US Senate advances $95 bln Ukraine, Israel aid bill after failed border deal

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 130 points –
reuters.com

A $95.34 billion bill that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan advanced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday after Republicans blocked compromise legislation that included a long-sought overhaul of immigration policy.

Senators backed a procedural motion by 67-32, exceeding the 60-vote threshold to advance the bill. Seventeen Republicans voted in favor, in a surprising shift after they blocked the broader bill on Wednesday.

"This is a good first step. This bill is essential for our national security, for the security of our friends in Ukraine, in Israel, for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and for Taiwan," Schumer said in the Senate after the vote.

There was no immediate word on when the 100-member chamber would consider final passage, as some senators said they expected to remain in session during the weekend if necessary.

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Senators backed a procedural motion by 67-32, exceeding the 60-vote threshold to advance the bill. Seventeen Republicans voted in favor, in a surprising shift after they blocked the broader bill on Wednesday.

Please let this pass. Ukraine needs our support.

I wish. The House won't even take this up.

It only takes one GOP rep to threaten a vote of no-confidence anymore, right? Might be enough to make Mike Johnson fold and allow the vote.

Stop giving money to fucking Israel, what the fuck is wrong with you people

So tired of every good thing in this country being bound to horrible things.

Wanna help Ukraine? Fund a genocide and let Texas murder refugees.

More money for Israel! Go team! USA! USA!

I don't really feel that way, but clearly nuance is dead, so what the hell, right?

The narrative of this is just bonkers. They've stripped out the thing they want the most, because that thing might help accomplish things they want, and accomplishing things they want would make the guy who threatened their lives less likely to win.

Because when you find a good villain to rile your base against, you don't let them go essily. Its why republicans can't let the border problem be solved, it's why Hillary helped fund Trump, and it's why Netanyahu funded Hamas.

Seventeen Republicans voted in favor, in a surprising shift after they blocked the broader bill on Wednesday.

Pretty clear that Republicans have never really cared about the border and just like using it to rile up their base.

I would really like for this to finally be a thing. Has been stalled out for months.

Though, the fact that it is the Senate advancing it and not the House is not particularly uplifting. The problem has been in the House.

Wait. Is this similar to the bill the republicans recently put forth and shut down, but just without all of the immigration and border stuff? And the GOP helped advanc this one?

Yup.

But he said he had Republican colleagues who believed lies they read on social media rather than the text of the bill itself.

The current state of right wing America in a nutshell.

Turns out, when you fearmonger and foster lies among the populace of things you know aren't true just to get elected, you eventually empower people who don't know you were lying.

Republicans are SO GOOD at doing their own Research that they believe Cat Turd on Facebook over the LITERAL TEXT OF THE BILL!

“This is a good first step. This bill is essential for our national security, for the security of our friends in Ukraine, in Israel, for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and for Taiwan,” Schumer said in the Senate after the vote.

Wait... enhance.

"This bill is essential for our national security, for the security of our friends in Ukraine, in Israel, for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza, and for Taiwan"

Enhance

"in Israel, for humanitarian aid for innocent civilians in Gaza"

Dear sweet fucking jesus. It is Israel that is killing innocents in Gaza. What kind of mental gymnastics make this statement coherent? You are funding Israel, Israel is creating the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza. The absolute cognitive dissonance and lies.

Separately, the bill contains provisions for $9.15 billion in humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, amongst other places.

Which itself is absurd, but in a slightly different way.

Why is that absurd?

Shipping aid that is actively being destroyed by the Israelis is... an interesting way to piss away money.

true but the govt routinely pisses away way more money just to say they sorta tried to do something good… recall how the phone companies were supposed to run fiber internet all over the US

So when I have a lynching problem in the south, if I give 9 billion to the KKK, but give .15 billion for neosporin to rope-burn victims in the south, I am endorsing a first step worth taking?

Fuck Shumaker, and the rest of the Fed.

Too little too late.

The bill authors are fully aware. It's not cognitive dissonance, it's just lying.