LAST UPDATE | 20 Oct 2023
US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has requested a $106 billion (€100.1 billion) national security package, after a rare Oval Office speech to the public last night.
Republican paralysis in Congress means it hit an immediate wall, after Trump-ally Jim Jordan failed to be named speaker in his third attempt.
Biden last night declared it is “vital for America’s national security” for Israel and Ukraine to succeed in their wars.
In his request today, it pledged $61 billion (€57.6 billion) towards military aid to Ukraine and $14 billion (€13.2 billion) to Israel.
He made the case last night for deepening US involvement in two foreign conflicts as he prepared to ask for billions of dollars in military assistance for both countries.
Biden said “conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world” if international aggression is allowed to continue.
Hamas and Putin represent different threats. But they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy.”
He sent a funding request this evening to the tune of $106 billion (€100 billion).
But Biden’s request comes as the US House of Representatives remains in chaos, with Republicans, who hold a narrow majority, in their worst meltdown for decades and unable to elect a speaker.
“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” White House Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young said in a letter to Congress.
“I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead.”
Biden’s mega aid package yokes a host of disparate crises together in the hope that an appeal to US national unity will help shake House Republicans out of their dysfunction.
And it throws an olive branch to Republicans in the form of $6.4 billion (€6 billion) in funding for the migration crisis at the southern border with Mexico – a central concern for the right-wing party.
“It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations,” Biden said last night.
Biden hopes combining all the issues into one piece of legislation will create the necessary political coalition for congressional approval.
The package also includes $7 billion (€6.6 billion) for countering China and strengthening allies in the Asia-Pacific region, and over $9 billion (€8.5 billion) for humanitarian assistance for Gaza, Ukraine and Israel.
But most importantly, however, the huge funding ask is an attempt to bolster waning support for Ukraine by linking it with funding for Israel – which does have widespread bipartisan backing.
There is considerable support in Congress for Ukraine, including among prominent Republicans in the Senate, where the Democrats hold the majority.
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer promised quick action in the upper house.
“Senate Democrats will move expeditiously on this request, and we hope that our Republican colleagues across the aisle will join us to pass this much-needed funding,” he said in a statement.
“This legislation is too important to wait for the House to settle their chaos.”
However, it’s not clear that even if Republicans set aside their squabbling and choose a speaker they would then agree to pass more aid for Ukraine.
A growing number of Republicans – and US voters in general – oppose to adding to the $43.9 billion (€41.4 billion) in security assistance that the United States has committed to Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
An earlier request for aid for Ukraine was stalled when Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a rebellion in September.
In the 17 days since, no Republican has been able to get enough support from the party to replace him. The latest to try, Donald Trump-ally Jim Jordan, failed for a third time on Friday.
Biden’s speech last night drew the link between the wars in Ukraine and Israel as part of a vision of the US as a “beacon to the world” confronting “terrorists” like Hamas and “tyrants” like Putin.
It was Biden’s bid to remind Americans of the decades-long US geopolitical stance as leader of the Western democracies.
The Kremlin on Friday denounced Biden’s comments.
“We do not accept such a tone in relation to the Russian Federation, in relation to our president,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said such “rhetoric is hardly suitable for responsible leaders of states, and it can hardly be acceptable to us.”
US efforts to “contain” Russia would prove ineffective, he added.
Biden, meanwhile, welcomed European Union leaders Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen to the White House on Friday, at a summit set to deliver a message of unity on conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
- © AFP 2023, with reporting from Press Association
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