Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a self-described “firebrand” and staunch and unyielding opponent of the Biden administration’s financial, material, and weapons support to Ukraine in its war with Russia, today filed a resolution to end all U.S. aid to Ukraine, while seeking and supporting a peace settlement between the combatant nations.
As the Department of Defense announced on Feb. 3, the United States since 2014 has committed more than $32 billion in “security assistance” to Ukraine,” with $30 billion of that aid pledged since the start of the Biden administration, and $29.3 billion “since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.”
Titled, “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution,” and co-sponsored by 10 House members, H. RES. cites the amount and levels of U.S. support, including that the nation is the “top contributor of military aid to Ukraine compared to its counterparts;” that the United States has “appropriated more than $110,000,000,000 of military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine;” and that “on February 3, 2023, the Department of Defense announced $2,000,000,000 in additional security assistance for Ukraine.”
The resolution includes itemization of weapons and material support, valued at $425 million, and $1.75 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative Funds.
Staunch and Consistent Opponent of Supporting Ukraine in its Fight With Russia
Gaetz has never been a friend of the policy to give U.S. resources to Ukraine to assist the country in its war with Russia.“Joe Biden, and even some who have taken this stage, say defending freedom in Ukraine has costs for America,” Gaetz said in a speech he delivered two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Why should Americans have to pay the costs for freedom elsewhere when our own leaders won’t stand up for our freedom here?”
Testifying on the House floor on Feb. 6, Gaetz compared threats to U.S. citizens posed by drug outlaws in Mexico to those of Russian soldiers, and, what he believes, is an overeagerness to back a conflict that does not present serious and imminent peril to the United States.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 21, 2022. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
“As the war slogs on in Ukraine, the benefits to Americans are unclear,' said Gaetz. “Bandits in the Sinaloa Mountains hurt more Americans than the men in Crimea. But foreigners come to Washington to lecture us about spending our constituents’ money on a conflict thousands of miles away, and my colleagues are eager to oblige.
“On this floor, [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s demands got bipartisan standing ovations, from most. Stingers, HIMARS, tanks. At first, we said no to all of these things. President Biden even said that some of these things might lead to World War III. And then ... we sent all of them.”
