If President Biden wants to keep Russia from gaining an edge over Ukraine, winning the war and then threatening broader aggression, he needs to cut a deal with Republicans on a Kyiv aid package. Pronto.
Biden proposed a $106 billion funding bill that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, but some lawmakers question major parts of it — understandably.
On Sunday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) doubted Congress would OK funding by the end of the year.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is more optimistic but stressed that Biden and fellow Democrats need to compromise on changes to secure the southern border.
Those changes — to keep out migrants who seek asylum but don’t meet requirements, resume border-wall construction, etc. — are essential by themselves: Biden’s come-on-in policies have created a humanitarian nightmare for the immigrants, monumental budget woes for cities and a heightened risk of terror attacks on US soil.
Yet his aid plan funnels funds to get newcomers in faster.
Meanwhile, a recent AP-NORC poll shows much of the country thinks DC spends too much on Ukraine (largely because the prez has failed to speak convincingly on it).
Most important, Republicans hold the House; there’s simply no way of getting critical aid to Ukraine without a deal. Indeed, border compromises alone might not be enough.
It’s a scary thought: The Defense Department is down to its last $5 billion in equipment it can send Ukraine and just $1 billion to replenish that.
Yet as Kyiv and Moscow slog through a virtual standstill, victory will depend, at least partly, on who runs short of resources first.
Lawmakers on both sides get it: “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe,” Johnson stresses.
“The Russians are just counting on us to give up and walk away — and then they walk in,” warns Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI).
Biden plainly can strike a Ukraine-aid deal — but only if he thinks it’s important enough to rein in his (disastrous) other priorities.