Apparently, the US has so much money we can afford to hand out $95.3 Billion to Ukraine and Israel with no strings attached.
Senate Passes $95.3 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package
The Wall Street Journal reports Senate Passes $95.3 Billion Ukraine, Israel Aid Package
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a $95.3 billion package backed by President Biden that contains a fresh round of aid for Ukraine and also funds for Israel and Taiwan, overcoming the objections of many Republicans who opposed spending so much money abroad.
The bill’s chances are uncertain in the House because of the greater power of Ukraine skeptics and influence of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has opposed more aid and recently suggested turning the aid package into a loan. Some lawmakers are continuing to demand tighter control of the U.S. border as a condition for any aid, trying to restart a legislative fight that stalled out last week after Republicans, including Johnson, rejected as inadequate a bipartisan compromise devised by Sens. James Lankford (R., Okla.), Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D., Conn.).
Johnson criticized the Senate aid bill on Monday for lacking border provisions and made clear it is unlikely to get a vote in its current form, but he has kept his options open.
“Any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” Johnson said. He said that the House “will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah), who isn’t running for re-election, called the Ukraine measure “the most important vote we will ever take as U.S. senators.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a military hawk who has opposed the Ukraine package because of lack of border provisions, said that the money to Ukraine should be converted into a loan, as suggested by Trump. “President Trump is right to insist that we think outside the box,” said Graham, who is skipping the annual Munich Security Conference, where he had been scheduled to be a marquee attendee this weekend.
“It’s a brilliant idea,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.).
Dear House, Don’t Mess With It
If Johnson tries to improve this bill, he is certain to make a mess of it.
The idea by Trump to turn it into a loan is ridiculous. Unconstitutional or not, Biden would forgive it. And that would be the end of it.
And if Johnson dares meddling with the border, he will make a mess of that too.
Mitt Romney has lost his mind. And Lindsey Graham never had a mind for anything but war.
Senator Rand Paul has the right idea. Paul said the bill was a “middle finger to every working man and woman in America.” He said that it tells Americans, “We don’t care about you. We care more about Ukraine than we care about our southern border.”
Think Outside the Box
We certainly need to think outside the box because anything in the box is a huge waste of money.
Regrettably, structuring the money as a loan is thinking outside the box for the sole purpose of getting inside the box.
The only sensible action is to throw the bill in the ashcan on grounds of fiscal responsibility.
Fiscal responsibility would be an amazing display of thinking outside the box.
The Fed Is Very Concerned Over Spending and Interest on the National Debt
On February 4, I noted Fed Chairman Tells 60 Minutes US Fiscal Path is Unsustainable
Fed Chair Jerome Powell tells 60 Minutes that it’s “urgent” the US address its “Unsustainable Fiscal Path” I list 15 key takeaways from the interview.
Yesterday, I noted The Fed Is Very Concerned Over Spending and Interest on the National Debt
A San Francisco Fed report highlights concern over Congressional spending that’s out of control, Social Security, Medicare, and rising interest on the national debt.
Today, we are “thinking outside the box” dreaming up ways to get “inside the box” just to waste more money.
And Trump, who is supposedly is opposed to blowing $60 billion on Ukraine, is the person who came up with this outside the box idea.
Stop! Just Stop!
Drops in the Bucket
$95 billion is a drop in the bucket, student aid is a drop in the bucket, expanded child tax credits are a drop in the bucket, and if we break down defense spending item by item, every line item is a drop in the bucket.
link to x.com
Our bucket overflows like a toilet.
My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It [Live at the Lincoln Centre, New York / 2007]
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis
link to youtube.com
There is a hole in my bucket, dear Biden, dear Biden, then mend it dear Chucky, dear Chucky…with what shall I mend it dear Biden, dear Biden…
with straw dear Chucky, with straw. The straw is too long dear Bide, too long…
The show is just a good old pantomime. “Look behind you”. “No, the other way”. and on it goes, laugh after laugh, year after year.
Mongolia’s former president mocks Putin with a map showing how big the Mongol empire used to be, and how small Russia was
By Sinéad Baker
February 11, 2024
The former president of Mongolia mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend and his focus on history to try to justify his invasion of Ukraine.
