Senate GOP divided over Speaker Johnson’s Israel gambit

Senate Republicans are battling among themselves over what to do with Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) proposal to package $14.3 billion in aid for Israel with an equal cut to the IRS’s budget, and with no additional money for Ukraine.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies want the Israel and Ukraine money packaged together, which has led to accusations they are undermining Johnson from Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Democrats oppose the cuts to the IRS funding. They argue it will raise the deficit and that it politicizes aid to U.S. allies fighting enemy threats.

And both parties are battling amid rising tensions across the country that came to Congress on Tuesday in the form of protests during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The demonstrators, holding red-stained hands in the air to protest the deaths of Palestinian civilians from Israeli air and ground strikes, are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.  

Political fighting over providing military aid to Israel has been particularly intense among Republicans.

Paul warned Tuesday that McConnell’s effort to combine the Israel and Ukraine money is “very unpopular in Kentucky” and would either fail or “bring down the Speaker.” 

He urged the Senate to “take up exactly what the House passes” and called McConnell’s position “mistaken.” 

A poll released by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in early October showed that 50 percent of Republican adults support sending additional military aid to Ukraine — an 18 percentage point drop in support compared with July 2022. 

Sen. Johnson said he will urge fellow Senate Republicans to block an emergency defense spending package that includes money for Ukraine as well as Israel. 

“We need to support Speaker Johnson and not undermine him,” he told The Hill. 

“Why would we hold up aid to Israel with a desire to load it up with other, more controversial items? It makes no sense whatsoever. [Senate] Republicans ought to recognize that fact, recognize that reality and support our new Speaker and not undermine him,” Johnson said. 

McConnell and his allies, however, worry that moving Israel money without assistance for Ukraine may jeopardize Kyiv’s efforts to win the war against Russia.  

They argue that Hamas’s attacks against Israeli civilians and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are part of a larger threat against America’s global influence.  

“Conceptually, conceptually, Sen. Schumer and I are in the same place in the sense that we view all of these problems as connected,” McConnell told reporters at his weekly press conference, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). 

“Ukraine is part of it. Obviously, Israel enjoys overwhelming support, but we think it’s also important we have a part related to Asia, and that’s Taiwan,” he said, adding that border security also needs to be part of the package.  

The Senate GOP leader said that ultimately Schumer, who controls the Senate agenda, will decide what kind of a package will come to the floor.  

“I’m just speaking for myself. I think we need to address all four of those areas in a credible way,” he said.  

McConnell acknowledged that Speaker Johnson’s preference to move the Israel money on its own is “an opinion many people have,” but he noted that the House bill would have to pass both chambers and get President Biden’s signature to become law.  

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a leading Senate Republican defense hawk, backs McConnell’s approach. 

“Hamas was just hosted by the Russians in Moscow, so I think breaking them out sends the wrong signal,” he said. “We all want to help Israel, but we’ve got to also do Russia and Ukraine, and we got to deal with our borders. I think keeping the stuff together will probably be the Senate position.” 

Senate Republicans are still negotiating among themselves over what immigration policy reforms they will demand be included in the package.  

Any changes to asylum policy would be a major sticking point, as the Biden administration and Senate Democrats say they would prefer to instead provide more resources to handle the surge of migrants at the border. 

Senate Republicans will get a chance to meet the new Speaker on Wednesday when he is scheduled to speak at the Senate Steering Committee lunch.  

It’s becoming clear, however, that Johnson’s proposal has no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. Schumer slammed the Speaker’s proposal to fund just Israel’s needs as “woefully inadequate.”  

He said he was “deeply disappointed” by Johnson’s first major legislative action as Speaker and called the House Republican proposal to pay for military aid for Israel by cutting the IRS’s budget a non-starter.  

“This poison pill increases the deficit,” he declared. “Their price for helping Israel and abandoning America’s responsibilities around the globe? Making it much easier for the ultrarich to cheat on their taxes. How the heck can that be their highest priority?” 

Schumer said he would not support offsetting any of the bill’s cost with other spending cuts. 

“Emergency foreign aid should not be offset,” he said bluntly. 

Schumer faces tensions within his own party about the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion.  

At least two of the protesters who were hauled by police out of the Appropriations Committee’s hearing room during Blinken’s remarks wore Code Pink insignias.  

At one point, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) suspended the hearing to say she appreciated that people feel passionately about the issue but urged them to respect the witnesses and senators and allow the testimony to proceed. 

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has led calls in the Senate for Israel to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, warning on the floor last week that “revenge … is not a useful policy.” 

“Killing innocent Palestinian women and children in Gaza will not bring back to life the innocent Israeli women and children who have been killed. It will only make a terrible situation even worse and more intractable,” he said.  

Asked about criticism of Israel’s military tactics from progressives and the calls for a cease-fire, Schumer told reporters Tuesday that Israel must find a way to protect itself while minimizing civilian casualties. 

“There are three goals that Israel must have: to radically reduce the threat of Hamas, to save the hostages and to minimize innocent civilian casualties,” he said.