GOP’s Right to Reject Funding of Perpetual War

A dramatic meeting on Tuesday at the White House for sending $60 billion more to the NATO war in Ukraine was stacked 4-to-1 against conservatives. That is hardly fair but reflects the intense pressure by globalists to pour more money down this bottomless pit of war.

The two top Democrats in the House and Senate, plus Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who does not represent a majority of Republican senators on this issue, joined with President Biden to browbeat Speaker Johnson to allow a House vote on the $60 billion supplemental appropriation. Johnson emerged from this meeting by properly saying that we need to put the crisis at our own southern border first.

Speaker Johnson is on the same side as Donald Trump, whose influence grows despite Democrats’ attempt to exclude him. Trump’s landslide victory over the globalist candidate Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday continues his trajectory toward reelection in November, rendering Biden a lame duck for the remainder of his term.

The satirical Babylon Bee quipped, “Congress issued a dire warning to the American people Friday, sternly reminding voters that if they do not keep sending billions of tax dollars to Ukraine, the war might end.” American taxpayers should not be funding more bloodshed there.

Yet the newly installed Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, went on CNN Sunday to demand this foreign aid, pompously telling Speaker Johnson that “the credibility of your country is at stake.” Sikorski speaks perfect English because he was educated at England’s Oxford University, which has promoted globalism since the time of the first Queen Elizabeth over 400 years ago.

Sikorski would not hold his position if the prior conservative Polish government had not foolishly allowed in more than a million Ukrainian migrants. This vast influx ran the Polish economy into the ground, and its GDP plummeted from a growth rate of 5.3% in 2022 to only 0.2% and high inflation in 2023.

Meanwhile Russia appears to be thriving by producing vast amounts of oil, in contrast with Biden’s anti-energy policies that hinder our economy. Last week Rosneft, which is Russia’s largest oil producer, declared a 47% increase in its net profits for 2023, totaling $14 billion, and oil funds a third of the Russian government’s budget.

Russia’s military-based economy produces far more munitions than the West. Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), who opposes more funding of the war in Ukraine, told a conference of globalists last week in Munich that Ukraine uses in a month as many Patriot missile interceptors as it takes the United States a year to make, and the Patriot is now on a five-year back order.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Army announced its elimination of 24,000 positions, partly because of the shortfall in enlistment. Recruiting into our military has fallen far below expectations, and threats by D.C. politicians to send American troops to defend the borders of small NATO member countries will not be tolerated by voters.

Phyllis Schlafly called for disbanding NATO at the end of the Cold War, and she opposed the “mission creep” that has led NATO to meddle in Ukraine, in provocation of Russia. We should not support Ukrainian president Zelensky’s ambition to capture the Crimean peninsula, where the Russian navy has been stationed at Sevastopol for 240 years.

Zelensky canceled national elections that had been scheduled for this spring, and the globalists who pretend to care about promoting democracy should object to that. There is a large constituency of Ukrainian Americans in Ohio, where their Sen. Vance outspokenly opposes continued American funding of this war.

House Speaker Johnson has a superb opportunity to attach conditions before allowing a vote on sending billions more to Ukraine. First, Johnson should demand that Biden fully close our southern border to end illegal immigration there and, second, he should halt the funding of the politicized prosecutions against Trump and his supporters.

The latest data from the Biden Administration shows that Arizona has surpassed Texas in being inflicted with the largest invasion by illegal aliens. The Border Patrol reports that 250,000 illegals entered an Arizona sector in the last four months despite the treacherous landscape there.

The shocking murder of a young Georgia nursing student and “disfiguring her skull,” while she was jogging, was charged against an illegal alien arrested twice but released. “Instead of sending him back, Biden’s failed policies allowed him to be released into the country, where he murdered an innocent American girl,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) tweeted.

The politicians in D.C. should focus on the many problems along our own border before sending more money to fund a boundary dispute in Eastern Europe. Trump promises to end this war by forcing Ukraine and Russia into a negotiated settlement, which is the sensible approach.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.