Putin has frequently used historical borders to rationalize his brutal invasion, arguing that Russia has a claim over Ukraine even though Ukraine is an independent country.
In his interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week, Putin outlined centuries of Russian and European history. Historians say much of the history he gave doesn’t stand up.
On X, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Mongolia’s president between 2009 and 2017 and its former prime minister, poked fun at Putin’s argument.
He shared maps showing how large the Mongol Empire was, with it once controlling parts of what is now Russia.
…
link to businessinsider.com
I see on my map that there was no USA (and Canada etc) until the immigrants wiped out the natives – and not too long ago at that. Choose your period and choose your facts.
Timing is everything in life!
I think the war in Ukraine is turning into a test lab. Crazy, but lots of new warfare strategies, AI, and etc is being tried and tested in Ukraine. Sort of sad that thousands of Ukraine solders and Russian solders are the Guinea pigs.
I am not so sure if these high tech warfare companies want the war to end?
How Tech Giants Turned Ukraine Into an AI War Lab
link to time.com
If we’re going to spend ludicrous money on the military, which we obviously are, then at least we should get something for it.
A nation that cannot secure its own borders is not a nation, its just a pathetic joke.
Anyone who supports Ukraine is a follower of the infamous Austrian landscape painter of the 1930s.
Ukraine at least is expected to hold the line and weaken Putin and Russia, preventing them from the obvious goals of invading and conquering more and more.
They will role on to the Thames to give BoJo a proper haircut.
No more money for Ukraine. Give ALL of Ukraine to Russia. Let Russia deal with a Marshall plan for Ukraine whose economy has declined 8% per year for the last 4 years.
Isn’t the city of Kiev and the region around it the original homeland of the Russian people? There, fixed!
Rand Paul : it’s a trap to Trump, if elected : if Trump cuts Ukraine he will be impeached again. US 10Y is up, AAPL dropped to Jan 2022 high.
I don’t think that the Dems are that smart, but those behind the curtain are. If you can’t win an election, then sabotage what’s left for the winner.
Putin is quaking in his boots now, looking over his shoulder even more frequently to see who is coming after him armed with AK-47s
or cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup.
What? Being snarky, right? I would hope so, otherwise that comment is absurd. Hey, aren’t AK-47s Russian? 😉
I don’t understand why we still have Americans living below the poverty level. I don’t understand why there are children who do not have laptops, and the schools or parents cannot provide them. I don’t understand why there are still people living in their cars because the cost of housing is too high for them to afford. Some of these people are our veterans who fought for our protection overseas. Some of these people are mothers with children. If we have so much money, it’s a disgrace to our allow our own Americans to live without…
Women need to stop having subsidized babies unless fathers do the subsidizing. How to make that happen i have no idea, but it obviously worked in the past.
People need to have self-pride and a sense of personal dignity. But victimhood is powerful and so is welfare. We, collectively, are a lost generation. Only hardship teaches these values.
Are all those illegal immigrants lining up for jobs? Not yet…
Any multi Billion dollar company in revenues should not be allowed to have employees on food stamps. That would make companies pay a living wage yet I read that Walmart has the most employees receiving government entitlements. Why can’t a multi-billion dollar company pay its employees a living wage.
I heard Fetterman call Paul a PRICK on CNN! [lol]
Fetterman should go to Ukraine to meet Z’s haberdasher.
Fetterman is an interesting case study.
Can you take any Dem and decrease their stupidity by destroying part of their brain? Or was it just him?
RED all the way around!
In Blood and in the Deficit.
Rand Paul has it right, we can no longer be everyone’s Sugar Daddy!
These numbers don’t mean anything. In the United States, health spending represents 16.6% of GDP, or more than $5.1 trillion. At the same time, infant mortality is increasing, life expectancy is decreasing, and Cuba is doing better than the United States. I think that the performance of military spending is of the same order, immense sums for ridiculous performances. This is also what is coming to light in this war in Ukraine, Western weapons are much inferior to Russian ones, while being at least 10 times more expensive.
