Next month, Americans will be called to vote in the Midterm elections. The Republican Party might use this as an opportunity to remove support from Biden’s Ukraine aids. Or not.
The United States will face the Midterm Elections next month. This call to vote, though it won’t change who the President is, might severely shift the political balance of the USA.
President Joe Biden, member of the Democratic Party, currently holds a tight majority in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, on the other hand, the Democratic Party currently holds two seats less: 48 against 50 of the Republican Party. The Midterm elections will affect the composition of Parliament, making life even harder for Biden.
So, in the following month we will see the electoral campaign ramp up. Both parties will plead for themselves and against each other about every major political issue. And the main foreign political agenda surely lies in the war in Ukraine.
So far, the United States has provided Ukraine over 60 billion dollars in armaments and military aid. Two initial packages of 50 billions each plus a more recent one amounting for 12.3 billions. Joe Biden has implemented a land-lease policy similar to that signed by president Roosevelt during the Second World War, which has helped in the defeat of Nazism.
It basically consists of a blank check for every request by Kyiv. This has allowed them to hold the Russian advance and make major counter-offensives of their own. Such a policy, however, comes at a big expense for American taxpayers, and part of the Republican party started to question its implementation.
A minority within a minority
In particular Kevin McCarthy, House Republican leader, said that they will remove support for “a blank check” to Ukraine if they win the Midterms. So far, the land-lease option was available to Biden due to its huge bipartisan support. However, the only votes against aid packages to Ukraine came from the Republican party.
And the possibility of decreasing aid to Ukraine came also from other voices in the Republican Party. “I think you’ll see, if we get the majority, more oversight and accountability in terms of the funding and where the money’s going,” said Republican Congressman Michael McCaul.
However, other declarations by prominent Republican members hint that these voices are a mere minority. The GOP governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson, for example, expressed his concerns after McCarthy’s statement. Hutchinson said it would be “a mistake” to withdraw support from Ukraine.
And these words were mirrored by Mike Pence, former Vice President of Donald Trump, who said that the US “must continue to provide Ukraine with the resources to defend themselves.”
Finally, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed that the idea of removing Ukraine’s support was a minority within the party. “There are a few voices on the right that seem to oppose the war, but the vast majority of us, certainly including myself, think defeating the Russians in Ukraine is high-priority,” he said.
