UPDATE: Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 · 4:26:44 PM +00:00
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Doctor Who
UPDATE: CORRECTION -
It appears I might owe Mr. Schumer an apology. Based on comments from Lizby and Clutch Cargo below, it seems that Mike Johnson, through the House’s Resolution was responsible for the combined bills, not Chuck Schumer, which explains the single bill identification (H.R. 815). I suppose Chuck could have split it up, but they may then have to been sent back to the House even without text changes. Not sure since I am not a Congressional Parliamentarian. The reason I thought Schumer did the combing, was as I listened to the senate floor debate, Republicans were complaining that Schumer was preventing them from taking separate votes on Ukraine and Israel aid, which they wanted to have so they could vote yes on Israel and no on Ukraine. So I guess Republicans lie. What a surprise!
Let me say at the outset, that I am very pleased that the combined legislation from the House bills passed the Senate. The final vote was 79-18. Fifteen Republicans voted with three Democrats against the bill. Forty-eight Democrats and 31 Republicans voted for the bill. Overall, a bipartisan success for Biden and the Democrats. We all need to be happy that Ukraine is finally going to get the aid they so desperately need.
I also really hate to be critical of a Democrat, especially one like Chuck Schumer who has not only consistently managed to keep our slim majority united, but also to outmaneuver McConnell and the Republicans in numerous occasions. But I have to call’em as I see’em, and this time I think Chuck screwed up.
Mike Johnson, essentially took the original Senate bill and divided it up into four (4) separate bills to be voted on, on the House floor. One for Ukraine, one for Israel, one for Taiwan/ Indo-Pacific region and one for National Security measures (eg., TikTok). In doing so he did a tremendous favor to House Democrats, especially the Progressives. They could now vote against unconditional military aid to Israel without also having to vote against Ukraine aid. It allowed 100% of the House Democrats to vote their support for Ukraine (which they did) while allowing some Progressive Dems. to vote against unconditional military aid to Israel, so as to voice their opposition to Israel using US weapons to intentionally or not, kill thousands of Palestinians in Gaza. Democrats in the House were allowed to have their cake and eat it too. However, I would be remiss to give Mr. Johnson all the credit. A lot of it needs to go the Minority Leader (and Shadow Speaker) Hakeem Jeffries, who withheld Democratic votes until he got just the deal Democrats wanted.
But when Mike Johnson (and Jeffries) handed this gift of 4 separate bills over to Chuck Schumer in the Senate, the Majority Leader decided to put them into a single package for the Senate to vote on, depriving Progressives in the Senate the voting latitude afforded House Progressives.
Why?
I can only speculate. I suppose Schumer might say that he needed to get this through the Senate’s procedural maze as fast as possible due to the urgent need for the foreign aid, and 4 bills take longer than 1. However, the only real urgent need for aid was for Ukraine, and a single Ukraine only aid bill that passed in the House could have passed through the Senate just as fast if not faster than the Schumer package of bills.
So what would be the advantages of voting in 4 separate bills in the Senate instead of bundling them into a single vote?
- You would have almost certainly had 100% of the Senate Democrats voting for the Ukraine aid bill like we had in the House.
- Progressives in the Senate could have voted against the Israel aid bill without being falsely labeled as voting against Ukraine and Taiwan.
- An attempt could have been made to amend the Israel aid bill to put conditions on the aid without jeopardizing Ukraine aid. Conditions such as limiting military aid to defensive weapons or delaying offensive military aid until a ceasefire and allowing unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza or at least giving Biden the discretion of limiting aid to prevent starvation and genocide in Gaza. Granted such amendments might not have passed the Senate or in the House, but at least they would have gotten a vote and some support. But since Israel aid was linked to Ukraine aid, there was no stomach for amending the combined bill and possibly sending it back to the House, further delaying or dooming aid to Ukraine.
- But the biggest problem I have with the bundling of the bills is the message it sends to Netanyahu and his far right government allies. Biden and especially Schumer have blasted and issued multiple stern warnings to Netanyahu over his disgusting conduct of the war in Gaza and for laying siege to the civilian population there by restricting humanitarian aid to a trickle. But so far these words have not been backed up by deeds. Yesterday’s vote for unconditional military aid to Israel sent yet another signal to Netanyahu that despite all our warnings, the United States politicians will not act on them and will not in any way restrict military aid to Israel no matter what he does in Gaza. This might have been different if the bills for Israel and Ukraine were separate. While I still think Israel aid would have passed, there would have at least been a greater number of “no” votes maybe indicating to Bibi that he is losing US support for his cruel war.
Anyway, that’s how I see it.