(The Center Square) – U.S. House Republicans voted Thursday to pass a $14.3 billion spending measure to send funds to Israel in its war against Hamas. Most of those funds are meant for Israel’s military.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., backed the measure in his most controversial and bold move yet, pushing back against the White House’s plan to bundle Israel and Ukraine funding together, which is notable since support for Ukraine has continued to wane among Republicans. The legislation includes a cut of $14.3 billion from the Internal Revenue Service to offset the Israel spending.
The vote comes the same day that President Joe Biden called for a “pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas “to get the prisoners out.” Biden has made clear he supports Israel and its right to defend itself.
The bill’s cut of IRS funding directly goes against Biden’s legislative win in the Inflation Reduction Act, namely an $80 billion increase in the IRS’ budget to increase enforcement.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., already blasted the House spending measure on the Senate floor, calling it a “totally unserious and woefully inadequate package.”
Johnson, though, has pushed for voting on Israel as a standalone issue, something many conservative lawmakers would like to see more of but something that is uncommon in either chamber.
The White House said Biden will veto it if it were to come to his desk.
Last month, Biden proposed more than $100 billion in a spending package for Israel, Ukraine and more, coupling support for the two nations into one request.
According to the White House, Biden’s funding request includes $61 billion for Ukraine in its war against Russia, roughly $14 billion for Israel, and about $14 billion for U.S. immigration problems.
The House spending measure passed Thursday says it will pay for the Israel funding by cutting spending on the IRS. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office scored the legislation, reporting that because of lower IRS revenue collection over the next decade because of those proposed cuts, the measure would actually add $26.7 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years.
Congress also faces a looming partial government shutdown in the middle of November, though Johnson has said he is willing to put forward a temporary measure to fund the government into next year to buy more time for the standard appropriations process.
Every program Congress approves should stand alone or fall all together by the weight of its actual need and individual merits, with no political perks included or horse trading like in the previous established ( A nickel is a nickel and a dime is a dime, I’ll approve your party taxpayer theft if you approve mine) where our strong, now overfed American Stallions all founder in a diet way too rich in unnecessary wasteful funding. More dollars have been wasted in mindless social woke programs attached to critical bills, that if left to stand alone would never pass the voting people’s scrutiny, but when passed do enrich our kickback political crime families who leave office 100 times richer than all the federal salaries they were ever paid. The devil is in the deceptions of hiding needless spending by blackmailing critical programs that won’t get passed until the hidden graft, the skim, and the kickbacks are built in, with the naming of the programs of course , like “Affordable healthcare”, always resulting in the opposite delivery of what their attached doublespeak names promise. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop and Congress needs to get to work and examine and pass each stand-alone bill based on merit and return on investment alone. No more last minute 25,000 page bills which never get read and corruption never found out.
Apparently AMERICAN human lives have more value, according to where these American lives are and whether Hamas is holding these AMERICANS HOSTIAGE or not, I always thought all human lives were equal.
sotheseedsofliberty2 – “I always thought all human lives were equal.”
* They are, but only to God.
* To man kind they are not.
* To Democrats lives are only valued if they benefit the Democrat Party or can be used to benefit the Democrat Party.
SINCE WE ARE AMERICANS and this money is OUR MONEY< OF course, OUR LIVES matter more…
senate and joey can veto it, but you see the House writes the checks, so go ahead veto it, and you will then get NOTHING…….
I truly wish that it worked that way.
LET THE biden and SENATE block it, THEN THEY CAN ANSWER to the voters for WHY ISRAEL IS ON ITS OWN.