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The war in Ukraine is now more than 100 days old, displacing an estimated 13 million Ukrainians with no end in sight.

But the Ukrainians have so far held onto large parts of the country, largely because of weapons sent from the West that have bolstered the military to give it a fighting chance against the Russians.

While Australia has sent $200 million in weapons and Bushmaster vehicles, it is just a fraction of the amount of military aid committed by the US.

According to the Center for International Policy (CIP) a US-based group monitoring US military spending and weapons Congress has approved $US54 billion ($70 billion)in aid to Ukraine since the invasion onFebruary 24.

The billions of dollars' worth of foreign weapons sent to Ukraine has given them a fighting chance against Russia,but could they fall into the wrong hands?

"If you look at the scale and magnitude and speed, it's really staggering," Hanna Homestead, an associate from CIP, told ABC News Daily.

"When you think about comparing that to some other things in the US budget, our space agency NASA's budget is only $US24 billion ($35 billion)."

"We only allocated $US1 billion ($1.44 billion) to climate finance, which has really important effects in countries all over the world."

Last week, the US pledged another $US1 billion ($1.44 billion)in weapons and aid for Ukraine, amid an urgent call from Kyiv for more advanced arms.

The new package was announced after a meeting with allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels and includes a commitment of more long-range artillery and for the first time anti-ship missile launchers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the commitment, saying it further strengthened the nation's defence.

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"I am grateful for this support. Itis especially important for our defence in Donbas," he said after the announcement.

According to CIP, $US26 billion ($37 billion) of the total funding has been spent on military aid alone. This includes an increase in lethal aid, which translates to helicopters, drones, high-mobility artillery rocket systems, howitzers, javelins, rifles and ammunition.

"This has certainly been the most amount of aid that the US has provided any country, and certainly even more than the aid that we sent to Afghanistan during the height of reconstruction," Ms Homestead said.

She noted a turning point in April when the United Statesstarted to transfer weapons that required training by American soldiers.

"And so that kind of commitment to sending that equipment and sending that training showed an escalation in how the United States is thinking about the kind of support that it was going to provide to Ukraine," she said.

The US Congress has passed two bills allowing President Joe Biden to quickly supply and loan weapons to Ukraine.

Congress approved a bill for emergency funding for Ukraine in March that included traditional foreign and military aid, while a second bill for $40 billion ($58billion) was passed in May.

Hannah Homestead said that included $US19 billion ($27 billion) for immediate military support, while $US9 billion ($13 billion)was committed to replenishing US weapons stocks.

Senator Rand Paul, of Kentucky, attempted to alter the second bill, requiring an inspector-general to monitor the spending and weapons deployment. He failed, with congress approving the bill without it.

"The oversight is very tricky," Ms Homestead said.

"There are a lot of risks and implications when sending weapons into a war zone, especially this huge quantity in an emergency situation.

"There are a lot of concerns around tracking and making sure these weapons end up where they're supposed to belong and don't fall into the wrong hands."

CIP is also concerned about the possibility of weapons trafficking.

"Ukraine in particular has a history of an illicit arms trade that really took off actually in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. And these arms were in Ukraine and have actually ended up in places all over the world," Ms Homestead said.

So far the US congress has approved funding until September.

"I do certainly know the amount of weapons and also the amount of humanitarian support, refugee support we've provided Ukraine thus far has certainly made a huge difference," Ms Homestead said.

"I'm actually not quite sure what the prospects are in terms of the longevity [of the war]if we were to cut off aid."

The UK, Germany, Canada, Belgium and France are also among the nations that have supplied Ukraine with weapons and military equipment.

Posted7h ago7 hours agoSun 19 Jun 2022 at 7:42pm, updated2h ago2 hours agoMon 20 Jun 2022 at 12:27am

Original post:
Is excessive funding from the US escalating the conflict with Russia in Ukraine? - ABC News

You can tell how obnoxious this is from the fact that Mitch McConnell felt obliged to side with Chuck Schumer against Paul in the dispute.

