Trump-Infected House GOP Majority Puts Ukraine and Border Security in Jeopardy - Horowitz
Rób Horowitz, MINDSETTER™
Trump-Infected House GOP Majority Puts Ukraine and Border Security in Jeopardy - Horowitz
That Congress passed a total of 906 public bills, while more than half -way through its current term, today’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed only 27 bills that have become law. Most importantly, the so-called do-nothing Congress did not play political games with national security, first refusing to move forward with aid to Ukraine unless that measure included stepped-up border security provisions--and then when presented with an unprecedentedly strong border security measure with bipartisan support in the US Senate, refuse to take yes for an answer, while still apparently holding Ukraine aid hostage.
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Today’s Republican House’s operating instructions are Trump first, rather than America first. They are not even doing a particularly good job of pretending that is not the case. For instance, even before reading the new bipartisan US Senate legislation that couples aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with tough new border security provisions, including putting an end to “catch and release,” as well as, providing $20 billion of new funding for more frontline personnel and asylum judges, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared the bill “worse than we expected” and called it “dead on arrival” in the House. His content-free criticisms echoed those of Donald Trump who has been attacking the bipartisan efforts on border security in the US Senate for weeks without any insight into the substance. The former president is doing so simply because he wants the issue to run on, fearing any progress on it will help President Biden.
Responding to Speaker Johnson’s “dead on arrival” comments on Fox & Friends yesterday morning. Senator James Lankford (R-OK), one of the new legislation’s authors, told Brian Kilmeade, “Unfortunate that he would step out and be able to see that right away, before, obviously, he had had a chance to be able to read it as well and to be able to go through it. The key aspect of this, again, is are we, as Republicans, going to have press conferences and complain the borders bad and then intentionally leave it open after the worst month in American history in December?”
Another conservative Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who was a part of the Senate negotiations and as a result had an early window into the legislation, put it this way a few weeks ago: “To my Republican friends: To get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of. So if you think you’re going to get a better deal next time, in ’25, if President Trump’s president, Democrats will be expecting a pathway to citizenship for that,” he said. “So to my Republican colleagues, this is a historic moment to reform the border.”
Even with their threadbare excuse for holding up military assistance to Ukraine now completely exposed, Speaker Johnson and his MAGA congressional allies still appear determined to allow Vladimir Putin to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by continuing to refuse to supply the brave Ukrainians with the ammunition they need to continue to repel an unjustified invasion by a brutal authoritarian. With assistance from us and other NATO countries, including the $50 billion of economic aid just greenlighted by the European Union, Ukraine has so far successfully fended off the Russians, degrading most of its conventional military power “with nearly 90% of its prewar army lost to death or injury, and thousands of battle tanks destroyed," according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment shared with Congress and reported by The Wall Street Journal. Yet, the House Republicans, egged on by Mr. Trump, are risking turning this strategic success into a catastrophic defeat.
Right now, instead of moving forward on Ukraine aid, Speaker Johnson is attempting to pass a stand-alone aid to Israel bill. He is coupling this with making an empty performative gesture on border security, scheduling a floor vote to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. This is despite the fact that even Donald Trump’s favorite legal expert, Jonathan Turley, admits there are no grounds for impeachment and that there is no chance the Senate will vote to convict.
There is a majority in the House overall for doing the right thing and passing a military aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, coupled with border security. Through the use of a discharge petition to force a floor vote or other procedural maneuvers, this majority may still prevail. This will become more of a possibility, if the bipartisan package clears the 60-vote filibuster threshold and ends up passing the US Senate with significant Republican support. It is also still possible that even if the border measure is stalled, Ukraine aid could still clear the House.
The Trump-infected Republican-controlled House majority, led by the feckless and disingenuous Mike Johnson, however, continues to stand in the way, playing a risky game with our national security, making Vladimir Putin even more confident in his decision to not negotiate seriously until he sees whether his preferred choice for president, Donald Trump returns to the White House.
That is a high price to pay for doing Donald Trump’s bidding. But for Mike Johnson and the rest of the MAGA caucus, it sure isn’t too high a price to pay to stay in the former president’s good graces. For them, that is job 1.