Senate Republicans demanded that border security be added to a White House request for aid to Ukraine and Israel, but they are now balking at the details of a potential border deal.
It must be nice to just refuse to do your job with no consequence.
Only their constituents can really impose consequences. That desperately needs to happen.
I can never fathom how this sort of thing works. Why on earth is funding aid for a European ally in a state of war tied into the same bill as one about immigration policy?
They have nothing to do with each other, as far as I can see. I’m not from the States, but if anyone can ELI5 why this is a good way to run things, I’d really like to know.
From the outside, it just seems like a way to pile deals/compromises/favours/blackmail all into one big sticky mess. And a good way to get nothing done!
Mike Johnson, the leader of our lower legislative house, is blocking all votes on Ukraine aid. He won’t allow it to come to a vote. So, as a way to pressure him, it has been linked to something he ostensibly supports so that he has a harder time unilaterally blocking it.
He can still probably block it, but its harder to justify to his voters.
Ukraine aid on its own is a flat no, though, for as long as he occupies his position, which he got fairly recently.
Ah ok, so that sounds like it’s the reverse of what I thought - I thought the GOP were saying “No help for Ukraine unless we get what we want,” but it sounds more like the Dems are trying to use border stuff as a carrot to get Ukraine aid through.
It still seems so weird to me though, that it’s even possible to tie two such unrelated things into a single package. Like, I could see it happening unofficially, behind the scenes deals and all that. But having it officially linked? So bizarre.
Mind you, I’m from the UK, so I’m in no position to comment on bizarre political/governmental arrangements… :-)
It is weird, we are taught about “pork” bills in our government civics class. I remember distinctly thinking it was stupid and backwards and probably leads to a lot of bullshit slipping through the cracks. My teacher touted it as “an american original.” This was around the time I started refusing to participate in the daily indoctrination pledge every american student is mandated to be subjected to.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Senate Republicans demanded that President Biden’s national security funding package for Ukraine be tied to policy changes to address the crisis at the southwest border.
But by Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared to signal he’s ready to move on and focus on getting money to two key allies of the U.S. at war.
The top Democratic negotiator working on a border plan, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, has signaled for days that the deal is basically done but that getting signoff from the GOP to move ahead is the holdup.
Lankford spent time on Sunday talk shows swatting down leaks about the plan, which conservative media outlets are painting as a green light for 5,000 additional migrants a day.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who was an early advocate of linking money for Ukraine to changes to the Biden administration’s policies, said people need time to see an official piece of legislation.
Cruz blamed Senate Democrats for crafting a bill that “allows Joe Biden to continue the open borders,” despite the months of bipartisan negotiations that have taken place.
The original article contains 824 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Trump is obviously running on the border as his linchpin issue, why is anybody expecting republicans to make some kind of a deal given that would undermine their candidate?
