Biden Admin to Help Pay Down the Debt…. of Ukraine

“Biden administration allocates billions to pay down the budget deficit … in Ukraine.”

This sounds like a parody headline from the Babylon Bee, but it is actually a real thing that’s happening under President Joe Biden’s watch.

On Monday, the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, announced that it is sending an additional $4.5 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to Ukraine. And it’s not going to humanitarian aid or even weapons for fighting off Russia’s brutal invasion — debatable but at least understandable forms of U.S. aid — it’s going to reduce the Ukrainian government’s budget deficit.

Yes, seriously.

“The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in coordination with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is providing an additional $4.5 billion in direct budgetary support to the Government of Ukraine to help alleviate the acute budget deficit caused by Putin’s brutal war of aggression,” the agency said in its statement. “The Government of Ukraine will receive the funding in tranches, beginning with a $3 billion disbursement in August.”

“This contribution was made possible with generous bipartisan support from Congress,” USAID notes.

Yet as my BASEDPolitics colleague Jack Hunter pointed out, Congress is only being “generous” “with American taxpayer dollars … and/or money borrowed in our name.” How very kind and selfless of them!

Sen. Rand Paul rightfully mocked USAID for this announcement.

“WOW!” he wrote on Twitter. “The US government is actually trying to reduce the deficit!!?? Oh, wait, it’s for Ukraine, never mind. Business as usual with your [tax money].”

Keep in mind that the U.S. is $30.6 trillion in debt. That’s an astounding $243,797 per federal taxpayer. The national debt is now larger than what our entire economy produces in a year, a benchmark economists have historically viewed as a red flag.

And it’s only getting worse. We ran an astounding $2.77 trillion budget deficit in 2021, meaning that’s how much was added on to the debt last year, the second-highest ever.

Our shockingly high debt has drastic consequences for everyday people. We will soon have to fork trillions more over in taxes every year just to cover the interest. What’s more, the debt crowds out private sector investment, shrinking the economy and lowering incomes. And the massive deficit spending of the last two years has played a large role in fueling the inflation that’s bankrupting families right now.

This is all to say that we have our own budget problems to address.

The idea that we would send billions of our tax dollars halfway around the world to pay off another country’s debts while drowning in our own is farcical. The U.S. government is supposed to serve first and foremost the interests of the public.

We can and should have tremendous sympathy for the people of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is horrific and condemnable, leading to widespread bloodshed. One can even argue that we ought to support the Ukrainian people with humanitarian aid financially, although whether that ought to be up to private charitable efforts or forcibly done through taxation is still debatable as well.

But there’s simply no way to justify robbing people of billions during a recession and crushing inflation to pay off a foreign government’s bills. That this is happening under Biden’s watch is just another way his administration is putting America last.

Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a co-founder of Based-Politics.com, a co-host of the BasedPolitics podcast, and a Washington Examiner contributor.