The Senator from Kentucky recently endorsed the idea that war is actually stimulus, bomb someone half a world away to make more bombs here at home, perhaps the most cynical and reprehensible framing in decades. In doing so, he’s opposing the newly minted Speaker of the House and taking other unwarranted shots at his fellow Senators on a range of topics.
Once upon a time, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was a true master at leading his party in opposition. Between 2009 and 2017, Senator McConnell served as an aggressive and effective counterbalance to President Barack Obama and the recently ascendant Democrat Party, successfully fighting against new spending, judicial appointments, and other progressive policies. His leadership was essential to securing the first actual budget cuts in decades under the much maligned sequester and preserving the balance of power on the Supreme Court until President Donald Trump was elected. The minority is never a pleasant place to be in politics. A truly thankless job, where more often than not you win by making the other side lose and no one, from your core constituents to the mainstream media when the minority party is Republican, is ever truly happy. This doesn’t make the job any less important in the grand scheme of our Republic and the long term of our politics. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pulled his party from the ashes of ignominy by leveraging a unified Contract with America against President Bill Clinton, ultimately winning a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in decades and helping to propel Republicans into the Presidency in 2000. Senator McConnell himself was instrumental in energizing the Tea Party, opening the door for a Republican Presidential victory in 2016. After the victory, his parliamentary skills and commitment to conservative reform of the judiciary led to three Supreme Court appointments and the most appointments to the Federal courts in general in history. For this, conservatives should be grateful. Without him we might well have a different balance of power in the country, but that was then and this is now as they say. In the two and a half years since President Joe Biden took office, Senator McConnell appears to have lost his stomach for the fight for whatever reason (no, I do not necessarily believe it is health related) and perhaps nothing illustrates this sad turn of events more than comments made just this week on two completely different topics.
First, there was the issue of how to approach much needed aid for Israel, aid that is broadly supported by both parties and the American people after the worst attack on the Jewish people since World War II. This aid is being discussed alongside much more controversial funding for Ukraine after almost two years of war has led to a stalemate with no end in sight, only the promise of “as long as it takes” whatever that means. The White House wants a massive $100 billion plus spending bill that combines both together – and more – while Republicans in the House have proposed a much smaller, Israel-only package under newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson. The percentage allocated to each gives you a sense of the Administration’s priorities. Israel would receive a relatively measly $14.3 billion compared to $61.4 billion for Ukraine, on top of some $100 billion already spent. There would be an additional $13.6 billion for border protection, which many have seen as focused on increasing the speed of entry for the undocumented because it calls for more asylum officers and judges than for actual border patrol agents, along with $9.15 billion for “humanitarian” needs across Israel, Ukraine, and Gaza, which as I noted earlier this week, essentially means funding both sides of the conflict for the first time in history. After weeks of embarrassing disarray following the unfortunate ouster of former Speaker Mike McCarthy, Republicans in the House have finally elected a new leader and seem prepared to chart a course different than the President, as the opposition is supposed to do. They have proposed a stand-alone package of $14.3 billion in aid for Israel paid for by cutting planned spending increases for some 87,000 new IRS agents.
