When Russian President Vladimir Putin rolled his army across the border and started an aggressive war against neighboring Ukraine, he accomplished something no one thought possible. He immediately united opposing factions in Europe against this war crime and the dozens of war crimes and atrocities Russian soldiers have been committing in Ukraine since their arrival.
Putin also united nearly all American voters, including those few who had doubted Putin’s perfidy up to the very moment of the invasion, behind the idea that he was clearly in the wrong and Ukraine in the right.
The United States now intends to appropriate an additional $12 billion to help Ukraine in its hour of need. Given the broad bipartisan support and the urgency of the situation, the obvious course of action is to bring Ukraine aid legislation to the floor and vote on it immediately. Unfortunately, the Democratic majority has so far insisted on tying funding for Ukraine to a controversial omnibus spending bill that contains, among other things, tens of billions in unnecessary funding for a COVID pandemic that President Joe Biden has already claimed to have defeated.
The Russia-Ukraine war should not be viewed as an opportunity for anyone to get extraneous items through Congress that they would not be able to move otherwise. But even beyond that, it should not be subjected to any delay by the typical squabbles that occur in all budget bills. The Washington modus operandi of taking essential measures hostage and using them as leverage for other goals must be set aside in this specific case given that millions of refugees are on the move and civilians are dying every day. A Ukraine aid bill should serve as one of those rare opportunities for bipartisan unity that everybody in Washington is always pretending to want.
It should be added, as a useful rule of thumb, that spending items not part of the normal budget should be dealt with separately from the normal budget process. Even in the best of times, one-time windfalls and one-time emergency expenditures should be treated differently from regular monthly expenses — as any household budgeteer can explain.
Voters understand what is at stake here. Democrats, with their extremely narrow majority, do not have the political leeway to behave cynically — to take advantage of Ukrainians’ sufferings in order to flex their political muscles on unrelated domestic squabbles. Yes, fine — have those fights, if you must. But have them later. For now, just act like grown-ups and pass the aid bill. Maybe voters will change their minds and decide that you were fit to govern in the first place.
But beyond these practical considerations, it would simply be immoral to allow political jockeying to interfere with the immediate provision of necessary aid to Ukrainians, their refugees, and their war effort.
Enough with the typical partisan brinkmanship tactics. Enough of the political footballs. Just this once, pass funding for Ukraine — clean and simple, unencumbered.
Then, feel free to tear each other’s heads off over whatever domestic spending issues remain.
