Putting Americans Last

The Biden Administration is attempting to extort members of Congress and, in the process, it is putting Americans last yet again. Biden is tying more war funding for Ukraine to desperately needed disaster relief for Americans.

The reason is simple: He wants to make it impossible for members of Congress to vote “no” on the extra Ukraine money. We’ll see if Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans can stop it. But, sadly, some Senate Republicans don’t want to stop it.

News broke late last week that FEMA was facing a severe budget crunch and had begun to restrict how it distributes aid money – just as Maui was devastated by wildfires and as Hurricane Idalia smashed through Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

President Biden sent a $40 billion emergency funding bill to Capitol Hill, but he’s requesting twice as much money for Ukraine ($24 billion) than he is for FEMA ($12 billion.) When asked whether there was any chance he would support dividing the legislation, Biden answered, “None.”

Florida Senator Rick Scott is furious. He blasted the Biden White House, saying, “We can’t let Washington play games with disaster relief funds or make helping Americans contingent on helping foreign causes.” Scott is right!

Meanwhile, American communities get the back of Joe’s hand. Biden was asked Saturday why he has yet to visit East Palestine, Ohio. Our “vacationer-in-chief,” who has spent 40% of his presidency at the beach or away from the White House, had the audacity to claim, “I haven’t had the occasion to go.”

All of this comes against the backdrop of news that Ukrainian President Zelensky has fired his defense minister because he was implicated in corruption. And he’s not the only one. Dozens of Ukrainian officials have been fired or prosecuted for corruption.

According to the New York Times, “about $980 million in weapons contracts had missed their delivery dates, according to government figures, and some prepayments for weapons had vanished into overseas accounts of weapons dealers.”

Polling shows that most Americans have had enough of this no-win war in Ukraine, and that’s why Biden is holding disaster relief for Americans hostage to more war funding.

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy are in favor of starting negotiations that will stop the suffering in Ukraine and lessen the chances of a nuclear conflict with Russia. Between them, they command 82% of the Republican primary vote. 

The other candidates are arguing for more war – a position that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the GOP grassroots. It is also a position that could reelect Biden.