October 20, 2023
$106 billion!
That’s how much money President Biden just requested from Congress to fund several things – including military aid for Ukraine and Israel, funding for our own southern border, humanitarian aid and money for the Indo-Pacific and Taiwan. I’m going to explain each of those things in a second – but first…
You have to understand – two things. One — this is called a “supplemental budget request.” Every president sends these to Congress….certainly – they’re not always this large – but they all do it. And two — it’s a request. In the end – because of the constitution of the United States – the dollar amount and how those dollars are spent is solely up to congress. It’s that simple. Zero dollars will leave this country unless Congress approves it.
And don’t get it twisted – Congress is going to approve something. Eventually. Maybe it won’t be $106 billion but it’s going to be something significant. The fact is – majorities of both the Republican party and Democrat party in Congress support funding for all of the items I just listed. And as I have reported repeatedly, when military funding – specifically is approved, it’s not like the US shows up in a country, backs up a brinks truck and unloads tons of cash. No. The funding goes to the US Defense Department and pentagon which then sends weapons from our stockpiles to those countries and then uses the money to buy more US made weapons. In fact – of the $106 billion requested, more than $50 billion is going to our own Pentagon.
One more critically important thing I want you to understand before I talk about the specific numbers the President is requesting. Just because some dollar amount of money is going to be approved for all these different issues – doesn’t mean it’s taking money away from “help” for you. You have to understand – it’s not either or. It’s and. Funding for these issues and funding for the homeland. Lastly you have to remember it’s up to Congress to decide how to “help” the American people. So whatever “helpful” item is important to you – whether it’s student loan forgiveness, or an expanded child tax credit or healthcare – whatever it is – it’s up to Congress to give that to you. No one else. So you need to contact your lawmaker and demand – in a respectful way – that he or she pays attention to your needs.
Now – let’s talk about this supplemental budget request and exactly what’s in it.
The president is asking for about $61 billion for Ukraine military aid. According to the request – that would be used throughout all 2024.
He’s asking for $14 billion for Israel’s military defense especially to resupply Iron Dome.
$10 billion would be humanitarian aid
$14 billion would be for border security here in the United States. That money would be used to add 1300 more border patrol agents, on top of the more than 20,000 who are already funded for 2024. It would add 375 new immigration “judge teams” to process the migrants’ cases that have been backing up. It would add 16-hundred asylum officers to process those claims, add 1-thousand customs and border protection officers to focus specifically on fentanyl and money to purchase new equipment and cutting-edge technology to monitor the activities of cartels.
And $7 billion would go to the Indo-Pacific. This money would do several things including helping our allies like Taiwan build the capabilities necessary to address the threats from adversaries like China.
Lastly – the President says he’s also going to send over *another* revised supplemental budget request on top of this one to do several things in this country. Like adding money for FEMA to address the natural disasters like the Maui wildfire, like the hurricane damage in Florida and the devastating floods in the east. It would also include additional funds for the WIC nutrition program for mothers and babies and money to refund child care programs to keep the costs down for low income working parents and the child care centers that serve them.
Of course – none of this can go anywhere until there’s a Speaker of the House.
Read more from the White House here.
Read the full Supplemental Budget Request here.
