Posted on 11/14/2023 4:32:34 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
Speaker Mike Johnson said that he would like to use billions in seized Russian assets to pay for President Biden’s Ukraine aid request.
Mr. Johnson’s pitch comes as the top House Republican already diverted from Mr. Biden’s $106 billion request by splitting Israel aid from the larger package that included aid spending for the Jewish state, Ukraine, Taiwan and spending on the U.S.-Mexico border to bolster the president’s catch and release policies.
House Republicans have increasingly shifted their stance on providing more aid to Ukraine, arguing that no more taxpayer dollars should flow to the war-beleaguered country until the Biden administration offers clear-cut objectives for the conflict.
Mr. Johnson of Louisiana told the New York Post that he’s interested in using the more than $300 billion in Russian assets seized after fighting began in the region to fund future Ukraine aid.
“It would be pure poetry to fund the Ukrainian war effort with Russian assets,” Mr. Johnson said. “As you can imagine, that idea has been met with great enthusiasm on the Republican side. I suspect it will be with our colleagues on the other side as well. It’s an eminently responsible thing for us to do.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Finally, somebody who understands the power of the purse! It’s about damn time.
Johnson’s idea is smart, it punishes Russia for their illegal invasion, and it saves money ...
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Illegal according to whom? Our vote cheating Biden regime and its allied Marxist/LGBT/anti-Israel allies? Last I heard, we haven’t declared war on Russia.
When you have difference of opinion on policy it does not entitle you to invade another country and steal its land. Actions have consequences.
Sending more cash to Ukraine's money laundering system, that is unaccounted-for on the other end, whether it be Russian money or not, is delicious? Let's keep feeding this proxy war, no matter what, right?
“”””There is no world wide consensus that Russian actions are illegal.””””
Close enough
“A resolution to condemn Russia’s annexations in Ukraine passed Wednesday by a whopping 143 to 5 margin, though 45 countries including China, India and Iran abstained or declined to vote”
Voted no:
Russia
Belarus
Nicaragua
North Korea
Syria
Oh and no long term consequences, for sure
Everytime we seize or screw with the assets of a foreign power with whom we have not declared war…another BRICS member gets their wings
Someone gets it
Proof positive the whole ‘speaker’ thing was a charade.
The uniparty is back in control.
We won’t forget those who support this (yeah, you among them).
It’s all rearranging the deck chairs on The Titanic.
Why not use those funds to repay American taxpayers?
Actually there were several reasons
You guys are rather quiet these days
Where mom and Marcus and rattler ?
That FR's mystery-meat, foreigners and assorted d00shbags like it.
“Too delicious for words”
I agree to the extent that the Russians deserve to be punished for their unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine, but this action by the U.S. may have unforeseen future consequences. Such actions have had consequences in the past.
On July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt seized all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. Less than six months later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Just my $.02.
The main reason Russia today struggles demographically is because the Order helped Russian oligarchs loot their own country during the 1990s, well described by conservative author Christopher Caldwell:
‘The transfer of Russia’s natural resources into the hands of KGB-connected Communists, who called themselves businessmen, was a tragic moment for Russia. It was also a shameful one for the West. Western political scientists provided the theft with ideological cover, presenting it as a “transition to capitalism.” Western corporations, including banks, provided the financing … The oligarchs … controlled the privatization … Since the state had owned everything under Communism, this was quite a payout.’
The resulting currency collapse impoverished Russians. Pensioners starved and froze in unheated apartments. There was no work. Young men and women couldn’t afford to start families, and turned to vodka, drugs, crime and prostitution. Life expectancy fell below Bangladesh’s. Russia’s population dropped by 2 million (from a 1992 census of 148.5 million) by 2000. This US-led catastrophe caused a long-lasting drop in fertility because young people quit having kids for a whole decade. Even today, Russia’s population is declining slowly, if UN figures can be trusted. There’s already a dearth of workers to support pensioners. Yet despite that, despite western sanctions and despite a war that the Order forced on it, Russia is flourishing – and winning. Sanctions have backfired: Russia is more self-sufficient than any other big economy.
Why didn’t anyone think of this 20 months ago?! It’s so epic and so obvious!
There, things are getting worse for the Ukrainian army day by day.
The Ukraine wasted so many troops for impossible endeavors, to hold Bakhmut and in its the senseless 'counter-attack' against impregnable Russian lines, that it now lacks the troops to hold its defense lines.
Johnson’s idea is smart, it punishes Russia for their illegal invasion, and it saves money
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It’s retarded. Freezing the assets is one thing, but actually stealing them is something that green lights other nations to do to us.
IF, however, pols just can’t resist stealing the funds, don’t give to more corrupt Ukrainian officials. Use it to invest in US manufacturing, infrastructure, or vocational education...anything other than foreign aid.
You guys are all looking at this wrong.
If it was some INNOCENT party’s assets being seized, that would be wrong, but that’s obviously not the case here, because Russia is no innocent victim.
A proper analogy would be a crazy old man who won’t/can’t get along with his neighbors, thinks he has some sort of right to their properties even though they hold clear title, and is so psychotic and paranoid that he thinks they’re all gonna aattck him, so he attacks them first. A kook with a long criminal history of violence, who causes unprovoked damage & destruction to his neighbors, and refuses to pay for it.
Any court would clearly hold him responsible, and seize his assets to pay for the needless destruction he caused. That’s what’s happening here, Putin is the paranoid old man who won’t/can’t get along with his neighbors.
BOTTOM LINE - none of this would be happening if Russia had just stayed inside its own borders, and developed its own vast lands. Russia has no one to blame but itself!
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