He doesn't need to thank us, he deserves our thanks for fighting against fascism. Some of the best money the US has ever spent. Now, redirect all money from Israel to Ukraine.
Seriously, even if Israel wasn't evil, it could still quite easily do whatever it's doing by itself. Even if it wasn't evil, it doesn't need help doing what it does.
Yet here we are.
The republican traitor filth should be sent to the front, to fight for their motherland.
Hot fucking damn, the russian bots are really out on parade in this comment section aren't they?
...Welp, not like they can parade IRL, so I guess they've got to take what they can get!
Shame the TikTok ban went through, but a 60 billion package should give some fresh strength to the defenders of Ukraine.
I hate this calling idiots bots stuff. It's like calling people NPCs. I think I'm getting old.
It's bullshit that they're being thanked for table scraps that the children had to slap fight over how many scraps are allowed..
Of course anything other than 100% gratitude would be touted by the shittier child for the rest of their life regardless of whether the scraps ended off starvation or not.
My metaphor got a little weird but what the fuck.
While true that the timing is shit, the amount is nowhere close to "table scraps" - this seems like it will legit be helpful, maybe even enough to turn the tide in Ukraine?
Also, it's not like Congress fed its own and then waited months to feed the dog - rather, dinner for the entire family was delayed from the start of the fiscal year 2024 in October 1 until just a few weeks ago, involving the ousting of one Speaker of the House and almost doing so to the second as well. And now, this aid package for Ukraine may likewise finish the job of getting the Speaker kicked out, bc any time the government is "functional" is considered bad by some elements.
But the timing from passing the federal budget itself to passing this aid package is actually quite short. Yes it's half a year late, but it did eventually happen, and the amount of aid is large, so is a "success" by multiple metrics, and all the more so given the opposition. If we do end up having a civil war as people like MTG are calling for, this may well be the last aid package that the USA ever manages to pass in the final stages of its democracy.
So imho we should take the win and be happy - we may not get to celebrate Congress doing routine activities like "passing budgets" very often in the future, even six months late.
A large amount of the money goes towards paying the DoD to replenish stuff for US stock they already sent, so while it's not nothing it's also not really 60 billion in practice.
We are going to need to do this again in a year because every delay extends the war and pushes Ukraine further from being able to regain the initiative. It's the same way the delay on the F-16s crippled the effectiveness of last summer's offensive by Ukraine. The US delayed and delayed until the window for the F-16s to be effective had passed and everything became entrenched again over the winter and thousands of Ukrainian reserves had been spent on a largely ineffective push.
It's now spring, and the aid probably won't really get there for months, so I foresee this stalling things yet again.
Zelensky is right to still kiss asses, but it's got to be really frustrating to have your fate hang on the likes of doddering old fools and fanatical religious zealots.
There's a lot we could unpack there - e.g. it makes me all the more glad that they passed this, since we've already spent it either way!?
One quick item: Biden has stated that the aid can be there this week. He was prepared to spring on this. As you already said, this package was mostly to replenish already-spent funds, not as much directly to push forward with new ones. Although with that replenished stamina, I would expect to see new pushes happen as well.
Another big item is that Ukraine is not a member of the EU or NATO. As such it is "entitled" to nothing - everything that is being offered is purely voluntary. So, compared to nothing, $60B USD is quite a lot? Hence why he is grateful, and rightly so.
Another is that the USA does not need to be the sole provider of this aid - not that I am glad for the pause, but given that it happened anyway, I was heartened to see other nations rise up and cover the slack. And now for the USA to join the right side of history - well, better late than never, and all the more so with an amount this big!:-)
As you pointed out, the biggest one is that there is a faction within the US government that looks to be wanting Ukraine to fail, or more precisely for Russia to win. If Trump "wins" the next election, one way or another (i.e. legally or... otherwise), the USA may even go so far as to join Russia against Ukraine?! But for now, even delaying that aid may hamper it enough for Russia to finish the job. Maybe. Even so, this particular aid package got passed. Come what may, this one is a success. It is as important to celebrate success as it is to call out failures - failing to do either is biased, and therefore wrong.
Speaking of, the USA may also fail one day, less due to direct Russian military intervention and more from an internal civil war. But not today, b/c again, come what may, this particular aid package got passed, whoo-hoo!:-)
Hey, Republicans, do y'all remember Red Dawn? Those two movies you made about The USSR and Russia being the ultimate evil enemy that was going to invade and must be stopped? You do? Good.
My real question is, why in the name of all that is Murican, ARE YOU ACTIVELY HELPING RUSSIA WITH THEIR ILLEGAL AND UNPROVOKED INVASION‽‽‽
"Red Dawn" is the most compelling reminder here...?
I know several conservatives that swore that movie was a very probable scenario in the 80s-00s. AFAIK they've all left the party.
Sorry we’re late, we let the stupid people plan things and… you know.
Now the Senate still has to pass the bills. Hopefully this will work out.
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