes from a leaked State Department assessment, as reported by Politico.
This comes on top of previous reports from both the State Department and Pentagon that tracking aid inside of Ukraine is difficult to impossible. They know some of our aid, from military gear and cash, has been outright stolen.
Our regime says they don’t have proper auditing teams on the ground. And whose fault is that? Yea, yea, they are trying to fix it. For whatever good it will do, a team from the Pentagon landed in Ukraine over the weekend to start the auditing process… $74 billion dollars into it, and somebody just got the idea of auditing in the most corrupt country in that area of the world is a good idea.
Probably becasue that mess became part of our latest Act of shutdown theater when the bill passed to fund government operations stripped out funding for Ukraine.
Mr. Biden immediately started working the phones with international leaders. He is assuring them that more US aid will be coming, and most Senators share Mr. Biden’s desire to give more cash to Ukraine.
Why does no one else ever think to lend them money?
Lindsey Graham said that funding for Ukraine should be tied to funding the US border. The suggestion is that the two are of equal importance. But in the House of Representatives, officials are not as inclined to blow their lunch money on Ukraine. There is a group of 10 to 20 Republicans who say not one more penny for Ukraine.
Beyond them, support is a bit more mixed.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he doesn’t want to give Ukraine a blank check, but he is open to giving more. That’s led to accusations he made a secret deal with the Democrats to draft a new bill this week offering billions more for Ukraine. McCarthy denies it, but Mr. Biden suggested there is a secret deal of sorts; comments made a lot of people angry, especially those 10 to 20 Republicans who oppose more money for Ukraine. One of them has announced that he will try to remove Mr. McCarthy from the Speakership. A vote to do so could happen this week.
Polls out over the past two months show Americans think we’ve already given too much aid to Ukraine. A CNN poll showed 55% say no more aid; 45% say that, no, keep the spigot open and the dollars flowing. Democrats were more likely to support more war aid than Republicans.
Shouldn’t a conversation about corruption in Ukraine and our aid be a bipartisan concern? Shouldn’t the conversation be had before we send $74 billion? As the State Department says, it is real, it is important, and we should be talking about it. That’s irrespective of whether we want more aid or not.
You voted for the senators and representatives who supported our actions up to this point. What do they have to say about their actions with your money?
