Keep Israel, Ukraine, and the southern border separate
Washington Examiner
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President Joe Biden asked the House of Representatives to pass an aid package for Israel’s war against Hamas and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) delivered. The Republican majority gave Biden what he sought on Israel. But now the president says it isn’t good enough.
Biden is demanding that the House deliver on his full request, which included money for Ukraine’s fight to repel a Russian invasion, money for Taiwan, money for humanitarian aid to Gaza, money for cities dealing with the migrant crisis, and security assistance for the Indo-Pacific region.
These issues have nothing in common other than the fact that bundling all the spending together would make things politically easier for Biden by making nay votes more politically costly. But Biden’s grim electoral prospects are not Speaker Johnson’s problem. Each of the bundled issues is important and they deserve their own vote. Combining them is a recipe for opacity and unaccountability.
Biden is not alone in being guilty. Johnson himself tried to link Ukraine and border security, making the same political calculation as Biden that doing so would make it more likely to pass. “It’s just a matter of principle that, if we’re going to take care of a border in Ukraine, we need to take care of America’s border as well.” This is not principal, it’s a political stretch.
Johnson knows the stakes on Ukraine. “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” he said the day after he was sworn in. “It would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them.”
This is true, which is why Ukraine deserves its own vote as soon as possible. That won’t happen, however, if Ukraine aid is tied to border security. The House has passed good border security legislation, the Secure the Border Act of 2023. It would end Biden’s abuse of parole power, force him to reinstate the successful “Remain in Mexico” program, and reform the asylum process so protection was reserved for migrants truly facing persecution based on race, religion, or nationality.
But Biden, the Democrats, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will not accept the House’s border legislation in exchange for Ukraine aid. It is too large a pill for them to swallow.
Danger lurks ahead if Republicans move away from the Secure the Border Act toward other border policy changes. There are many terrible supposed border security plans, especially that of Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) who recently pushed a mass amnesty in exchange for more border funding that would facilitate Biden’s catch-and-release disaster.
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Immigration is too complicated and contentious to be smushed together with Ukraine. The more topics lawmakers add to any legislation, the easier it is for bad policy to get smuggled into the final deal.
Israel aid has been voted on in the House and deserves its own vote in the Senate. Modify it, but don’t add Ukraine funding, the border, Taiwan, or Indo-Pacific security. Give those their own votes. The House and Senate should get to work and get these votes done.