The Senate Appropriations Committee announced on Thursday that the Trump Administration has agreed to release $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, which had previously been frozen.
The administration had been reviewing a lot of aid and questioned whether or not US interests were advanced by the arms deal. Congress pushed for such arms transfers to continue, on the grounds it would encourage Ukraine to fight ethnic Russian separatists.
The aid had been delayed for months, and if it hadn’t been authorized by the end of September it would have been canceled. The administration appears to have ultimately decided to give Congress what they want.
The suggestion is that some in Congress were threatening to hold up billions of dollars in funding to the Pentagon, and this is ultimately what freed up the aid. White House interest in cutting into the foreign aid budget means this is likely to continue to be an issue in years going forward.
Trump will soon be in Kiev handing out coffee & cookies to fascist goons. Maybe he will take Samantha Power or Nikki Haley along for the snuggle.
That should help our relationship with Russia. Priorities.
Those two issues are indeed correctly connected. A quarter billion to provoke Russia, countless more billions to defend against whatever Russia comes up with in retaliation. Of course a wiser direction might have been found, but that’s far-fetched for a collapsing empire drunk on its own hubris.
Works out pretty good for the rent seeking crowd either way doesn’t it ? Makes you wonder…….
Apparently the swamp creatures in the administration and in Congress still dominate.
Ever wonder if the arms industry is already truly “global” and they’re just bilking the entire planet ? Remember when they bugged the ADM board room to hear the CEO confess that, “Our competitors are our friends and the consumer is the real enemy.
I have a hard time believing that not all prices are fixed prices or that all demand isn’t manufactured demand.
So much for Trump trying to “get along” with Russia. Another Trump promise broken. All those posts from his supporters over the last two years about how Trump is honoring his campaign promises look pretty stupid now.
Trump changed his mind real quick when he found out the guns were going to fine folks like the one’s at Charlottesville.