Biden digs in: No aid to Israel unless Ukraine, too
Byron York
BIDEN DIGS IN: NO AID TO ISRAEL UNLESS UKRAINE, TOO. It has now been more than a month since the Hamas attack on Israel. Israeli forces are on the move against Hamas in Gaza, and there is bipartisan agreement in the U.S. government — House, Senate, and White House — that the United States should send aid to Israel.
President Joe Biden asked Congress for $14 billion in military assistance to Israel. The House quickly passed what Biden wanted. But now the president and Senate Democrats staunchly refuse to go forward with the aid. Biden has drawn a line in the sand: He will not approve the $14 billion in aid to Israel that he himself asked the House to pass. This week, the White House reiterated Biden’s position.
What gives? It’s complicated, but here’s a quick answer: It’s mostly about Ukraine.
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Start with Biden’s original request. In addition to asking for $14 billion in military assistance to Israel, the president asked for $61 billion in assistance to Ukraine. On top of that, he asked for about $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other places, but he did not specify how much would go to each. Judging from the wording of his request letter, it appears the largest part would be for Ukraine.
With the administration requesting $61 billion for Ukraine, plus a lot of humanitarian aid for Ukraine, versus $14 billion for Israel, the Biden proposal looked like a Ukraine bill with a bit of Israel tacked on.
Many voters, and certainly Republican lawmakers, view the Ukraine and Israel situations quite differently. After all, they are two separate conflicts, in two separate countries, in two different parts of the world, with different combatants. And there is another important difference: Among GOP lawmakers, as among U.S. voters, support for Israel aid is more popular than support for Ukraine aid.
Yet Biden insisted that the aid to Israel be passed in one big bill with aid to Ukraine. He was so adamant that he threatened to veto any aid to Israel that was not paired with money for Ukraine. As this newsletter noted last week, “Republicans suspect that Biden took the opportunity of a new conflict in Israel to try to win Ukraine aid by attaching it to the more popular Israel measure. Also, it appears Biden is trying to get Congress to approve so much aid to Ukraine that he, Biden, won’t have to ask for any more until after the 2024 election.”
House Republicans did not go along. On Nov. 2, nearly all of them, 214 Republicans plus 12 Democrats, passed the president’s request for $14 billion in military assistance to Israel, just as Biden had wanted. But they did not include aid to Ukraine, and they did not include the humanitarian assistance, much of which appeared headed for Ukraine.
Then Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), added a twist. To pay for the Israel aid, Johnson tapped money that Congress had passed in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act for the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees and used it instead to pay for the Israel aid.
Democrats quickly called the IRS provision a “poison pill.” They made three arguments. One, they said it was an extraneous addition to an urgent national security measure. Two, they said it would not even pay for the $14 billion in aid because hiring fewer IRS workers would actually reduce tax receipts and increase the deficit. And three, they repeated the president’s position that the $14 billion in Israel aid should be passed in a single measure with $61 billion for Ukraine.
All three arguments were flawed. And we have now learned that only the last one really matters.
First, on the extraneous addition point, Biden himself added extraneous spending in his original request. He included billions for the quicker processing, release, and relocation of migrants who enter the U.S. illegally across the southern border. He also requested money for Taiwan. Those are separate from the Israel-Hamas war. So how can Biden and Democrats then claim that there should be no separate measures attached to Israel aid?
On the question of paying for the $14 billion by taking it out of proposed IRS funding, it’s important to remember that Biden had already agreed to take even more money out of the proposed IRS funding. Back in May, Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made a spending deal that called for cutting $21 billion in IRS funding that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The deal later fell apart for other reasons, but the fact is, Biden did not view Inflation Reduction Act IRS funding as sacrosanct.
Finally, on the question of a combination aid bill versus separate bills for Israel and Ukraine — it appears that is the decisive thing. On Wednesday evening, a White House official told Politico Playbook that Biden “will not accept a standalone, Israel-only bill that fails to demonstrate America’s commitment to standing up to Putin and his brutal aggression and that doesn’t provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance.” Politico added: “Any Israel aid bill that fails to include humanitarian aid and money for Ukraine is a no-go for the White House.”
By the way, were Biden to accept the House-passed Israel aid bill, that would not mean there would be no aid to Ukraine. It would simply be included in a separate bill, for the reasons described above. There are enough votes in the House to do that.
And on the Israel-only bill, what if House Republicans made a conciliatory gesture and removed the IRS measure? Surely Biden would accept that since Israel is in a state of emergency, and Biden would have a House-passed bill in his hand without the IRS measure that Democrats called a “poison pill.” Surely Biden would go along with that, wouldn’t he?
No. Politico noted that the Biden administration has drawn a “new line in the sand on what it’s willing to accept from House Republicans.” When White House officials told Politico that the president would not accept “any Israel aid bill that fails to include humanitarian aid and money for Ukraine,” they meant “any” bill. So Johnson could throw out the IRS measure, but if he did not include Ukraine, Biden would reject it.
In the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, Biden has made a number of statements pledging U.S. support for Israel. He has seemed to mean it. But unless that support also includes support for Ukraine, Biden will not let aid move forward. That is his priority in this new war.
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