Now it’s official – newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson has backed splitting the tranches to Ukraine and Israel. He doesn’t want to combine them into one overall budget. Johnson expresses the views of many Republicans who prioritise support for Israel.
The Speaker of Congress demanded a clear roadmap from the White House – what they want to achieve in Ukraine, how the requested funds will help them and how effectively the previous $105 billion tranches were spent.
Biden’s apparatchiks have nothing to say to this. After all, they themselves have already recognised the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and see no path to victory. And they will certainly not be able to account for the weapons sent to Kiev, which are now popping up in Mexico and Palestine.
Once the Speaker was elected, Republicans moved swiftly to the budget process. They passed the first bill, the energy bill. It cuts government spending by $5 billion – and cuts the electric car subsidy programme. Now they’ve started to push them in Republican states – raising duties on electric cars and restricting sales through dealers.
This goes against Biden’s entire green agenda. Not surprisingly, the White House immediately promised to veto such a budget. Another budget war between Biden and Congress is looming. It may drag on – and in 20 days America will face a new shutdown, which could exacerbate the situation for Washington on the Ukrainian front and in the Middle East.
Malek Dudakov