The Senate’s $95.3 Billion Handout

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$60 billion for Ukraine… $14 billion for Israel…

$8 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific allies… $9.1 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Shovel in some sundry billions for sundry purposes… and the American taxpayer goes upon the hook for a $95.3 billion bill.

Here you have, in summary, the “emergency spending” bill passed Tuesday by the United States Senate.

And here you have, in summary, the imperatives of Imperial Washington.

“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin,” thundered the president, Biden.

“We can’t walk away now,” added the addled one.

Just so. Yet if “we” cannot walk away now… can we ever walk away?

It was easier to walk away yesterday than it is today. And it will be harder to walk away tomorrow than it is today.

Shall we walk our way into war with Russia because we cannot walk away today, tomorrow — or the tomorrow after that?

We would rather walk away.

The Good News

Yet we believe the great clash of powers will be delayed indefinitely.

We have observed that the United States only extends Ukraine the wherewithal to extend the bloodletting.

It has not extended Ukraine the wherewithal to win the war. Nor do we believe it will.

It does not wish to press Mr. Putin’s backward into a corner. That is because a cornered man is a dangerous man.

And the tighter the corner… the more dangerous the man.

We are told Vladimir is a very dangerous fellow as is. And a tightly cornered Vladimir?

Imagine it if you can.

Thus the United States endeavors to keep the show going along present lines — a plodding, Russia-sapping affair resulting in neither Russian defeat nor Russian victory.

And the longer the show runs, so much the better for the United States.

The United States government adopts a more neutral approach to the Gaza dispute.

It is, in one aspect at least, admirable.

It hands Israel the cudgel to batten the heads of Gazans.

It then hands Gazans the monies to meet their subsequent hospital expenses and — if required — their funeral expenses.

“History Settles Every Account”

“History settles every account,” exulted Addison Mitchell McConnell III, Senate minority leader.

“And today,” continued the senior senator from Kentucky, “on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”

It is fortunate — for the United States — that history has yet to settle its financial account.

The nation creaks and groans beneath $34.2 trillion of debt. It will never satisfy its creditors.

Meantime, annual budgetary deficits of $2 trillion or more are in prospect.

When will history settle the American budgetary account? No time soon, it is our sincere hope.

Secondly: Who will settle the American budgetary account?

The answer — to the extent the account can be settled at all — is the American taxpayer.

His signature must ultimately go upon the cheque.

It is he who undersigns “American leadership and strength.”

What is the collateral in back of the offering?

His labor.

Would he decline the present transaction if given a say?

We do not know. He was not handed a say.

Perhaps he believes in the Ukrainian cause, in the Israeli cause, in the humanitarian cause, in the Taiwanese cause, in the sundry cause.

Thus he may be hot to sign his name upon the $95.3 billion cheque issued yesterday by the United States Senate.

Yet then again… he may not be hot to sign his name upon the $95.3 billion cheque issued yesterday by the United States Senate.

Thus he is a man dragooned.

An American Jobs Bill

Yet Sen. McConnell would inform this no-sayer that he lacks the overall vision. That the foreign aid bill is in fact an American jobs bill.

The Associated Press:

Dollars provided by the legislation would purchase U.S.-made defense equipment, including munitions and air defense systems that authorities say are desperately needed as Russia batters the country…

About a third of the money allocated to supporting Ukraine actually will be spent replenishing the U.S. military with the weapons and equipment that are going to Kyiv. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly emphasized that point, saying in a statement Tuesday that the money is about “reaffirming a commitment to rebuild and modernize our military, restore our credibility and give the current commander in chief, as well as the next, more tools to secure our interests.”

Thus we might label the bill “The Military-Industrial Complex Jobs Act.”

And let the thing be dedicated to the 16-year-old Ukrainian conscript… or the 66-year-old Ukrainian conscript… who sacrifices his limbs or his life in distant killing fields… in order that American arms manufacturers may prosper.

Please sign it, Mr. President!

Right-Wing Keynesianism

We are heart and soul for the national defense. May the sword of the Republic be sharp!

(May it also be sheathed, we say — whenever possible.)

Yet as we are against left-wing Keynesianism, we are against right-wing Keynesianism.

We believe that neither butter, nor guns, are agents of economic salvation. Columnist Michael Lind:

The old Republican Party of Robert Taft and Dwight Eisenhower was a fiscally conservative party of Northeasterners and Midwesterners who favored balanced budgets and viewed foreign wars and military spending with suspicion; recall Eisenhower’s warning about the “military-industrial complex”…

In 1944, mostly military federal spending was 37.8% of GDP. If military spending works such wonders, why not devote 40% of the economy to it, and not just 6%? If military Keynesianism is considered such a success by conservatives, they can hardly balk at what the Prussian military, during World War I, called “war socialism.”

Good and Hard

The United States House of Representatives must approve the emergency spending bill under present consideration.

Speaker Michael Johnson is against it. He has stated he will not permit it onto the floor.

Yet do not misunderestimate the will of Imperial Washington.

There exists a parliamentary gimmick called a “discharge petition.”

Its employment would outflank Mr. Johnson… and bring the bill to a full House vote over his defiant objection.

Our spies inform us that certain senators are in active conspiracy with House members. They intend to effect the discharge petition.

We hazard it stands every prospect of success. We further hazard the House of Representatives — “The People’s House” — will pass it.

Thus the glories of American democracy are on rich display.

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want,” said Mencken…“and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Prepare to get it — good and hard.

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