| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Money has been allocated for Israel, but it will not receive it. Ukraine get ready |
| 2023-11-04 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov [REGNUM] The Capitol is gripped by another round of budget wars. Republicans presented their project to support Israel. They are ready to allocate $14.3 billion in military tranches to the Jewish state. True, this money may not be seen there. Of the allocated amount, approximately 4 billion should be used to replenish depleted stocks of missiles for the Iron Dome air defense systems, and another billion to accelerate the commissioning of the new Iron Beam laser anti-missile system. However, the White House immediately promised to veto this. After all, the devil, as always, is in the details. The House of Representatives, where the Republicans have a majority, was eager to reach a compromise between the competing factions of congressmen. Some, closely associated with the Israeli lobby, demanded that money be allocated to the Jewish state as soon as possible. Others, concerned about the uncontrolled growth of the US budget deficit, demanded that government spending be optimized. As a result, the Republicans managed to come to a shaky intra-party compromise. They agreed to give $14 billion to Israel, but at the same time they are withdrawing the same amount from the IRS budget. This is no coincidence, since the White House planned major tax reform last year. Joe Biden's team intended to hire 87 thousand fiscal agents at once, giving them additional powers to conduct searches and arrests. Republicans characterized this as the creation of a kind of “federal police” that would obey the Democrats and persecute political opponents under the pretext of searching for unaccounted taxes. It is this high-profile reform that the Republicans now want to cancel, taking advantage of the crisis situation in the Middle East. But the Democrats also do not intend to give up. The Senate, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, promises to block the adoption of projects to support Israel if they reduce funding for any federal structures. But even if by some miracle such a bill manages to get passed in the Senate, it will be vetoed by the White House. The battles around Ukrainian budgets are no less fierce. Newly appointed Speaker Mike Johnson, before being elected to his current position, criticized the allocation of tranches to Kiev. But now he has somewhat adjusted his position - it is clear that Ukrainian lobbyists and representatives of the American military-industrial complex managed to work with him. Now Speaker Johnson is ready to theoretically consider agreeing on a new budget for Ukraine. But here, too, he first wants to extract serious concessions from Biden and the Democrats. Johnson proposes to arrange an exchange - tranches for Ukraine for a real strengthening of security at the southern border of the United States. A migrant crisis has been raging at the American border for more than a year. It got to the point that by the fall of 2023, more than 300 thousand illegal immigrants began storming the border every month. The White House has neither the desire nor the political will to fight this. Therefore, the crisis is left to take its course - migrants are arrested, sent to overcrowded detention centers, and then released on promises to appear in court. Which, of course, they are not. Republicans in Congress are demanding that Biden return to the practices of mass deportation of illegal immigrants from the era of Donald Trump. Biden might not mind making concessions, but he understands very well that the Democrats themselves and all sorts of liberal human rights and migrant rights groups will eat him up for this. Therefore, so far there is no compromise on the Ukrainian issue. The Pentagon has about $5 billion left that can be spent on tranches for Ukraine. The American military is trying to stretch current budgets longer, but this cannot continue indefinitely. After all, the Ukrainian army desperately needs an uninterrupted supply of shells, missiles and armored vehicles in order to somehow hold the front, not to mention carry out any operations. The situation around Ukraine is aggravated by the appearance in the American press of new “revelatory” publications about the atmosphere of total corruption reigning in Kyiv. And also the recognition of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny in the absence of prospects for a Ukrainian counter-offensive and the need to switch to a war of attrition, for which the West is obviously not ready. This further strengthens the position of those Republicans who refuse to allocate money to Ukraine because they believe that Kyiv will lose and these investments simply will not be repaid. A separate issue is the lack of military resources, especially ammunition, which the Pentagon now has to divide between Ukraine and Israel. And then the investigation into corruption of the Biden family, which began in September, is again intensifying, which is the basis for impeachment hearings. It concerns many aspects of corruption, but among them are accusations of receiving bribes from Ukrainian oligarchs. This is what Republicans want to make the centerpiece of their case against Biden. Biden is not threatened with real impeachment, that is, removal from power. Senate Democrats will block any articles of impeachment, no matter how plausible they look. But even the announcement of impeachment by one lower house will be, although symbolic, quite a strong reputational blow for Biden. And it will sharply complicate the situation of Kyiv lobbyists, who, against the backdrop of all the corruption scandals, have to desperately extort more money and tranches. The division and dysfunction in Washington also affects the US position in the Middle East. It is obvious to everyone how difficult it is for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to negotiate with regional players - Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He was never able to convince Turkey and Qatar to abandon their support for Hamas. Or force Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees. Individual countries like Bahrain are already severing diplomatic ties with Israel, effectively nullifying the Trump-era Abraham Accords to normalize relations between the Jewish state and the Arab world. Regional coalitions alternative to Washington are also being formed, which, in defiance of the West, are increasing pressure on Israel, demanding an end to the war in the Gaza Strip. More and more Middle Eastern states, including Jordan and Egypt, are beginning to gradually withdraw from US external control, seeing the weakness of the American political system. This opens a window of opportunity for increasing the influence of China and Russia in the Arab world, because current events are becoming a definite point of no return in relations between the entire Middle East and the collective West. America has only a short time left to agree on budgets. After November 17, the US government will again run out of money and the question of a shutdown will arise again. Civil servants and officials will lose their salaries, all non-essential programs will be frozen, and Washington will plunge into a full-fledged hardware crisis. Moreover, against the backdrop of two ongoing wars. The chances that Republicans and Democrats will reach some kind of compromise at the last moment are quite high. But it is unlikely to suit both parties. We will have to cut costs, allocate less for endless wars than the hawks in Washington would like. And try to simultaneously help Israel and prevent the defeat of Ukraine, the achievement of which seems more and more elusive every day. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #2 VOA - Taliban Deny Claims They Are Trying to Join Hamas on the Battlefield A categorical denial was it? Supplying both sides of the conflict? No WAY ! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-11-04 07:42 |
| #1 Watchdog Report: U.S. Has Given Afghanistan $11 Billion in Aid Since Disastrous Biden Withdrawal |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-11-04 07:39 |