Funding for Ukraine was a controversial topic regarding last week’s government funding bill. Many members of Congress wanted to keep spending taxpayer money to fund the conflict in Ukraine.
Obviously, the situation is tragic and a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. However, taxpayers are not responsible for fixing all the horrible things happening around the globe. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was one of the leaders in highlighting this.
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And as enormous pressure of a government shutdown mounted, he courageously refused to retreat on the issue. Other Republicans should have followed Paul’s lead. Instead, many of the usual suspects acquiesced and were ready to spend another $6 billion in funding Ukraine in its war with Russia. This was despite numerous public opinion polls showing that Americans have grown tired of being Ukraine’s bank account.
The nation is hurting and cannot afford billions more to a foreign country. Paul knows this and emphasized this point. He wanted the country’s politicians to be focused on the people in this country. There is rampant crime, failing schools, an immigration crisis at the border, an out-of-control deficit, and many other issues that deserve the country’s attention and taxpayer funds. Paul wanted to ensure the nation’s elected officials were upholding their duties to help the citizens of this country.
“If leadership insists on funding another country’s government at the expense of our own government, all blame rests with their intransigence,” Paul posted on X, formerly Twitter, last week. It’s part of Paul’s memorable legacy: prioritizing the American taxpayer instead of the quagmire in Ukraine. It is a sentiment that many in Congress need to be reminded of. The people throughout cities and towns in the United States elected them to office, not the people of Kyiv.
“When I said I’d do everything I could to stop the U.S. government from being held hostage to Ukraine, I meant it,” Paul also posted on the social media platform. “We cannot continue to put the needs of other countries above our own. We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy. I’m grateful to all Members of Congress who stood with me, but the battle to fund our government isn’t over yet - the forever war crowd will return.”
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This was monumentally important because it revealed the prominence of Ukraine funding in our country’s spending bill and funding package. Think about how absurd this was: the nation’s Ukraine-enthusiast elected officials were willing to let people in this country suffer from a government shutdown unless they agreed to give billions of dollars to another country. They were willing to jeopardize this country so that taxpayer money could go to a foreign nation.
Rand Paul has been the Senate’s steady hand in protecting American taxpayers. He does what he was elected to do. Paul knows his responsibility is to the American people, and it’s about time every elected leader in this country remembers it, too.