The budget fight was about vice signaling, not spending.
Republicans averted the self-inflicted wound of a government shutdown this weekend. The main casualty of the process was aid for Ukraine, but foreign aid was always a fig leaf—for both GOP dysfunction and the determination of a small group of Republicans to help Russia.
It’s Not About the Money
The Republicans in Congress have delayed a shutdown for another 45 days while they continue their family food fight. They are all very angry with one another, and they seem to agree on only one issue: They hate Matt Gaetz. But don’t blame Gaetz, who is clearly having the time of his life being famous. The Republicans, as the economist Michael Strain noted, have for weeks been careening toward a Seinfeld Shutdown, a budget impasse about … nothing.
Some $6 billion of aid to Ukraine, however, was removed from the budget, a temporary casualty of the near shutdown. (I say “temporary” because I have confidence that sensible members of Congress will act to restore the funds.) Republicans are trying to cloak their opposition to military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in a lot of codswallop about oversight and budget discipline. But the opposition to aid for Ukraine among Republican extremists on the Hill is not about money.
Most congressional Republicans are in favor of helping Ukraine. The extremists, however, warned Joe Biden last month that they would oppose additional assistance to Kyiv. The list of signatories to a September 21 letter to the Office of Management and Budget is a roster of shame, including the new America Firsters in the Senate (J. D. Vance, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Tommy Tuberville among them) and the grotesque caucus-within-a-caucus of some of the most unhinged and weirdest members of the House, including Clay Higgins, Harriet Hageman, Andy Biggs, Anna Paulina Luna, and that titan of probity and prudence, Paul Gosar.
The drumbeat of propaganda from these members and their “amen” chorus in the right-wing media is having an effect: An Economist/YouGov poll released last week found a slight uptick among all voters for reducing military aid to Ukraine, but for the first time found that a majority of Republicans now support such reductions. Fortunately, Americans overall—even many voters in the GOP—are still holding firm in their support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian imperialism.
