[pjw] NEWS: Senate passes $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan (AP 4/23)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hello again peaceful people

I guess I would have been surprised if the Senate failed to accept the 
foreign aid package (well, they were package__s___ that got re-bundled in 
the Senate) that came from the House. I did not think it would be a 79-18 
vote. As this article points out, Bernie Sanders and Oregon's Jeff Merkley 
were two of the "no" votes due to the aid going to the US-backed Israeli 
Defense Forces. The Mercury this morning referred to the money for Israel 
being used both for aid to Palestinians AND for military weapons as being 
like spending a lot of money taking your dog to the emergency room and 
coming home and giving it a piece of chocolate as a reward.

Anyway, the ridiculous things that got stuffed into this bill to get 
Republicans to vote for it seem to bolster anti-China rhetoric, including 
the bizarre demand for TikTok to sell itself or be banned in the US. I saw 
a great political cartoon where the big American tech companies were shown 
spying on people while condemning TikTok for allegedly being a way for the 
Chinese government to spy. People using social media SHOULD care about how 
their personal information is used but I think for the most part they 
don't. They also are going to make $9 B going to Ukraine into "forgivable 
loans."

OK, rant over, here's the article from AP spelling out the way our money 
is going mostly for more war and not for human needs (OK, I added that 
part).

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

  https://apnews.com/article/israel-ukraine-aid-tiktok-senate-8fe738b17e5c4b2636bc0de11b2620b7
Senate overwhelmingly passes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with big
bipartisan vote
    The Senate has passed $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and
    Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of
    delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States
    should be in foreign wars.
    By MARY CLARE JALONICK, STEPHEN GROVES and FARNOUSH AMIRI
Updated 8:04 PM PDT, April 23, 2024

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate has passed $95 billion in war aid to
    Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe
    Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved
    the United States should be in foreign wars.

    The bill passed the Senate on an overwhelming 79-18 vote late Tuesday
    after the House had approved the package Saturday. Biden, who worked
    with congressional leaders to win support, said in a statement
    immediately after passage that he will sign it Wednesday and start the
    process of sending weapons to Ukraine, which has been struggling to
    hold its front lines against Russia.

    "Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the Senate joined the House to
    answer history's call at this critical inflection point," Biden said.

    The legislation would also send $26 billion in wartime assistance to
    Israel and humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza, and $8 billion to
    counter Chinese threats in Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific. U.S. officials
    said about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the
    bulk following in coming weeks.


    In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the vote,
    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if Congress
    hadn't passed the aid, "America would have paid a price economically,
    politically, militarily."

    "Very few things we have done have risen to this level of historic
    importance," he said.

    On the Senate floor, Schumer said the Senate was sending a message to
    U.S. allies: "We will stand with you."

    Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made passage of
    the legislation a top priority, agreeing to tie the Ukraine and Israel
    aid to help ensure passage and arguing there could be dire consequences
    for the United States and many of its global allies if Russian
    President Vladimir Putin's aggression is left unchecked. They worked
    with House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, to overcome seemingly
    intractable Republican opposition to the Ukraine aid, in particular --
    eventually winning large majorities in both chambers.

    McConnell said in a separate interview before the vote that it "is one
    of the biggest days in the time that I've been here."

    "At least on this episode, I think we turned the tables on the
    isolationists," McConnell said.

    In the end, 31 Republicans voted for the aid package -- nine more than
    when the Senate passed a similar version in February, and a majority of
    the Senate GOP conference. The House approved the package in a series
    of four votes on Saturday, with the Ukraine portion passing 311-112.

    The $61 billion for Ukraine comes as the war-torn country desperately
    needs new firepower and as Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped
    up his attacks. Ukrainian soldiers have struggled as Russia has seized
    the momentum on the battlefield and gained significant territory.

    Bidentold Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday the U.S.
    will send badly needed air defense weaponry as soon as the legislation
    is passed.

    "The President has assured me that the package will be approved quickly
    and that it will be powerful, strengthening our air defense as well as
    long-range and artillery capabilities," Zelenskyy said in a post on X
    on Monday.

    In an effort to gain more votes, Republicans in the House majority also
    added a bill to the foreign aid package that could ban the social media
    app TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owners do not sell their stake
    within a year. That legislation had wide bipartisan support in both
    chambers.

    The TikTok bill was one of several tweaks Johnson made to the package
    the Senate passed in February as he tried to move the bill through the
    House despite significant opposition within his conference. Other
    additions include a stipulation that $9 billion of the economic
    assistance to Ukraine is in the form of "forgivable loans"; provisions
    that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to
    rebuild Ukraine; and bills to impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China
    and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl.

    Those changes appears to have brought some of the nine additional
    Senate Republicans on board, bringing support to more than half of
    McConnell's conference.

    South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime hawk who voted against
    the foreign aid package in February because it wasn't paired with
    legislation to stem migration at the border, was one of the Republicans
    who switched their votes. "If we don't help Ukraine now, this war will
    spread, and Americans who are not involved will be involved," Graham
    said.

    The package has had broad congressional support since Biden first
    requested the money last summer. But congressional leaders had to
    navigate strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who
    question U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress
    should be focused instead on the surge of migration at the U.S.-Mexico
    border.

    Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican who is a close ally to Donald Trump,
    said that despite the strong showing of support for funding Ukraine's
    defense, opposition is growing among Republicans.

    "The United States is spread too thin," Vance said, "And that argument,
    I think, is winning the American people and it's slowly winning the
    Senate, but it's not going to happen overnight."

    The growing fault line in the GOP between those conservatives who are
    skeptical of the aid and the more traditional "Reagan Republicans" who
    strongly support it may prove to be career-defining for the two top
    Republican leaders.

    McConnell, who has made the Ukraine aid a top priority, said last month
    that he would step down from leadership after becoming increasingly
    distanced from many in his conference on the Ukraine aid and other
    issues. Johnson, who said he put the bills on the floor after praying
    for guidance, faces threats of an ouster after a majority of
    Republicans voted against the aid to Ukraine.

    Johnson said after House passage that "we did our work here, and I
    think history will judge it well."

    Opponents in the Senate, like the House, included some left-wing
    senators who are opposed to aiding Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin
    Netanyahu has bombarded Gaza and killed thousands of civilians. Sens.
    Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., voted against the
    package.

    "We must end our complicity in this terrible war," Sanders said.