Senator Rand Paul has never been a “get along, go along” kind of senator. And when it comes to safeguarding the public purse, he’s one of the only members of Congress who truly gives a damn.
This puts him in direct conflict with the leadership of his own party who would much prefer the trillions of dollars in federal spending shoveled out the Capitol doors be accomplished with as little controversy as possible.
A good example is the billions of dollars we’re shipping off to Ukraine to help the little guys defend themselves against the big Russian bear. It’s an irresistible news story — war, tragedy, and pictures of weeping women and crying children — a made-for-TV morality tale of good versus evil.
Ukraine isn’t necessarily all good and Russia isn’t necessarily all evil. But nuance like that is impossible to portray in a minute-and-a-half news story, so we get the shortened version.
No matter. The question of where all that money — $40 billion and counting — is going remains.
Biden has proposed another $1 billion in lethal aid to Ukraine, adding on to the $40 billion approved in May. And there’s going to be plenty more where that came from.
When Senator Paul stopped Senate proceedings last May to see if an amendment could be added on oversight of where that money was going, you would have thought he spit on George Washington’s grave. The women! The orphans! The Brave Ukrainian fighters! (Even though some of them are almost certainly about as undemocratic as can be). How dare Senator Paul stand in the way of Ukraine’s fight for (sort of) freedom?
All Paul wanted to do was authorize an inspector general to keep track of the money and make sure it wasn’t going into the coffers of Zelenskyy cronies and Ukrainian oligarchs. It would be unseemly if a Ukrainian oligarch purchased a yacht at American taxpayer expense.
But both parties complained he was holding up the Ukraine gravy train and Congress eventually passed the $40 billion aid bill.
American officials told The Wall Street Journal that they have “little direct knowledge” of where equipment goes once it reaches the Ukrainian government. One military aid component of the May package, totaling $6 billion, is a transfer account that Congress doesn’t have strong control over. “The statutory language requires that [the Department of Defense] report to Congress 15 days before any transfers occur,” explains the Center for Strategic International Studies. “Congress could block such transfers, but that is difficult to do politically and procedurally.”
Oversight experts warn that issues surrounding transfers are inevitable. “Even if it’s a noble cause, there’s going to be theft. There’s going to be misconduct,” warned Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, whose office has uncovered rampant misuse of U.S. funds that took place during nation-building efforts in Afghanistan. “If there’s one thing we learned from Afghanistan, you’ve got to have oversight in the beginning.”
Perhaps the biggest concern going forward is that after five months of conflict in Ukraine and support by America for the Ukrainian government: what exactly are our goals in spending this money? Are we trying to defeat Russia? Humiliate them? Take territory like Crimea back from Russia? How about the territory in Eastern Ukraine seized by Russian proxy fighters?
How in God’s name is this war supposed to end?
The frightening fact is that we don’t know where U.S. policy is going in Ukraine. This is a recipe for cataclysmic disaster with nuclear-armed Russia being boxed into a corner courtesy of tens of billions of dollars in U.S. weapons and aid.
In eschewing proper debate over military aid to Ukraine, American lawmakers are opting out of an uncomfortable—but necessary—conversation. “If we ramp up arms supplies to Ukraine, which is already urgently calling for more, we should take into account that Russia may at some point treat us as a co-belligerent,” Menon points out. “Simply assuming that that would be a bridge too far for them would be a mistake.” U.S. politicians need to discuss the line not to be crossed before America is effectively acting as a co-combatant rather than allowing Russia to make that determination itself.
But there are no discussions on any lines that can’t be crossed or a reasonable end game for the war that would take into account Russia’s security concerns — real and imagined.
How many tens of billions of dollars were stolen, wasted, or misappropriated in Afghanistan and Iraq reconstruction? Congress seems poised to make exactly the same mistakes in Ukraine.