Recently elected House Speaker Mike Johnson handed President Biden a report with a list of demands informing that Congress would not authorise any additional funds for Ukraine until the administration answered about the path forward, ZeroHedge.com informed.
The main question concerns how Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plan to win the war against Russia and how long it might take. House Member Mike Garcia, Republican of California and the list’s compiler, claimed:
“Failure to ask these questions, and a continued willingness by Congress to enable this carte blanche mentality to date, is, in my opinion, a dereliction of duty and a recipe for disaster that will enable a Ukrainian defeat and enhance Chinese aggression.”
Meanwhile, Johnson clarified that House Republicans would not bundle aid to Ukraine and money for Israel’s conflict with Hamas, as Biden wanted. The speaker stated on Sunday that aid to Israel should be considered separately because it was a more “pressing and urgent need.”
There are lots of things going on around the world that we have to address, and we will. But now what’s happening in Israel takes the immediate attention, and we’ve got to separate that and get it through.
Some members of the House, such as Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, claim they will not back foreign aid, including support for Israel, because of the national debt.
“I will be voting NO on all funding packages for the Ukraine war (as I have from the beginning) and now the Israel war. We have had over 10 MILLION people illegally cross our border since Biden took office and we are over $33 TRILLION dollars in debt with many major problems afflicting Americans.”
Johnson is one step away from a clash with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who wants to combine aid to Israel and Ukraine because he considers them as part of a larger global threat.
McConnell plans to pass regular appropriations bills before Christmas to boost defence spending, while Johnson favours a freeze on federal funding with a stopgap measure that would last until January or April. The Speaker has also proposed offsetting $14 billion in aid to Israel with other spending cuts, but the idea has sparked controversy among both Senate Republicans and Democrats.
Nevertheless, Republicans in the Senate are growing weary of the current state of affairs.
This isn’t working. We’re $33.5 trillion in debt. The old way of doing business has failed, is failing. We need to approach things differently. From my standpoint, within [the] Republican conference we need a different form of governance.
McConnell and Johnson also have very different views on abortion. The latter sees it as a national issue, while McConnell leaves the decision to the states. Earlier this year, Johnson co-sponsored a bill declaring that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution extends to unborn children.
In February, he also introduced a bill making it a crime to transport minors across state lines for abortion without first complying with parental involvement laws in the minor’s state of residence.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, stated that Biden and Schumer’s actions are aimed at “holding Israel aid hostage in order to pass all of their other partisan priorities.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that Israeli attacks have killed 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, since October 7. UN officials claim that more than 1.4 million of Gaza’s civilian population of about 2.3 million people have been left homeless.
On October 7, Hamas announced Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel. The group’s militants then infiltrated into Israel and started launching rockets from the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Sword, carrying out a total siege of the Gaza Strip and conducting aerial strikes.