Maybe there is a connection between this and what is described in this article:
link to oftwominds.com
“The “Phantom Legion” Problem
When the Empire’s wealth seems limitless, graft, embezzlement and fraud all seem harmless to those skimming the wealth. Look, the Empire is forever, what harm is there in my little self-interested skim?
This rot starts at the top, of course, and then seeps into every nook and cranny of the system. When those at the top are getting fabulously wealthy on modest salaries while claiming to serve the public, the signal is clear: go ahead and maximize your own private gain at the expense of the public and the state. Civic virtue–the backbone of the Empire–decayed into self-interest, incompetence and indulgence.”
take a one way row-boat to Cuba, that’s my plan!!
All of those ’55 Chevys they keep running must be responsible for climate change.
Look it up on Youtube, production of Saab Gripen takes between 6-18 months. The plane can be shot down in minutes of arrival in conflict. Luckily, it was only sold to Hungary and Brazil, I believe, guaranteeing long a leisurely lifespan.
F-15 AI with Brandon Tseng stuff is superior.
95B to countries… 25B into the pockets of some foreign politicians, 70B for the USA weapons industry who will make 15B profit out of which 3B can go to the campaigns of politicians who will approve the next 130B aid package.
Is there ANYONE loosing in this cycle, except for the irrelevant taxpayers who just vote demopublican next round again whatever happens?
Good guesses. I did read that some of this 95B is going to: Ukraine may have to postpone pay for public servants and pension payments to millions of its citizens unless it gets aid from the USA.
LOL. We cannot increase SSN cola to much or Ukraine cannot make its pension payments.
They know defaults are coming for most of the west, including defaults on any enemies of the US that are stupid enough to hold our debt. Therefore, they are going to borrow as long as there are buyers.
Out of the box solutions should include selling off public assets and doing debt-equity swaps.
“The bill’s chances are uncertain in the House because of the greater power of Ukraine skeptics and influence of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump…”
Yes, those are the only two reasons anyone could be against that bill. WSJ article is a fine piece of
writing ,opinion,nonsense. I wonder how the author would define “Ukraine skeptic”.Yes; I’m surprised that they have not started using the term “Ukraine Denier”.
Include the NYT and the WP. Embarrassing drivel.
Absolute Definition of a Rhino:
“History settles every account,” Senator McConnell said in a statement following the vote. “And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”
Our account is RED RED RED and is impossible to be settled McConnell. History does NOT settle every account!
Play Weimar games, pay Weimar prices.
Excellent analysis, Vicky.
Trump is the pretend anti-establishment reality tv clown show star playing the part. Him and Biden are just parts of the clown show for the plebes.
Until the financial system blows up again nothing will get fixed. Real inflation will not go south of 4% without higher interest rates. So we’ll sit around at 4% + inflation for as long as the FED gets away with it monetizing away as much debt as possible.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah), who isn’t running for re-election, called the Ukraine measure “the most important vote we will ever take as U.S. senators.”
Which is absurd. There are far more important votes than for something that does not benefit the American people.
He should be driven to the front lines in a dog kennel.
Give him a rifle and send him to the front lines. Such a hero!
Seriously … this is just money down the drain … Ukraine is already financially bankrupt. The only way it’s managing to stay afloat is by government handouts from the EU and the US. Most of these funds will be going to the U.S. military complex to replace the weapons we’ve already given to Ukraine and then into the pockets of politicians who voted for this bill in Washington. At the rate of current production it take years to replace our weapon stocks.
It’s even a bigger joke to consider giving Ukraine a loan because they will never be able to pay it back. This war is over because we failed to understand in the beginning what putting really wanted and we’ve just made Russia a hell of a lot stronger. another mess like Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. It’s time to cut our losses, but we never seem to be able to do that maybe that’s why our deficit is 35 trillion and counting. We continue to make up stories to tell the American public, so they will support this expenditure. This is not gonna end well.
This is just good Ole Washington politics doing what they’ve done for years for their business friends so they can stay in power. What goes around comes around…
“It’s even a bigger joke to consider giving Ukraine a loan because they will never be able to pay it back.”
——-
Sort of like Argentina, Lebanon, Gaza/West Bank and numerous others, no?
