If Republicans win the House, where does that leave Ukraine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a question that is top of mind in Washington as the GOP draws closer<\/strong> to winning the majority in the U.S. House. Some fear the end of Democratic control in Congress \u2014 and the empowerment of \u201cAmerica First\u201d conservatives \u2014 could ultimately result in the curtailment of American assistance as Ukraine battles Russia\u2019s invasion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent comments from Kevin McCarthy, who is in line for speaker if Republicans win the House, exacerbated those fears. He warned that Republicans wouldn\u2019t support writing a \u201cblank check\u201d<\/strong> for Ukraine if they captured the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the hard-line rhetoric isn\u2019t the end of the story. While Republican control of the House is likely to make sending tranches of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine more difficult, support for the country runs deep in both parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a look at the factors at play:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHAT THE U.S. HAS GIVEN SO FAR<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the Russian invasion began in February, Congress has approved tens of billions in emergency security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. The Biden administration has also shipped billions worth of weapons and equipment from military inventories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, lawmakers approved about $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid<\/strong> as part of a bill that finances the federal government through Dec. 16. The money included assistance for the Ukrainian military as well as money to help the country\u2019s government provide basic services to its citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That comes on top of more than $50 billion provided in two previous bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n STRONG BIPARTISAN SUPPORT<\/p>\n\n\n\n All along, financial support for Ukraine has garnered strong bipartisan support. In the Senate, GOP leader Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby, the lead Republican on the powerful Appropriations Committee, were early and consistent voices in favor of Ukraine aid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent days, other Republicans including Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rick Scott of Florida have insisted in interviews that their party\u2019s support for the Ukrainians is resolute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we have to continue to do everything we can to support Ukraine, who wants to defend their freedom and stop Russia from continuing to expand,\u201d Scott said Sunday on NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware also made a bipartisan show of support by visiting Ukraine just days before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am confident that bipartisan robust American support for the fight of the Ukrainian people will continue in Congress,\u201d Coons said. \u201cThe United States has long been a nation that fights for freedom, and this is the most important fight for freedom in the world today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The picture is similar in the House, where Ukrainian aid enjoys majority support. Even a letter published last month by the liberal flank of the party, asking the Biden administration to pursue diplomatic talks with Russia over the war, was quickly retracted after an outpouring of criticism from both parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden also attempted to ease concerns in a post-election briefing Wednesday, expressing hope that he would be able to continue his \u201cbipartisan approach\u201d to supporting Ukraine. He said he intends to invite congressional leaders from both parties to the White House later this month for a discussion about how to \u201cadvance the economic and national security priorities of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n GROWING FAR-RIGHT OPPOSITION <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet support for Ukraine is far from universal in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some lawmakers on the right, particularly those aligned with Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d philosophy of foreign policy, say the United States cannot afford to give billions to Ukraine at a time of record-high inflation at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, told a rally of Trump supporters in Iowa last week that, \u201cunder Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine.\u201d In Ohio, Republican JD Vance, who just won the state\u2019s Senate race, campaigned on ending financial support for the country, saying Congress has \u201cgot to stop the money spigot to Ukraine eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCarthy seemed to be giving a nod to the Ukraine skeptics with his comments before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they\u2019re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,\u201d McCarthy said in the pre-election interview. \u201cThey just won\u2019t do it. \u2026 It\u2019s not a free blank check.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCarthy later walked back those comments, telling CNN that he\u2019s very supportive of Ukraine but thinks there should be \u201caccountability going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden stressed that his administration has not granted every request from the Ukrainians, including their demand for a no-fly zone that would risk pulling America into the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve not given Ukraine a blank check,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that Ukraine wants we didn\u2019t \u2014 we didn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n FUTURE OF AID<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the escalating opposition from the right, there is little risk of Congress ending America\u2019s financial and military support for Ukraine anytime soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Majorities in the House and Senate back the alliance with Ukraine, saying the cost is worth paying to defend a democratic ally and resist Russian expansion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And most Americans who voted in the midterms were firmly behind the military and financial support for Ukraine, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 94,000 voters. About 4 in 10 said it was about right and 3 in 10 said it should be more active, while only about 3 in 10 wanted the U.S. to provide less to Ukraine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet it\u2019s clear that a Republican takeover of the House would make passing additional aid for Ukraine harder. McCarthy is likely to be under intense pressure from the right to take a hard line with the Biden administration, making it more difficult for him to work with Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that reality in mind, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are eying the lame-duck session after the election as an opportunity to lock in billions of dollars in additional military assistance for Ukraine. That aid could be passed in an end-of-year government funding bill and ensure American support for months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___<\/p>\n\n\n\n VIEW FROM ABROAD <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are monitoring the midterm election results closely. One official on Wednesday acknowledged having stayed awake the night before, hitting refresh again and again on his phone to track the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the country\u2019s defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said Wednesday that he did not anticipate American support would erode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have repeatedly met with representatives of the Senate and Congress, and each time the delegations were bipartisan,\u201d Resnikov said at a news conference. \u201cI clearly understand that the support of the United States will remain bipartisan and bicameral, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine\u2019s trade and economic development minister, said Thursday that regardless of U.S. support, the country is intensifying efforts to run leaner on spending, even as Ukrainians fight for what they see as an \u201cexistential war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Svyrydenko said that while there had been no pressure from American officials for Ukraine to cut its need for foreign help, Ukrainian leaders know they have to do more to stabilize the economy itself even as they battle Russian forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukraine\u2019s emphasis at the war\u2019s outset had been rapidly marshaling military aid from its allies, \u201cbut we understand that one day we should rely very well on ourselves again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If Republicans win the House, where does that leave Ukraine? It\u2019s a question that is top of mind in Washington as the GOP draws closer to winning the majority in the U.S. House. Some fear the end of Democratic control in Congress \u2014 and the empowerment of \u201cAmerica First\u201d conservatives \u2014 could ultimately result in the curtailment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6850,6728,7744,9257,5178,11941,7099,12758,11555,6693,10000,2512,5262,10309,11337,913,6576,12246,9309,5196,911,8057,9127,5321,4028,3577,8478,2264,8251,6546,11493,5252,10340,11348,2471,9267,3874,11743,4053,8482,5572,6779,10500,5612,7693,9534,11973,7039,3805,6200,5333,6069,6944,6575,13301,5807,3457,5217,5655,8501,9277,8840,10329,5180,5555,9262,5251,13299,2354,5724,6571,2982,3954,10415,36,594],"class_list":["post-27256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aid","tag-alliance","tag-arkansas","tag-awake","tag-biden","tag-bill","tag-bipartisan","tag-captured","tag-citizens","tag-congress","tag-conservative","tag-conservatives","tag-cut","tag-delaware","tag-demand","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-diplomatic","tag-dollars","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-fear","tag-february","tag-florida","tag-freedom","tag-future","tag-gop","tag-government","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-inflation","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-iowa","tag-jd-vance","tag-joe-biden","tag-kevin-mccarthy","tag-lead","tag-majority","tag-mccarthy","tag-midterm-election","tag-military","tag-military-aid","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-money","tag-national-security","tag-ohio","tag-one","tag-phone","tag-president","tag-race","tag-rally","tag-recession","tag-republican","tag-republicans","tag-results","tag-risk","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-security","tag-senate","tag-speaker","tag-strong","tag-trade","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-war-aid","tag-washington","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-will","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50252,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27256\/revisions\/50252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}