McCarthy Promises “No Blank Check” for Ukraine Under Republican Majority

Kevin McCarthy decided to touch what some pundits have, until now, considered a new “third rail” in American politics yesterday. During an interview with Punchbowl News, the man who is considered to be in line to be the next Speaker if the GOP takes back the House in November said that there wasn’t going to be a “blank check” for limitless aid to Ukraine if the GOP is in charge. He didn’t threaten to abandon Ukraine entirely, of course, but he pointed out that Americans are dealing with record inflation and rising prices that have wiped out any income increases they may have seen over the past year or two. Under those conditions, limits to how much money we flush into the proxy war with Russia must be considered. You can expect to hear the wails about how he’s willing to abandon the poor Ukrainian people to Vladimir Putin starting this morning. (Associated Press)

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy warned Tuesday that Republicans will not write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they win back the House majority, reflecting his party’s growing skepticism about financial support for Kyiv as it battles Russia’s invasion.

“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check.”

The comments from McCarthy, who is in line to become speaker if Republicans win the House, raised fresh questions about the resiliency of America’s support for Ukraine as a growing number of Republicans, particularly those aligned with Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, question the need for federal spending abroad at a time of record-high inflation at home.

I have to wonder exactly how upset any significant voting block in America is going to be if we start cutting back on the limitless flow of cash and weapons systems to Ukraine while asking other countries to pick up a larger share of the burden. A quick look at the Ukraine Support Tracker will show you the incredible disparity in the numbers. The United States is the mule that has been doing nearly all of the lifting in this effort and nobody else is even close.

Ukraine Support Tracker

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about direct military aid, humanitarian relief, or just plain old cash. The United States has given more than three times the total amount contributed by the entire European Union combined. Some of the countries with the lowest levels of contributions (such as France, Italy, and Japan) have restricted their contributions to strictly humanitarian aid, not wishing to provoke the Russian bear while the United States is fighting what amounts to a proxy war against the Kremlin.

And speaking of that proxy war, the concerns being registered by Americans are not limited to the amount of cash we’re flushing into this endeavor while people are facing economic hardships at home. More and more mainstream media outlets have recently

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