Rand Paul is right about Ukraine aid
Brady Leonard
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the Senate floor Wednesday to voice his opposition to sending further aid to the Ukrainian military.
“I will not consent to expedited passage of any spending bill that provides any more American aid to Ukraine,” Paul said. “It is as if no one has noticed that we have no extra money to send to Ukraine. Our deficit this year will exceed 1.5 trillion dollars. Borrowing money from China to send it to Ukraine makes no sense.”
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Continuing his vocal skepticism of America’s involvement in the war, Paul told Fox News’ Maria Bartoromo on Thursday morning what too many are willing to sweep under the rug: “Ukraine banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests, so no, it isn’t a democracy, it’s a corrupt regime.”
An overwhelming majority of members of both chambers of Congress support sending more cash and weapons to Ukraine, despite the fact that American taxpayers have already aided the eastern European nation’s war effort to the tune of $113 billion. Paul, however, is not alone in his skepticism.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said to Fox’s Laura Ingraham, “We shouldn’t be spending a dime more on Ukraine. We need an accounting of every dime that has been spent so far. And I’m just tired of hearing the president say over and over that we have got to invest — this is an investment in the future of every nation. What about our nation? It’s not an investment in our future, in our people, in our jobs. That needs to be the priority.”
I wrote for the Washington Examiner in February that the American taxpayer would not support blank checks to Ukraine indefinitely, and public polling is beginning to bear out that thesis. An August CNN poll shows that a majority of Americans (55%) believe that Congress should not authorize additional Ukraine funding, up from 38% in February 2022.
Only 29% of Republicans favor additional aid, while 62% of Democrats support saddling future generations with further debt in order to prolong the war. The partisan split is not surprising, considering President Joe Biden and the Democrats have insisted on making unlimited support for Ukraine a cornerstone of the party’s foreign policy.
Most Republican elected officials and candidates continue to ignore the wishes of their voters. Nikki Haley told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “if Russia wins, it’ll take Poland and the Baltics next.” Curious, considering that in a year and a half, Russia’s outdated, under-trained, conscripted army has only managed to conquer around 20% of Ukrainian territory.
If support for Ukraine were about preventing a wider war or protecting the American people, wouldn’t Russia’s military struggles be encouraging to hawkish politicians such as Haley? The answer to this outrageously rhetorical question was answered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who tweeted the quiet part out loud and admitted that war is good for business: “Expanding our defense industrial base puts America in a stronger position to out-compete China.”
Sure, business is booming for a select few; unfortunately, they are the very people President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about during his chilling January 1961 farewell address: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
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Ike was right, and we need more Pauls, Hawleys, and others to hold the line of sanity against the tide of perpetual war.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.