Time is obviously of the essence in Ukraines war. If you want to maximize their chances of winning, you want to get this aid package on the books as soon as possible. Equally obvious is the fact that the bill will pass the Senate easily. It passed overwhelmingly in the House a few days ago and will likely draw 80+ votes in the upper chamber, Id guess. Thats the key fact here. Paul cant stop this bill.

But he can slow it down a little and hurt the Ukrainian effort by doing so.

Schumer asked for unanimous consent to advance the bill this afternoon, which would have allowed the Senate to skip a bunch of procedural argle-bargle and move to a vote quickly. Unusually, McConnell joined Schumers request, a sign that he knew trouble was brewing on his side of the aisle and wanted to signal his opposition to it. No one objected except Paul.

Paul wanted the $40 billion aid bill rewritten to include a requirement that a U.S. inspector general supervise disbursement of the aid to Ukraine. Schumer said no but tried to compromise by offering to hold a vote on an amendment to that effect submitted by Paul. He could get his IG demand attached if he could persuade a majority of the Senate to adopt it. Fair enough?

No, said Paul. The request for unanimous consent failed.

Rarely is Chuck Schumer right about anything but hes right here:

Ukraine is not asking us to fight this war. Theyre only asking for the resources they need to defend themselves against this deranged invasion. And they need this help right now, McConnell said in his own remarks. Again, theres no question that the bill will pass and the money will be spent. The question for Paul was simply whether he wanted to spite Ukraines supporters by doing what he could to hobble the Ukrainian effort with unnecessary delay.

Itll now take upwards of a week for the Senate to jump through its procedural hoops and pass the bill under regular order.

Im showing my cards here: I dont believe that much of the MAGA or MAGA-adjacent caterwauling about the cost of the Ukraine aid bill is on the level. Nationalists have never been sticklers about federal spending, after all. I posted these Mark Levin tweets earlier but let me post them again here.

The ulterior motives are more complicated than wanting to kiss Putins ass but Levins right to discern that there are ulterior motives. I wrote about that the last time Paul happened to stumble across a Kremlin-friendly talking point in public. The populist right and left resent that Ukraine is demonstrating the strength of the prevailing western liberal order on the battlefield at the expense of one of the great enemies of that order. After all, the more effective the American establishment and the EU look in backing the Ukrainians, the less interest American and European voters will have in replacing either with populist regimes of the right or left.

The aid bill has become a cause for populist grumbling because it channels that dubious ambivalence or even hostility towards a Ukrainian victory into a more politically congenial grievance, exorbitant federal spending and the governments misplaced priorities:

I want Russian illiberalism to prevail in Ukraine because itll help mainstream authoritarianism in the U.S. is a hard sell. Why arent we building more baby-formula factories? is an easier one. Levin knows the game being played, though.

Paul is a little different from the nationalists since hes a libertarian and comes by his worries about the deficit more honestly. But hes also a guy who voted for Trumps tax cuts in 2017 without any guarantee of spending cuts to offset the loss in revenue. And as youre about to see, he cant resist lapsing into libertarian boilerplate about America not being the worlds policeman even though no American police are in the field in Ukraine. The Ukrainians are policing their own territory. All were doing is helping them defend themselves, a concept that libertarians normally support ardently in the context of the Second Amendment and gun rights.

Once more for emphasis: This bill will pass. And because it will, Paul knows that holding it up wont achieve any of his stated goals but might hurt the Ukrainians at the margins. The fact that he chose to hold it up anyway speaks volumes about his intentions. I hope McConnell exacts some revenge the next time Paul needs something from him.

See the rest here:
Rand Paul forces delay in Ukraine aid bill even though final passage is ...

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul blocked the Senate from passing a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine this week, derailing a plan to fast-track legislationhis fellow Kentuckian, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, supported.

Paul wanted a provision added into the bill that would assign an inspector general to oversee how these billions are spent. When that didn't happen, he objected and effectively forced the Senate to wait until next week to vote on the aid for Ukraine because of procedural rules.

