Op-Ed: Crapo, Fulcher, Say ‘No’ to Ukraine Aid
By Chuck Malloy • June 6, 2022The following Op-Ed was submitted by Chuck Malloy. Note: Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
During their 13 years serving together in Washington, you probably can count on one hand the number of times that Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch canceled out one another with votes – and not use all five fingers.
The exceptions, says Crapo – Idaho’s senior senator – is when there is justification for voting both ways. Such was the case with the recent vote on the $40 billion aid package to Ukraine. Risch, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, voted for it (not surprisingly). Crapo, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, voted against.
On the House side, Rep. Mike Simpson voted for, and Rep. Russ Fulcher voted against. It’s not as unusual for them to cast opposing votes. Simpson is obligated to vote for some spending bills as a senior member of Appropriations. Fulcher, as a staunch conservative, has no such obligation.
All four say they stand solidly behind Ukraine’s effort to curtain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vicious assaults to the country, although their approaches are different.
Crapo thinks the $40 million aid should be offset with reductions somewhere else in the budget.
“We need to send a message to the administration that it can’t expect Congress will pass legislation without being fiscally responsible,” Crapo told me. “We are going to be seeing other bills calling on us to spend hundreds of billions of dollars. The administration is using certain threats to justify big-spending bills and (Democrats) don’t seem to care about the fiscal policy of the administration.”
A $40 billion reduction would be simple, Crapo said. It could be taken from the $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package that Congress approved. It could be a matter of “repurposing” the money approved for the infrastructure bill that both Crapo and Risch voted for.
“That said, I fully understand Sen. Risch’s vote,” Crapo said. “Additional debt can be allowed in the interest of national security, and in this case, there is a national-security justification for voting for additional debt. I felt we needed to put the line down and say we needed to offset the spending.”
Simpson, in a statement from his office, gave reasons for going in a different direction. He supported the aid package “in order to help Ukraine defend itself against the unconscionable Russian aggression to show China, Iran and North Korea that the U.S.’ security partnerships remain strong. Republicans fought to keep unrelated matters (such as COVID-19, or immigration provisions) out of this bill and focus on the real issue at hand – such as supporting democracy in Europe while keeping our troops out of the conflict.”
Fulcher had multiple reasons for voting against the aid, starting with the way it was presented to the House. As he told me, it was another one of those bills – hundreds of pages long – that came to the floor with just a few hours of notice. Members had little time to study the contents.
“If you are going to present something like this, and not give me a chance to review it, you can pretty much understand that my default is to vote no,” he said.
Also, Fulcher said, the U.S. has provided $100 billion in aid, and not all of that money has been spent.
“We’re trying to get the Ukrainian military trained on what we sent to them – equipment that they don’t know how to use,” he said. “We can’t willy-nilly ship resources without watching where it goes, because they will misuse it. There are too many red flags. It was the right decision for me.”
As with other Republicans, Fulcher also had reservations about the administration’s policies on Ukraine. “I have walked out of briefings wondering where in the world we are trying to take this. Do we even know? Do we have an objective, or series of objectives? My confidence in our leadership is very low, and that lack of confidence extends to Taiwan. We’ll be talking about that more in the future.”
The argument from the other side, of course, is that $40 billion is a bargain if it keeps Russian forces at bay and U.S. troops out of the conflict.
There’s no definitive “right” or “wrong” with our delegation’s split votes – but shades of gray attached to the issue. Over time, there may be more clarity over who was on the correct side.
ctmalloy@outlook. Chuck Malloy is a long-time Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com
Tags: Chuck Malloy, Jim Risch, Mike Crapo, Mike Simpson, Russ Fulcher, Ukraine, Vladamir Puting
16 thoughts on “Op-Ed: Crapo, Fulcher, Say ‘No’ to Ukraine Aid”
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Malloy, you probably should question if the US is on the right side of history on this one.
There is probable cause to suspect the nazi globalists, tainted NATO elite and some of our own very corrupt politicians and their sons have boxed us into a needless war.
Spot on. What most people don’t know is that Ukraine has been the #1 most corrupt nation on the planet (according to the FBI and CIA) ever since its divorce from the USSR. That’s saying something.
It’s also non-coincidental that many Democrats have spent a significant amount of time there, and not just the Bidens.
Our politicians , government employees ,the military , the welfare class and foreign aid have bankrupted this nation
No more money to Ukraine! Disgusting laundering scheme that half of you have bought into just as you took the deadly covid shots. Pure idiocy. I hope they continue to vote NO.
@Idaho Seven – I think you mean Bolshevik globalists. The NSDAP were not globalists – they were the antithesis of globlaists, however you wish to look at it. They kicked out the banksters like the Rothschilds – which is why they were attacked.
Ukraine and Russia are a dog and pony show – bread and circuses – more death and slaughter of brothers, paid for by the same “globalists” from over 100 years ago – who gave the world the Holodomor.
FolkeneMine,
If you would add a few simple, easy to understand links to this. This information needs to be in front of The People again to remind us.
Sheriff Doug Traubel also had a comment/op-ed in the Idaho Dispatch just before the primary election.
It’s interesting how the whole damn world gets worked up when a country decides to protect it’s people from getting bombed. None of these people should be let off the hook on any of these decisions.
These so called representatives have no problem with sanctioning Russia when the people of Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation, after the coup that took place in 2014 by the same murderers that are in power today. That haven’t said anything about the 14,000 people that have been killed by the Ukraine government over the last 8 years. They haven’t said anything about the Minsk agreement and how it has been thrown in the garbage.
To say this is “aid” is extremely insulting. It is nothing more than money laundering and thousands more people will die because of it.
Go ahead and call it national security, any excuse works.
Just more evidence of the agenda at play and who is participating.
Just more Republicans wrapping themselves in a flag and talking non stop about freedom and democracy and saying how much they love God and Jesus. While at the same time teaming up with people that kill their own people, outlaw languages, imprison political rivals and. No wonder we are so screwed at home.
They are all Red Coat’s
The Republicans are the other democrat party and owned by the same lobby money. We keep reelecting them.
What is happening to the average Ukrainian or anyone else being harmed by this war is horrible but we have our own personal war that needs to be financed. Our southern border is a war zone. Actual terrorists are freely crossing over into our country on a regular basis. We need to be taking care of our own before we set up a money laundering scheme for politicians.
Congress allowed President Biden to leave over 80 billion of military equipment in Afghanistan and now we are going to give 40 billion to Ukraine. Where is the sanity of our representatives when we need it. Crapo justifies Risch’s vote by saying it is in the interest of national security. We need to get rid of Crapo, Risch and Simpson. The only sane representative we have left is Fulcher.
Perfect post.
Yep
The idiot I duh hoans keep reelecting the incumbents.
They all should have voted NO. Every time the US government shysters come up with a new aid package, all they are doing is transferring all of our wealth into there pockets. Until we as the Republic of the United States of America are no more.
$40 BILLION not million.
The entire Ukrainian mess was sparked by Obama et al back in 2012 and on, when we meddled in their affairs and fanned the flames of another Soros Color Revolution and civil war. The results were highly predictable…..a war!
And now the world suffers from the fact that Ukraine is a primary supplier of food goods, that the Globalists manipulate for their NWO agenda of chaos and destruction.