Senate Republican blasts House for passing foreign aid bills: Spending money ‘we don’t have’

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blasted the House for passing foreign aid bills, arguing Congress is spending money that “we don’t have” and that the U.S. should be focusing on securing its own borders instead.

“We’re gonna further mortgage and plunder our children’s future, over $100 billion,” Johnson said during his Saturday morning appearance on NewsNation. “We spend close to $900 billion on defense, but every time there’s some kind of defense action seems like we need to do a supplemental. 

“I think the point that most of us have been making, most Americans believe that we ought to secure our own border before we spend over $100 billion that we don’t have under our children’s future on helping other people secure their borders,” he said.

Johnson’s remarks on “NewsNation Live” came just hours before the lower chamber officially approved a $95 billion foreign aid package after months of intense debate. The foreign aid package includes around $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza and other war-torn zones and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region. It also includes other national security measures, including a potential ban on TikTok. 

While Johnson said there is a great deal of “sympathy” for both Ukrainians defending their country against Russia’s invasion and Israel’s right to defend itself, he expressed concern about not being able to debate the aid in the Senate. 

“We’re not going to get a chance to debate that, we’re not going to be able to get a chance to debate the humanitarian aid that’s going to flow to Hamas,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said he is concerned about what is happening to people in Ukraine, but also added that there’s “no way” that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will lose the war. 

“My point on Ukraine has always been not always but certainly over the last year since this thing has turned into a bloody stalemate, a proxy war between the West and Russia,” Johnson said.

“So just throwing out $60 billion of fueling the flames of that bloody stalemate doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me,” he added later. 

The Wisconsin senator concluded that he would not support the package when the upper chamber takes it up. 

“So there’s an awful lot that is bad in these bills, just the way it’s being cobbled together here, I’m not gonna support it,” he said.