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer actually were working together to try to get the aid approved Thursday.

Related: Rand Paul's comments on Russian invasion criticized as echoing Putin's point on Ukraine

Theywere willing to let senators vote separately on Paul's proposed amendment, which would have needed 60 votes to pass, rather than add it directly into the aid package before senators vote to approveit.

That wasn't good enough for Paul.

"My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation. And no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States," he said on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon.

Politics: Download the Courier Journal's app to get Kentucky political news first

Paul, who has long been skeptical of U.S. military involvement in and foreign aid forother nations, criticized the billions of dollars the U.S. has spent on Ukraine, both since Russia invaded the nation in February and in past years.

"With a $30 trillion debt, America can't afford to be the world's policeman," he said.

McConnell publicly urged his fellow Republican senator from Kentucky to change course to no avail.

More coverage: Only one lawmaker voted against all recent legislation aimed at Russia. He's from Kentucky

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, McConnell recommended Paulaccept the compromise being offered: Let senators vote separately on his proposed amendment, and then passthe aid package for Ukraine so they could get this done by the end of the day. (The House of Representatives already approved the aid, and if the Senate amended the bill it would have required another vote in the House.)

"Ukraine is not asking us to fight this war. They're only asking for the resources they need to defend themselves against this deranged invasion, and they need this help right now," McConnellsaid. "This conflict has direct and major consequences for America's national security and America's national interest."

Schumer derided Paul's intransigence in his own speech on the Senate floor, noting that "the vast majority" of Democratic and Republican senators support the aid package.

"There is now only one thing holding us back. The junior senator from Kentucky is preventing swift passage of Ukraine aid because he wants to add, at the last minute, his own changes directly into the bill. His change is strongly opposed by many members from both parties," he said Thursday of Paul. "He is simply saying: 'My way, or the highway.'

"When you have a proposal to amend a bill, you can't just come to the floor and demand it by fiat. You have to convince other members to back it first. That is how the Senate works."

Paul didn't budge.

More on Rand Paul: Rand Paul delayed the historic Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson vote, and people were not happy

He defended his move on Twitter Thursday night, saying: "All I requested is an amendment to be included in the final bill that allows for the Inspector General to oversee how funds are spent. Anyone who is opposed to this is irresponsible."

"Passing this bill brings the total weve sent to Ukraine to nearly $54 billion over the course of two months," he continued."Its threatening our own national security, and its frankly a slap in the face to millions of taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries, and find baby formula."

Donald Trump Jr., the son of former President Donald Trump, backed Paul up on Twitter, saying Friday: "(Rand Paul)simply wanted an inspector general to oversee how $40 billion of your taxpayer dollars are being spent in Ukraine and the swamp went nuts. They dont want transparency because its one giant kickback to their friends and Big War."

Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal'schief political reporter. Contact her atmwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

Excerpt from:
Sen. Rand Paul stalls $40B in aid for Ukraine, breaking with McConnell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:June 6, 2022Contact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)introduced his Six Penny Plan federal budget that will balance within five years.

Five years ago, we could balance our budget with a freeze in spending without cutting anything. Since then, our debt has skyrocketed to $30 trillion with $2 trillion just from this past year, said Dr. Paul. We are now in a situation that a simple penny, two, three, or even a five pennies per-dollar reduction is insufficient to balance our budget. It requires six. We cannot keep ignoring this problem at the expense of taxpayers, and my budget will put our nation on track to solve this crisis that Congress created.

