Should the $1.7-trillion omnibus spending bill be passed by Congress, American taxpayers will have paid more than $110 billion in assistance to Ukraine in less than a year. Congress in the spring of this year approved $66 billion in aid to Ukraine. The additional $45 billion included in the omnibus bill that was unveiled this week will bring the total to $111 billion.
This sum would be more, by tens of billions of dollars, than the estimated amount the U.S. spent per year for its full-scale war in Afghanistan, with more than a hundred thousand U.S. troops deployed to the country at one point.
The Biden administration has pledged to support Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
The $45 billion included in the omnibus spending bill is, in fact, higher than the $37 billion sought by the Biden administration for Ukraine assistance.
Almost two dozen Republican senators were in favor of moving forward with the omnibus bill: Sens. Roy Blunt (MO), John Boozman (MT), Shelley Moore-Capito (WV), Susan Collins (ME), John Cornyn (TX), Tom Cotton (AR), Lindsey Graham (SC), Chuck Grassley (IA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS), Mitch McConnell (KY), Jerry Moran (KS), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rob Portman (OH), Mitt Romney (UT), Mike Rounds (SD), Marco Rubio (FL), Richard Shelby (AL), John Thune (SD), Tommy Tuberville (AL), Roger Wicker (MS), and Todd Young (IN).
McConnell announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the “number one priority” for Republicans is to offer more assistance to Ukraine. “Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans. That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment,” he said.
A group of House lawmakers, though, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), has threatened that when Republicans take the majority in the House this coming year, they'll oppose any initiatives made by Republican senators who supported the omnibus bill.
This increase in spending for Ukraine will occur as the American public's enthusiasm for being involved in the Ukraine conflict is decreasing.
A poll released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on December 5 showed that while the majority of Americans were still in favor of providing Ukraine with weapons and economic aid, only 40 percent were in favor of indefinite aid to Ukraine, and a shrinking number agreed that Washington should aid Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” According to the survey, 48 percent of respondents said the U.S. should support Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” as opposed to 58 percent in July 2022.
Tesla/Twitter CEO Elon Musk ran his own Twitter poll on Tuesday night. He tweeted: “Should Congress approve the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill?”
By Wednesday afternoon, the result was overwhelmingly “no,” with 71.2 percent opposed versus 28.8 percent in favor.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Congress on Wednesday, trying to garner more support for additional aid to Ukraine. Zelensky also made a visit to the White House.
He recently visited Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines and informed them that while he was grateful for the U.S. support, it was “not enough.”
