House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is eyeing the speaker’s gavel should Republicans flip the chamber in next month’s midterm elections. Among the potential changes he’s previewed: rethinking U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” McCarthy recently told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it.” He added that “Ukraine is important, but at the same time it can’t be the only thing [the Biden administration does] and it can’t be a blank check.”
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy tells Punchbowl that new Ukraine aid will have a more difficult road in a Republican House.
— Connor O’Brien (@connorobrienNH) October 18, 2022
“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/sProsbI6WA
I’m so old that I remember when democracy, at home and abroad, was at the center of the Republican Party’s brand. Empowering government at the state and local levels meant leaving control in the hands of the people. In the post-Cold War hegemony, the U.S.’s role was toppling dictators and providing the freedom that Americans enjoy to the newly liberated.
Did I agree with the assumptions behind that platform or the methods used to enact them? Absolutely not. But, to quote “The Big Lebowski’s” Walter Sobchak, at least it’s an ethos. Which is far more than I can say for today’s GOP.
What a difference a decade makes, though. Imagine in 2012, when GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was castigated for suggesting Russia is America’s No. 1 geopolitical foe, that supporting Ukraine against Moscow would even be seen as a tough choice among Republicans. I’m not saying I’d like to see the neoconservatives return to power, but there’s something incredibly devoid of principles in McCarthy’s words.
In placing funding for Ukraine on notice while arguing that the Biden administration isn’t “doing the border,” McCarthy is simultaneously firing off a warning shot to the White House and trying to shift focus back to one of the GOP’s favorite bugbears: immigration. While it’s not clear exactly what McCarthy meant in refusing to sign off on a “blank check” for Ukraine, the implication seems to be that Republicans would agree to further funding only in exchange for cuts in Democratic initiatives or increases in funding for GOP priorities like border security. (It should be noted that the Democratic-led House this year voted to increase Customs and Border Protection’s budget by almost 6%, to $15.74 billion.)
To be fair, McCarthy’s comments could mean the GOP would demand a greater commitment to reforms from the Ukrainian government. But I fear most demands McCarthy would be after on that front would likely reek of former President Donald Trump’s misadventures in 2019. Though, given the embrace of Trump’s other positions over the years, I wouldn’t put that past McCarthy.