"CBO's newest budget projection illustrates the government's fiscally perilous path. Without a change of course, trillions will be added to the debt, a burden being unfairly dumped onto future generations of taxpayers. Senator Paul's Six Penny Plan approach would take smart, incremental steps towards fiscal responsibility by cutting 6 cents for every dollar of spending, while also preventing tax hikes, and making much-needed reforms to the budget and scorekeeping process, said Demian Brady, Vice President of Research at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

The biggest threats to national security are the national debt and out-of-control spending. There is bipartisan support in Congress to continue spending taxpayer dollars in an irresponsible fashion; however, there is no consensus on how to get our federal budget under control and address the future of entitlement programs, like Social Security. Thankfully, Senator Rand Paul is once again leading the charge with his Six Penny Plan," which will help the federal government get its finances back on track. With inflation at an all-time high, now is the time for members of Congress to reassess their spending habits and take on the national debt crisis in a serious manner, said Adam Brandon, President of FreedomWorks.

Unfortunately, the Biden Administration continues to engage in economic malpractice by restricting the development of reliable and affordable American energy and by advocating for even additional inflationary spending plans. As we face the real threat of stagflation for the first time since the Jimmy Carter era, we need a major course correction from policymakers in Washington. Senator Rand Paul should be commended for his bold approach to address our $30 trillion national debt. Sen. Pauls common sense spending reforms put taxpayers first by addressing the root cause of our national debt: overspending, said Jonathan Williams, ALEC Chief Economist and Vice President of Policy.

America is sitting on a national debt time bomb, yet most of our politicians in Washington are simply squabbling over how best to waste more of our money. But Senator Paul is one of the rare few actually working to protect Americans wallets. Senator Pauls penny plan is a long overdue, common-sense plan that would incrementally restore fiscal responsibility to our out-of-control federal budget. Anyone who cares about the next generations financial future ought to support this sensible, responsible plan, said Brad Polumbo, economics journalist and policy analyst.

Senator Rand Paul has been fighting for fiscal responsibility and raising the alarm on federal spending with his Penny Plan since 2017. Had Congress listened, then we could have a balanced budget today. Instead, weve seen Congress exacerbate inflationary pressures with unprecedented spending levels. As President of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, I thank Senator Rand Paul for this commonsense solution to the balanced budget and protect taxpayers, said David Williams, President of The Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

America is facing both an inflation crisis and a debt crisis, and theyre both being caused by Washingtons addiction to spending. Yet even with inflation over 8% and a national debt that has surpassed $30 trillion, Democrats in Congress continue to advocate for more spending, which will only make both crises worse. Fortunately, Senator Paul has introduced the Six Penny Plan, which would cut wasteful spending and put the United States on a path to a balanced budget within five years. Americans deserve a serious plan to get our fiscal house in order, and Senator Paul has delivered, said Garrett Bess, Vice President of Heritage Action.

Senator Rand Paul has long been a champion of balancing the federal budget and protecting the American taxpayer. Senator Paul has a plan that will balance the budget in five years. Interestingly, if Congress had voted for Senator Pauls plan five years ago, we would not be suffering runaway inflation, economic downturns, slowdowns, severe shortages, and empty shelves at the store. And wed be celebrating a balanced budget too! If we wait even longer to take action, we will suffer more inflation, larger and larger deficits, and more economic instability. And then it will take much larger cuts to get things back on track. So now is the time to act before the problem becomes so large that it cannot practically be fixed, said George Landrith, President of Frontiers for Freedom.

Background:

Dr. Paul offered his first balanced budget in 2011. In 2017, Dr. Paul introduced his first budget that balanced using a flexible, top-line, on-budget spending limitation. That budget was not a reduction in spending, but a simple five-year freeze. Had that budget been adopted then, the budget would have balanced this year.

By 2018, the nations fiscal imbalance had worsened. Dr. Paul again offered a budget that balanced, but now required a one penny per-dollar reduction in spending off the top-line. In his accompanying report, Dr. Paul warned of the risk that continued deficit spend would make the U.S. more vulnerable to foreign advisories and hinder our capacity to respond to emergencies. In particular, he noted inflation was how such risks would manifest. Congress ignored his warning then, and now we see an inflation rate of 8.3 percent.

In 2019, the situation was still worse. Whereas in the previous year a single penny on the dollar was required to balance, now it required two cents. Dr. Paul again offered a now Pennies Plan, which again would have balanced in just 5 years.

