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When discussing the 11 Senate Republicans who voted to defy the Republican and Democrat establishment in opposition to the latest $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, some Kelly Golden Show listeners had a few interesting takes on putting just ONE Trillion Dollars of spending Into Perspective. Take a listen:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
“My oath of office is [to] the U.S. constitution, not to any foreign nation and no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America,” Paul said on the Senate floor last week. “We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)
“Spending $40 billion on Ukraine aid – more than three times what all of Europe has spent combined – is not in America’s interests. It neglects priorities at home (the border), allows Europe to freeload, short changes critical interests abroad and comes w/ no meaningful oversight,” Hawley wrote.
“That’s not isolationism. That’s nationalism. It’s about prioritizing American security and American interests,” he added.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
"...Putin’s aggression is indefensible, and we should look for appropriate ways to support Ukrainians in the noble defense of their homeland. We must also make sure Congress maintains its constitutional role of directing engagement in conflict and ensure that we are not spending unnecessary funds while in a time of historic inflation and ballooning national debt."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
"I fully support the Ukrainian people in their fight against Russia. Vladimir Putin is a sick and evil human and must be held accountable. As written, this legislation has zero accountability into how taxpayer dollars are being spent. For example, the State Department is asking for $110 million to repair the Kyiv Embassy but has not even conducted a full damage assessment. Meanwhile, many previous authorizations - including $100 million in food aid - have yet to be executed."
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) explained recently on Fox:
"I’ll be a no on the package, Maria. It’s, as Senator [Rand] Paul said, we’ve got crises erupting across the nation. In my home state, mothers can’t get baby formula in Knoxville. You’ve got grandmothers and mothers that have sons and grandsons that won’t come home because of fentanyl overdoses because of the illegal drugs that are flowing across our southern border that President Biden will not protect. You’ve got crime running rampant across America, and people need to look at our nation and think we’ve got to look at… our own national security first, as Senator Paul has said. Other nations are watching us, too. China is seeing us not behave like a serious nation, rushing to put more aid into a country, who, again, I certainly don’t have anything against the Ukrainians. We want to see them win, but pumping more aid into that country when we’re not taking care of our own country—the best thing that Biden could do is stop the war that he’s waged on American industry. That would lower prices overall, that would take the funding away from Putin’s war machine against Ukraine. It would make our economy do better here. Biden will not do that. Biden will not be serious, and it’s taken us into a very bad direction. So, he just wants to throw another 40 billion dollars of American money into this when you’ve got other nations more approximate—the European nations that have sort of stayed with us, but they haven’t done this level of investment […] I know that there are other senators that are thinking very hard about this right now, as I have done. And I think it’s going to be up to each one’s conscience. We’ve already committed a great deal of money to this effort area. And I know that people are concerned that that money is being well spent, and we should certainly take effort to oversee that very carefully. At the same time, we have got to take care of things here at home first. That’s our primary duty."