A breakdown of how much of Joe Biden's $100billion aid package is heading to back Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan amid worldwide strife
A breakdown of how much of Joe Biden's $100billion aid package is heading to back Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan amid worldwide strife
Biden, 80, addressed the American people on Thursday night from the Oval Office and urged lawmakers to pass the spending package
DAILY MAIL
KAMAL SULTAN
OCT 20, 2023
Plans for President Joe Biden's funding request will see $60billion given to Ukraine and $14billion for Israel, according to a source familiar with the plan
Another $10billion has been earmarked for humanitarian aid and $7billion for the Indo-Pacific region, including to bolster Taiwan
Biden, 80, addressed the American people on Thursday night from the Oval Office and urged lawmakers to pass the spending package
$60billion of President Joe Biden's proposed $100billion aid package will go to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, with a further $14billion earmarked for Israel as it prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza.
A further $14billion is allocated to border security, $10billion to humanitarian aid and $7billion for the Indo-Pacific region, including to bolster Taiwan.
Biden, 80, addressed the American people on Thursday night from the Oval Office and urged Congress to pass the spending package.
The proposal is already being met with resistance by Congressional Republicans who are wary of giving any new money to Ukraine and do not want different funding to be grouped together.
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Top Republicans are said to be plotting how to hold up President Biden's supplemental funding ask - saying there's no path forward if Israel, Ukraine and southern border aid are tied together.
On Thursday, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall wrote a letter, which was signed by seven additional GOP Senate colleagues, demanding that Israel and Ukraine aid be debated separately.
The eight senators said that Biden is 'risking a government shutdown' by tying the aid packages together.
'My colleagues and I firmly believe that any aid to Israel should not be used as leverage to send tens of billions more dollars to Ukraine.
'These are two separate conflicts at different stages and cannot be considered as a "package deal,"' wrote Marshall.
The administration has signaled it will include both border money and border policy provisions, not all of which will be welcome among Senate Republicans who will be critical to passage.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said this week Republicans want the package to include 'something serious' for the border.
The package, which would provide a year's worth of American funding at a time of global turmoil, would also bolster Taiwan as it seeks to stave off a feared invasion from China.
The president tied the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel together during his speech and pleaded 'we can't let terrorists like Hamas and Putin win.'
He noted that Iran was providing military support to both Russia and the terrorist group.
Seated at the Resolute Desk, Biden argued in his 15-minute address that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the terror group Hamas, responsible for the bloody October 7 on Israel 'represent different threats' but share a common goal.
'They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,' he said.
'American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us – America – safe.
'American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with.
'To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, we turn our backs on Israel – it's just not worth it.'
Biden also said Putin's 'appetite for power and control' means he won't 'limit himself to Ukraine,' which could spill into a conflict where NATO countries are involved.
If that happens, Biden warned, 'we'll have something that we do not seek.'
'We do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia, or fighting against Russia,' he said.
The president told family members of the hostages abducted by Hamas in Israel during the October 7 terror attack that 'we're pursuing every avenue to bring their loved ones home.'
'As president, there is no higher priority for me than the safety of Americans held hostage,' he said.
'The terrorist of Hamas unleashed pure unadulterated evil in the world that sadly the Jewish people know perhaps better than anyone that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others.'
Biden also pushed for foreign aid to get into Gaza where Palestinian civilians are suffering while the Hamas terrorist group fires rockets at Israel.
Biden's funding request comes at a moment when half of Congress is in chaos.
The House has been without a speaker since October 3, when Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the top job.