Congress and the World
Over the past few days, the news has focused on the ongoing dysfunction on Capitol Hill, as the Republican Party continues to prove that it is a cult and not a serious participant in government decision-making. Events in three disparate parts of the world – Ukraine, Israel, and the United States border with Mexico – have taken over the news cycle for weeks. It has been confusing, to say the least. I’ll write more about this dysfunction when I focus on events in the United States tomorrow, but today I want to talk about the intersection of domestic affairs with American foreign policy – when elected officials are expected to act in the nation’s best interest in dealing with the rest of the world.
If you’re like me, the details of all of this kind of get lost in the drama. This article from Axios gives a good run-down on events.
Congress scrambles for backup plan on Ukraine and Israel aid
Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are searching desperately for alternate routes to pass aid to Ukraine and Israel after the implosion of the House's Israel bill and the Senate's national security package.
Why it matters: For Ukraine in particular, there is bipartisan concern that the aid could mean the difference between continued resistance and defeat at the hands of Russian forces in the coming months.
"We cannot walk away from Ukraine," said Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.). "I would venture to say thousands of American lives will be lost if we do, because Putin will go into Poland and … we'll respond and WWIII will be upon us."
Driving the news: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to remove the border provisions from the Senate supplemental and hold a vote on it with just Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan aid, Axios' Stef Kight reported.
That plan looks foredoomed to failure in the House.
"So they're going to send us a multibillion dollar package without pay-fors to secure the Ukrainian border without securing our southern border? Good luck," Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) told Axios.
Zoom in: Johnson said he will hold a revote on the House's Israel-only bill under a process that requires only a simple majority after it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority on Tuesday.
However, there are doubts about whether it can clear the necessary procedural hurdles given opposition from several key Republicans on a panel that can block legislation from coming to the floor.
What we're hearing: Some Republican Ukraine hawks in the House are proposing trying to make Ukraine aid more appealing on their side of the Capitol by stripping out more than $9.5 billion in economic assistance funds.
"There's a bunch of us advocating for military aid," said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). "All the rebuilding stuff, let's deal with that later. They need weapons."
Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) similarly floated "a standalone bill that is munitions-only," which, he said, "has a chance of passing on suspension."
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has also floated trying to tuck the money into appropriations legislation funding the Pentagon.
The bottom line: House Republicans across the ideological spectrum made clear that any comprehensive package that lumps Israel, Ukraine and other priorities together is likely a non-starter – they would have to be voted on separately.
"You can't cobble everything together and hope everyone supports it," said Garcia.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.) told Axios: "If these people are so dead-set on providing aid to Ukraine, bring a clean bill to bat. If it's so important, why are they mixing it with everything? Because they know they don't have the votes."
One of the things I keep thinking about as these parallel crises play out is the old statement people used to make about the United States – that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” The idea was that Americans can play out partisan politics in the domestic arena as much as we want, but that a President should be the outward-facing actor for the United States on the world stage.
This idea has been shredded over the past decade or so, and the blame falls primarily on the GOP. They were so fixated on making President Obama a one-term president that they undermined him in their dealings with other nations, and they continue to undermine President Biden by issuing statements and promises that only confuse the rest of the world. Add to this that the noted diplomat Tucker Carlson is currently in Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin (thus seeding the minds of Fox viewers that he is a credible journalist and that Putin is just another world leader that Americans need to listen to), and it’s not surprising that the American public is confused about what’s going on.
And it will only get worse as #P01135809 barrels his way to the GOP nomination. For a reminder about how this is likely to go, take a look at my essay from December 2023.
And once again, the podcast Pod Save the World is the best expenditure of 90 minutes of your time if you want deeper insight into what’s going on at this nexus of domestic politics and international affairs. (You can do it in less time if you speed up the replay; I’ve found that I can still follow it if I set the replay speed to 1.5, thus reducing the listening time to one hour. Because my time is so valuable.)