Since Dr. Pauls first spending freeze budget, Congress has added nearly $11 trillion to the federal debt. The annual structural deficit has more than doubled, and interest payments on the debt have grown by 32 percent. Inflation has reached a 40-year high. And now, a simple penny or two is insufficient to balance.

Now, it requires SIX pennies to balance the budget in five years.

Instead of celebrating a balanced budget this year, and again allowing spending to grow at historic norms, we are faced with a weakened and teetering economy, a prescription for our ills that is six times more dramatic than it ever had to be.

Congresss refusal to accept the responsibility to act as good stewards of American taxpayer dollars has caused our bleak financial position. Americans everywhere are feeling the effects of historical high inflation and sustaining labor and supply chain issues. Short-term political gains of the past, are in fact causing us harm now. Not to our children and grandchildren off in the future, but to us here today.

You can read the Six Penny Plan in its entirety HERE.

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Original post:
Dr. Rand Paul Introduces Six Penny Plan to Balance the Federal Budget in Five Years | Senator Rand Paul - Senator Rand Paul

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul says the suspect accused of shooting and killing retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer illegally possessed the firearm used in the killing.

My understanding is he was prohibited from legally possessing a firearm based on having been convicted of a felony, so one of the issues is going to be how he was able to do that, Kaul said on WISNs UpFront, which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.

Investigators say 56-year-old Douglas Uhde shot and killed Roemer inside his home before shooting himself.

Roemer sentenced Uhde to six years in prison in 2005.

Kaul said no other known connections between the two have surfaced.

The judge was one of the folks who was the target of the suspect, and the obvious connection here is that court case, Kaul said. So it certainly appears that court case was a motivating factor, if not the sole reason this happened.

A law enforcement source said Uhde had a hit list in his vehicle with as many as 13 names including Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

There does appear to be some sort of connection to one or more cases, Kaul said. There are some other folks who have some sort of connection to the legal process, but the overall connection to all the people, that is something we continue to assess, and thats part of what we hope to learn more about as the investigation moves forward.

Also on the show, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas from New Jersey discusses her efforts to press Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation to better protect judges.

My reaction is heartache, Salas said referring to Romers death. I just was afraid of this from the moment that my family was brutally attacked on July 19, 2020. The biggest fear Mark and I have had to date was that somebody else would die and hearing the news of Judge Roemer and his assassination opened up a wound that will never heal.

Nearly two years ago a gunman dressed like a delivery driver attempted to assassinate Salas. The former disgruntled attorney, who once appeared in her courtroom, killed her son and wounded her husband inside their New Jersey home.

Salas is now renewing her push to Congress to pass the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act.

Named after her son, the legislation would allow federal judges to remove personally identifiable information from the internet and create a grant program and incentives for states to enact laws to protect circuit court judges.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has blocked the legislation because it doesnt include members of Congress.

This is an issue that has bipartisan support, Salas said. Its bipartisan, its bicameral, and I personally have heard from many Senators both Democrats and Republicans and Independents who support this bill, so its unclear why we cant get this bill passed.

In another segment, former Republican U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble discusses a letter signed he signed urging Republicans to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

If in fact, theyre wanting their side of the story put out there, well go and tell it, said the former Green Bay-area congressman. If theres some alternative reality here that were not seeing and theres something different that happened that they know about that would make this look illegitimate, why dont they go ahead and provide that information to the American people so that they can hear that side of the story, but apparently theyre not wanting to do that.

More public hearings are scheduled this week.

One future hearing, committee members said, will focus on former President Trumps pressure on state legislatures to change the election results and have a group of false electors including in Wisconsin, sent to Congress.

It certainly was unscrupulous but whether it rose to the level of a crime or not, I think it was uncertain, Ribble said. I think Congress or the state of Wisconsin may respond with some election reforms that would prevent something like that from happening in the future.

See more from the show:https://www.wisn.com/upfront

See the original post:
UpFront: Kaul discusses investigation into killing of retired judge - WisPolitics.com