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.
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.
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.