Titular House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tells Punchbowl News a new aid package for Ukraine is “not going anywhere” after spending limits imposed by last week’s debt ceiling bill, saying it’ll have to come out of the Pentagon’s annual appropriations, setting up what’ll be an ugly fight with the Senate Republicans who actually give a shit about defending democracy abroad.
“The speaker will never convince me that 2% below actual inflation is fully funding the Defense Department… That cannot be the position of the Republican Party without some contest here. We’re playing a dangerous game with our national security. The bill [McCarthy] produced is inadequate to the threats we face. If the Republican speaker takes the position that we’re going to be tough on China… I don’t see how we do that with a declining Navy,” said Lindsey Graham.