Biden and Congress owe us a debate about Ukraine

President Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

The United States took another step toward entering the Ukraine war Tuesday night. In a 368-57 vote, the House of Representatives approved an additional $40 billion in aid for the embattled nation. Combined with a $13.6 billion package signed yesterday but passed several weeks ago, that's more than $50 billion in just a few months.

Even for the federal government, $50 billion is a significant amount of money. By comparison, it's over half the annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, Congress beefed up the appropriation by more than $7 billion over the Biden administration's original request. The result will make Ukraine the largest recipient of U.S. aid this year by a factor of ten.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.