Announcing the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic RecoveryPRESS STATEMENTANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
President Biden today announced the appointment of Penny Pritzker as the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery. In this role, she will work with the Ukrainian government, the G7, the EU, international financial institutions, international partners, and one of our great assets – the American private sector – to help forge Ukraine’s future as a prosperous, secure, European democracy. Special Representative Pritzker will drive efforts to shape donor priorities through the Multi-Agency Donor Coordination Platform to align them with Ukraine’s needs and to galvanize international partners to increase their support for Ukraine. She will also work closely with the government of Ukraine as it intensifies reforms needed to win the future, open export markets, mobilize foreign direct investment, and catalyze economic recovery.
Why, why, why???
Here is tens of billions more Israel, but please don’t bomb Hamas quite as hard. Here’s ever more money Ukraine. Now please bomb the crap out of Russia.
Look, guys. The 2020 US election was a coup putting Neocons in power. For some crazy reason, these warmongers want war with Russia. The Ukraine issue started in 2014 when the US sponsored a coup in Ukraine.
These idiots in DC do not care about the cost, the inflation, or whether you or your family die in war.
We will have war; I don’t see how it will be avoided. The lack of any intelligent life in DC guarantees that your children and grandchildren will be sacrificed to the war gods.
Only Kamala stands in the way of Hillary reprising the role of Major Kong/Slim Pickens riding the bomb.
The bomb, bomb, bomb is part of their withdrawal therapy. You wouldn’t want to hook them on drugs!?
Bwah ….it doesn t really matter does it? You even don t have to print it , just Swift wire all the dough that s necessary to keep your Whorekraine, by now the most corrupt nation on the planet, on the hook ! Same goes for Israel, killing thousands of innocents : keep on sponsoring war crimes I d say, yer actually very good at it !
It’s not all going to Ukraine and Israel.
10% to the big guy.
Ukraine is a graft operation.
I’m afraid the money the US is pouring into Ukraine’s war effort will pale in comparison to the money needed to rebuild the country.
And that’s one of the reasons for the war. More money is made in reconstruction, and it lasts longer.
*grafted/stolen, not made
Russia is going to pay for that. One way or another if they want Western sanctions removed.
Russia is doing just fine
The USA and Europe are dying.
Is there one person in Congress who actually represents us?
ROTFLOL
they DGAF
Please tell me which country was rebuilt after destroyed.
Vietnam, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria
and – – – . Only destruction.
$93 billion? Peanuts. That’s only $282 from every single 330,000,000 Americans. Maybe a couple thousand or more from every single taxpaying family of 4. WE own the printing press. We can print endlessly-at least for another year or so. The Fed has our back. If we plan our investments and finances prudently we can avoid much of the pain. Our kids and grandkids can worry about it. They will thank us someday for making the world safe for Democracy and Freedom.
Said every country that owned the printing press before it collapsed.
judging by all these unlikes, readers don t seem to realise you re merely bein cynical..
You might want to take an economics class, MMT is just that, a theory.
It doesn’t work, there are consequences.
Can’t seem to understand sarcasm and cynicism? At least our Brussels friend does. My fault. Failed to understand that there plenty in the masses and heard of sheeple who actually believe and would agree with my post.
I made a recent comment about suspending elections in order to save democracy and the sarcasm went over most people’s heads.
22 GOP Senators.
Traitors every one, and should suffer a Traitors fate
Working for foreign interests against the interests of the United States.
Name and shame them.
Mish, There is a typo in your article. You refer to Joe Biden as Johnson Biden.
On another note, many are going to look at 95 billion and think it’s just a rounding error. But Ukraine GDP is only 200 billion so if we send them say 60 billion (rest for Israel/Taiwan) that’s a third of their GDP! No way that could be a loan as that would be like someone sending the US 8 trillion.
I realize most of that is meant for weapons that get used up but the amount that isn’t is going to be stolen or cause incredible inflation there because of so much extra money sloshed into the Ukraine economy. It’s just madness to send that amount of money.
Thanks
Fixed
We have a group of congressmen that have taken the meaning of stupid to a whole new lower level. On the bright side it has taken the congress several hundred years to sink to this level.