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“Republicans blocked the Senate from taking up an emergency war funding package Wednesday, making good on their threat to hold up aid to Ukraine without an overhaul of immigration policies at the U.S. southern border.” Roll Call
The right generally supports aid for Ukraine, and urges Democrats to compromise on border security measures.
“To dump Ukraine now would amount to an egregious abandonment of a foreign partner — and it’d be occasioned by a relatively small cost to Americans compared with previous overseas commitments that we lost our stomach for…
“Not a single American has died in Ukraine. The amount of assistance that the U.S. had transferred barely tops $100 billion. That’s a large number considered by itself, but a modest one in terms of the scale of the threat from Russia and our overall defense budget — not to mention that there’d be significant costs to a Russian victory, too…
“The funding has also given the U.S. defense-industrial base a jolt in a way that standing idly by never would have. Our friends who warn that America’s Ukraine assistance hampers efforts to arm Taiwan are missing this critical part of the equation…
“U.S. officials were so complacent about our ability to produce weapons and ammunition for so long that the relative revival of America’s defense industry that’s taking place would not have come about absent Washington’s commitment to Kyiv. The benefits of a continued ramp-up will accrue directly to our defense posture.”
The Editors, National Review
“Senate negotiators have been making progress on raising the standard for claiming asylum… But Democrats are balking on ‘parole’ for migrants that has let some 1.5 million migrants be released to live and work in the U.S. in the last two years. Republicans want to limit parole authority because they think the Administration will use it as the default even if the asylum standard is changed…
“The White House seems to think it can jam Republicans to pass military aid by blaming them in advance if it all falls apart. Democrats are fooling themselves if they believe this. Support for Ukraine is Mr. Biden’s policy, and the failure will be as much his as that of Republicans in Congress…
“The Kremlin and the world will see more evidence of Mr. Biden’s political weakness. The winners will be Mr. Putin and U.S. adversaries abroad, and Donald Trump at home. The way out of this mess is for Mr. Biden to get serious about an immigration compromise.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“[Biden] can still wrangle the votes for Ukraine aid, but now he’ll need to compromise by offering the GOP real changes on asylum law — closing the loopholes he’s exploited to wave millions of illegal immigrants into the interior. Biden doesn’t like that deal and is refusing to do it. But if he believes what he himself says about the urgency of helping Ukraine, it’s his duty to make it.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
The left is critical of GOP tactics, and urges additional aid for Ukraine.
The left is critical of GOP tactics, and urges additional aid for Ukraine.
"I understand why Senate Democrats were initially interested in advancing those talks. In theory, the deal on the table could have killed two birds with one stone. It could have freed up aid that, in Ukraine’s case, has been stalled for months and, theoretically, could have helped inoculate Democrats against GOP political attacks that they’ve not done enough to slow the pace of asylum-seekers…
"[But] it’s strategically a bad idea to trade long-term, permanent policy changes for a one-time spending package… Passing [these] propositions into law for such a temporary victory would have correctly been seen as Democrats cravenly covering their bases politically and throwing migrants under the bus."
Hayes Brown, MSNBC
“Just as was the case with the debt limit in the spring and with full-year spending bills this fall, Republicans are demanding a ransom for their cooperation in passing things they actually want… Senate Republicans overwhelmingly support the full Biden package, but have now decided they won’t pass it unless it also contains major changes in border policies…
“And if the funding delay means that Russia is able to overwhelm a depleted Ukraine military — something Republicans themselves are warning about? It’s apparently not as important to them as the principle of hostage-holding. Meanwhile, House Republicans are insisting on adding their full immigration bill, which is too extreme even for many of their Senate colleagues, to any supplemental package. So even if the Senate can come to some agreement, the path to passage is unclear at best.”Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg
“If Russia were to move against NATO allies such as the tiny Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, let alone Poland or some other large NATO ally — hardly a far-fetched scenario, given 20th-century history — Washington would be obligated by its treaty commitments to send troops to defend them. The cost of deploying U.S. troops to defend vulnerable NATO allies against a nuclear-armed power is imponderable…
“U.S. resolve has at least temporarily sapped Putin’s ability to threaten America’s NATO allies and weakened the Russian economy on which that threat depends. U.S. resolve has also sent a potent deterrent message to China and North Korea that they menace Taiwan and South Korea at their peril…
“No one can assess the cost savings delivered by deterrence at that scale. But by any rational accounting, the United States wins big by diminishing the likelihood of potential future wars in Eastern Europe, Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.”
Lee Hockstader, Washington Post
Grubby and extreme: Mulletfest 2023 – in pictures.
The Guardian
