2024-04-18 02:15:45
After a long delay, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson wants to bring aid money for Ukraine and Israel to a vote on Saturday.
All eyes in Washington this week are on Speaker Mike Johnson.
In the end, everything could work out for Kiev in the American Congress. In October, President Joe Biden asked Parliament for additional aid funds for Ukraine, Israel and partner countries such as Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific. In February, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a package totaling $95 billion. But even as the situation for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines became increasingly desperate, Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker in the House of Representatives, refused to bring the bill to a vote. His right-wing party threatened to oust him, just as the hardliners had already done to his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in October.
Now, however, Johnson seems to have lost patience. On Wednesday he announced five separate bills that he plans to put to a vote on Saturday. These include, firstly, around $60 billion for Ukraine, secondly, $26 billion for Israel and thirdly, $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific. The package for Israel also includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and other conflict regions around the world.
Biden could get what he has wanted for a long time
The fourth bill contains a whole series of laws. This includes a ban on Tiktok if the Chinese parent company does not sell the social network. Another regulation would allow Russian assets to be confiscated to finance reconstruction in Ukraine. Finally, this fourth legislative package includes further sanctions against Russia, Iran and China.
The fifth proposal envisages tightening immigration policy and measures to protect the southern border with Mexico. With the law, Johnson probably wants to appease the right wing of the party. The hardliners had always made a tougher migration policy a prerequisite for their approval of the Ukraine funds. However, in February, just such a compromise failed in the Senate because Donald Trump rejected it. The Republican presidential candidate apparently does not want to solve the migration problem, but rather wants to manage it in his election campaign. That’s why Johnson no longer wants to link migration with aid to Ukraine. While the first four proposals could ultimately be passed together, the fifth proposal should be treated separately. The Senate could therefore simply ignore them.
The right-wing Republicans don’t like this at all. If the four bills are passed as planned on Saturday, they would roughly correspond to the targets set by President Biden months ago. Marjorie Taylor Greene – a Trump confidant with pro-Russian leanings – and another Republican lawmaker have already announced that they will initiate a vote of no confidence against Johnson. Johnson is committing treason and getting into bed with the Democrats, she wrote on the short message service X. “He is not our speaker, but theirs.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene often speaks at Trump rallies. She sharply criticizes Johnson’s recent policies.
The Speaker needs the Democrats
In fact, in the end, Biden and the Democrats essentially only had to make one concession. While most of the Ukraine aid flows directly into the American defense industry, the almost $10 billion that Kiev receives in economic aid must be given out as a loan. The president can negotiate the terms with Ukraine, whereby the debt can also be forgiven after a short period of time.
Trump’s idea is behind this concession. In February he criticized aid to Ukraine in campaign speeches and on his short message service Truth Social. The USA should always get something in return for its help and only support other countries with loans. Trump demanded. “The United States can’t be stupid anymore.”
Speaker Johnson took up the suggestion. And Biden also seems to be able to live well with this regulation. The president backed the Republican speaker’s plan on Wednesday: “I very much support this package,” explained the American president. He will sign the laws immediately after they are passed. «We stand by our friends. And we won’t let Iran and Russia win.”
Johnson will urgently need Democratic support to get the relief package through the House of Representatives. Due to several vacancies, the Republican majority in the large parliamentary chamber has shrunk to just two votes. He will only survive the threatened vote of no confidence if at least some Democrats save him with their votes. But this could make him even more of a whipping boy for the right wing of the party.
Johnson was not impressed by the bleak prospects for his office on Wednesday: “It is my philosophy to do the right thing. The dice fall as they fall.” After hesitating for months, the speaker presented himself as a staunch friend of Ukraine: “We stand up for freedom and will ensure that Vladimir Putin does not march through Europe.”
Trump moves to the center
The big question is why it took Johnson so long to do the right thing. What could be crucial is that he was finally able to convince Trump of the matter at their meeting in Florida last week. Johnson is doing a good job and he stands behind him, said Trump. His commitment to aid to Ukraine was not clear, but he did not torpedo the project: “We are thinking about converting the aid from a gift into a loan.”
Why Trump is now positioning himself this way, to the disappointment of his right wing of the party, is another big question. Perhaps he himself sensed that a crushing defeat for Ukraine could ultimately hurt him among moderate voters. And the pressure on him from moderate Republicans in Congress may also have increased, especially after the unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel on Saturday.
Some Republican MPs are threatening to sign the Democrats’ “discharge petition” on aid to Ukraine. This would allow the bill to be put to a vote bypassing the speaker. “If this fails, a few of us will have no choice but to sign (the petition),” said the conservative MP Don Bacon on Wednesday.
Failure is still possible. There is a long way to go until the planned vote on Saturday. Ukraine cannot yet rely on everything going well in Congress in the end. This is also why Trump seems to be leaving all doors open. Asked whether he would support Johnson in a vote of no confidence, he said on Tuesday: “Well, we’ll see what happens.”
1713421836
#Johnson #breaks #hardliners