This is what we’ve come to. We’ve fallen so low as a country that an American
candidate is only electable by whatever he says (and doe$) about a foreign country.
A demented Biden’s reelection chance were nil, according to the laws of diminishing returns...........
until the attack on Israel fell in his lap. Now he’s suddenly morphed into a “strong, decisive “leader.”
America’s president is harassing Congress.....not to finance America’s needs.....
Biden wants $100 billion for Israel and Ukraine.
What?
Biden’s spending billions we do not have, then saddles taxpayers with the onerous borrowing costs. Taxpayers’ children and grandchildren are compelled to pay the outrageous bills.
<><>Why does the US have to go into debt for these pampered foreigners?
<><>Why cant they stand on their own two feet?
<><>Why cant wealthy Israel and money-grubbing Ukraine do the borrowing for their own needs?
apnews.com
BY ANGELO FICHERA
Published 4:10 PM EDT, March 7, 2023
While the U.S. is indeed providing weapons and equipment to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, it has also provided billions in financial assistance to the country .
Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, is taking aim at Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine. “The aid is not pallets of cash. It’s in the form of military equipment, assigned a value, that is donated,” Kinzinger wrote inaccurately in a tweet. “I’m sure she doesn’t understand this.”
But while the U.S. has indeed sent Bradley vehicles, ammunition, weapons and other equipment to Ukraine during its war with Russia, the support doesn’t stop there.
“We’re providing not only military assistance,” Tom Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations with expertise on U.S. foreign policy and Ukraine, told The Associated Press. “We are providing financial assistance — budgetary support — and there’s humanitarian assistance as well.”
Between January 2022 and January 2023, the U.S. committed more than $26 billion to Ukraine in financial assistance, according to data compiled by the Ukraine Support Tracker at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank. That’s about a third of the roughly $77 billion in total aid noted by Kiel, including humanitarian and military assistance, pledged by the U.S. government. The numbers represent money promised, not entirely distributed.
Another tally from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget places the total amount of aid approved by Congress in 2022 for supporting the Ukrainian government and allies at about $113 billion. That includes about $27 billion in economic support funds, $7.9 billion for international disaster assistance and $6.6 billion to support and relocate refugees.
Graham noted that the war has wrecked Ukraine’s economy and that U.S. assistance has helped keep the government functioning.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has in releases and a report to Congress outlined how budgetary support to the Ukrainian government has been used. Some of the funding has been spent, for example, on social assistance payments and salaries for health care workers, first responders and educators. It also helps cover pensions and support Ukrainians displaced by the war.
Still, the largest bucket of overall U.S. aid committed to Ukraine — more than $46 billion, according to Kiel’s tracker — is military support.
U.S. funding to support Ukraine, while appropriated by Congress, comes from different sources. For example, in some cases, assistance comes from funding that is periodically tapped by the Biden administration in the form of a “presidential drawdown.” There’s also the Defense Department’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Much of the military equipment has indeed been pulled directly from existing U.S. military inventory, as Kinzinger noted in his tweet. But funding has also been used to purchase new weapons from industry manufacturers as well.
Graham said in some cases assistance is also used to replenish existing equipment provided to Ukraine by U.S. allies. He added that military support also comes in the form of things such as training and logistical support.
Members of Congress have questioned how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to Ukraine to ensure that it is not subject to fraud or ending up in the wrong hands. The Pentagon’s inspector general told lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing that his office has found no evidence of such corruption or wrongdoing, but cautioned that investigations are only in their early stages.
An AP inquiry to Kinzinger through his group, Country First, was not returned.