2y ago

Mitch McConnell backs Biden’s $106bn aid request for Israel and Ukraine

www.theguardian.com

Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.

McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be “a mistake” during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.

The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White House’s $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border. An additional $10bn would be allocated to humanitarian relief as well as an additional $7bn to the Indio-Pacific region.

42 comments

Won't help out the poor and struggling in his own country, but "Fuck yeah! Wars! It'd be a huge mistake not to support the wars!"
Fuck this worn out, muppet looking excuse for a human...

Mitch McConnell, infamous obstructionist, isn't obstructing? Something is very, very wrong.
- His programming was reset after his last crash.
- McConnell isn't a Matt Gaetz. He's an absolute asshat, but he does have real policy objectives and viewpoints, and a select few of them align with general American opinion. It also helps that he and Biden have known each other for a very long time and have always been on reasonably friendly terms.
- Wanna bet that he does have investments or other stakes in the American military industrial complex?
  
  Is it really that hard to imagine that he genuinely believes that aiding Israel and Ukraine are good ideas?
- He thought he was asking for Tapioca for lunch and hit the wrong button.
- The aud package is just a bribe to get lobbyists to get out and try and get a speaker elected to get paid. I bet Mitch is happy to get that money too and thinks the bribe will work.

Y'all don't understand. Israel has to exist for their headcanon to be real.

Why the fuck so they need more of our money????? The American taxpayer already funds Israel's national healthcare system. They can pay for their own bombs.
- Serving your interests through the soft power of diplomacy is a good thing, actually.
- Citation needed

at this point they probably just slip forms in front of him while someone shovels baby food into his gaping drooling face hole and he just signs whatever
- Yeah isn't this guy one of putin's fuck puppets? The hell is he approving Ukraine aid for?

Still has to pass the House. But doesn't hurt to get something going and teed up.

And it would only cost $20bn to solve homelessness in the US but for some reason we can't afford that.
- Have to pay for all that genocide first.

Even a broken clock can be right occasionally.
- Twice a day!
  
  He's lucky to be lucid twice a day, but yes.

So he's just an asshole for show, got it.

- Jesus, have some class dude. He's a turtle, get it right.
  
  He was a turtle 10 years ago. At this point he's the bloated water logged corpse of a turtle.

How many times did he fall asleep in the process?

The US needs a safe beach head close to the middle east and Israel is the safest one right now.
- The US navy have a whole base in Bahrain. It's literally the home port of the Fifth Fleet.

I wouldn't be surprised if that geriatric zombie has a chip in his head. Everytime he freezes he lost connection. I imagine a room full of industrial and politic lobbyists fighting over a joystick...

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.
The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White House’s $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border.
Blinken also noted that 20 trucks that were recently allowed in to Gaza provided clean water, saying: “We’re getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today.
While McConnell backed Biden’s aid plan, he did not offer support for Jack Lew, whose nomination to be ambassador to Israel has been held up by Republicans.
The 81-year-old senator also dismissed a question from CBS’s Margaret Brennan about whether there was more that should be disclosed about his health after multiple cases in which he froze up while speaking in public.
Both Blinken and the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Sunday said the US expected the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran.
The original article contains 902 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

So, this whole aid package is practically the most pathetic bribe to get the government back on track.
The house can't fucking pick a speaker and it's not looking good so instead of the president trying to talk to the representatives he decided to just skip over them and basically wave a check for 100 billion in the air for the military industrial complex (one of the oldest lobbying groups) to basically figure it out for him for their reward.
I don't think it's gonna work, but apparently McConnell does cause he's now backing it or he's hopeful it will work I don't know.
I think it was smart to put the Ukraine funds in there because it's really one of the only ways the US is gonna be able to fund the war efforts at the moment. The holdouts don't really care about how much the MIC makes anymore they are angry and happy to watch it all burn.
I think this is a massive waste of money and pandering to the wrong people but if it works then I guess Biden gets points for knowing that the right thing to do is dead and money is the only thing to grease our wheels anymore in which case I hope this country fails to get it together cause that is a shit way to lead.
- The house can't fucking pick a speaker and it's not looking good so instead of the president trying to talk to the representatives he decided to just skip over them and basically wave a check for 100 billion in the air for the military industrial complex (one of the oldest lobbying groups) to basically figure it out for him for their reward.
  I think this is overcomplicating a pretty simple dilemma. The house is a shit show, mainly because the conservative party stopped any sort of quality control after they made gains with the freedom caucus. Despite this they have always been more protective over the Senate, where foreign policy is dictated.
  Biden has zero ability to negotiate with the house, any way he could get involved would likely just make things worse. Plus, why would he even want to interrupt his opponents from looking incompetent? Even conservative media outlets have been struggling to retcon this debacle.
  Both the executive and the Senate know that supporting the Ukranians is a priority for Western interest. It doesn't take a conspiracy to get the liberals and conservatives to reach across the aisle on foreign policy, it's usually the only thing they agree upon.
  This is just the Executive and Senate insuring that the lights stay on while the kids in the house figure their shit out.
  
  Oh you haven't been paying attention to the conservatives saying that we shouldn't support Ukraine then? Cause they have absolutely been saying that. It's part of why the spending bill to delay the shutdown of the government had to remove aid to Ukraine to be able to pass.
  And what do you mean Biden could do nothing? His job is to be the best politician. His job is to run the country and be the stop gap for checks and balances. He has the right and ability to talk to the people and the Congress about what is needed as a country. Just because we are so divided that it would be bad doesn't mean that's not what the position is for.
  The aid offer is definitely a bribe to get them to try and force a speaker election. That's hardly conspiracy even if it is on technicality.
- Expect more sleeper cell attacks in the US because of our involvement in this. As usual the people making up fucked up policy are never impacted by it in blood, only profit.
  
  That's a pretty dumb take. Like what sleeper cells? This just sounds like paranoia, and conspiracy that all tragedies are from secret shadow groups when honestly we make our own terrorists with little effort because of the little effort.

42 comments