In 2010, when the anti-spending, limited government Tea Party movement was at its height, the United States’ national debt was over $13 trillion. Today, it’s over $30 trillion. In 2021, the U.S. annual national deficit was nearly $3 trillion—the second highest ever on record.
Worried federal officials signaled on Monday that they were going to finally do something about dangerous amounts of debt…
…in Ukraine.
You didn’t think they were going to actually try to do something to fix the economic health of America, did you?
Sen. Rand Paul tweeted on Monday:
WOW! The US government is actually trying to reduce the deficit!!?? Oh, wait, it’s for Ukraine, never mind. Business as usual with your 💰💰 💰 https://t.co/5Jhh2j1OXN
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 8, 2022
The USaid.gov site explained (emphasis added), “The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in coordination with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is providing an additional $4.5 billion in direct budgetary support to the Government of Ukraine to help alleviate the acute budget deficit caused by Putin’s brutal war of aggression. The Government of Ukraine will receive the funding in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion disbursement in August.”
“This contribution was made possible with generous bipartisan support from Congress,” the site added.
How “generous” they are with American taxpayer dollars. (And/or money borrowed in our name.).
For those counting, the official U.S. foreign aid site also notes, “Once these additional funds are fully disbursed, the U.S. government will have provided $8.5 billion in direct budgetary support to the Government of Ukraine.”
That’s a lot of money. Americans have every right to know where exactly it’s going and whether it could’ve been used here instead.
In April, the restraint-oriented Quincy Institute’s William D. Hartung and Julia Gledhill noted that much of the then $6.5 billion the U.S. had committed to Ukraine was going to defense contractors.
You know those billions of your money US is sending to Raytheon and Lockheed "for Ukraine"? The arms are being sold by Ukrainian smugglers onto the black market.
Nobody knows exactly where these dangerous weapons are, but I'm sure we'll have a new war at some point to stop them. https://t.co/JadjL8EEfz
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 13, 2022
The Biden administration reportedly wants a national security budget north of $800 billion, using Ukraine as a rationale for that record-busting number.
“Indeed, Pentagon officials like Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks promptly cited Ukraine as one of the rationales for the Biden administration’s proposed record national-security budget proposal of $813 billion, calling Russia’s invasion ‘an acute threat to the world order,’” the Quincy Institute duo observed.
This is an unprecedented price tag.
“In another era that budget request for Fiscal Year 2023 would have been mind-boggling, since it’s higher than spending at the peaks of the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam and over $100 billion more than the Pentagon received annually at the height of the Cold War,” they also noted.
Billions for Ukraine. Billions for defense contractors. No meaningful relief for America’s own spiking debt with inflation on the rise.
Which country was Congress elected to represent again?
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