Politically, the proposal seems astute, especially for Republicans. Support for Israel is broadly popular; support for more IRS agents, not so much. Given these agents are on top of an already significant IRS budget and were proposed exclusively by the Biden Administration to capture more of our tax dollars than usual as part of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, it should be exceedingly obvious why Republicans would want to take aim at this unprecedented expansion purely on ideological and policy grounds. Republicans are the party generally opposed to more government and nothing says more government than more tax collectors complete with the power to jail you and in some cases, armed with weapons like storm troopers. Stopping this taxpayer money grab, which will necessarily target the middle class as the IRS spends three quarters of its man hours auditing those making less than a million per year despite Democrat claims to the contrary, while funding a critical ally makes perfect sense, at least to me. Senator McConnell, however, disagrees. “I just think that’s a mistake,” he said, effectively slamming newly minted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on his very first major initiative. He continued to bizarrely explain how Israel and Ukraine are interconnected, seemingly because President Biden said so given the countries are almost 2,000 miles apart, fighting two vastly different wars against two vastly different enemies. “I mean, I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different. I view it as all interconnected.” To put this in perspective Secretary of State Antony Blinken said much the same, in an obvious case of justifications being made up completely on the fly to support whatever policy they prefer. “The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have clear links. Since we cut off Russia’s traditional means of supplying its military, it’s turned more and more to Iran for assistance. In return, Moscow has supplied Iran with increasingly advanced military technology, which poses a threat to Israel’s security. Allowing Russia to prevail with Iran’s support will simply embolden both Moscow and Iran.” Setting aside the fact that no one in the Administration has actually named Iran as responsible for the attacks in Israel, and they continue to insist that even the missiles flying between the United States and Iran have absolutely nothing to do with Hamas, how come none of these geniuses saw this coming if these inks are so clear?
Regardless, Senator McConnell proceeded to tout the many benefits of a grueling, extended stalemate in Ukraine, one in which none of the promises of the establishment war machine has ever come to fruition, from crushing the Russian economy to the spring offensive that completely failed. The goal, as ever, appears to be simply sending a lot of money, more than Russia spends on its entire military, with no need for actual results of any measurable kind. “No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves — and also the notion that the Europeans are not doing enough,” he said. By any rational or historical standard, this is a rather twisted and unprecedented way of justifying military expenditures, one which to my knowledge has never been stated so bluntly (and incorrectly), claiming that money spent to fund a war somehow benefits the average person economically. You see, we’re not spending more and more money for less and less return half a world away in a regional conflict that can be readily resolved with a peace deal over contested territory, one that likely would not have occurred if a stronger President was in office. Instead, we’re “rebuilding our industrial base” and kicking ass, somehow. Stimulus? Who needs stimulus? We’ll just start a proxy war and make more bombs. Once again, these supposed benefits seem to be culled directly from White House talking points, eerily familiar to what the Administration is saying. The President himself put it this way in a statement a week earlier that could well have been written by the military industrial complex, “When we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpile with new equipment. Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona. Artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas. There’s so much more.” In that case, who needs infrastructure or COVID relief? Who knew we could replace it all in Ukraine and Israel? By this logic, we should encourage China to invade Taiwan and then we can really get the party started. Cynical doesn’t begin to capture this claim, attempting to build support for war by telling workers it will keep them employed. Reprehensible is closer to the truth, especially when you consider that any economic benefit is unlikely to be realized given the far more generalized impact on production, supply chains, and the overall global economy has driven worldwide prices to stratospheric levels and stifled growth. When the war in Ukraine first began, in fact, we were soberly informed that Ukraine was the “breadbasket of Europe” and people would starve as a result with massive impacts on food prices. The sanctions on Russian oil were likely to increase the cost of energy and shock the global economy, but suddenly after two years of failure it’s rebranded as an economic plus, rebuilding our manufacturing base, and even supposedly leading Republicans agree.
Incredibly, Senator McConnell wasn’t done trampling over members of his own party on what should normally be another pretty straightforward Republican issue. He also took aim at Senator Tommy Tuberville, who has been exercising his power since February to stall the mass promotions of military officers until the Biden Administration changes what he sees as a pro-abortion policy that provides reimbursement of expenses to members of the armed forces who travel out of state for “reproductive care.” Individual promotions can still be debated and moved forward when necessary, allowing President Biden to fill any truly necessary promotions, but hundreds cannot be approved at once while the hold is in place. President Biden himself could rescind the pro-abortion policy at any time to move these forward. He has chosen not to, resulting in an eight month stalemate of sorts. Given the Republican party’s traditional pro-life position and pro-life voters making up a large percentage of their constituents, one might think Senator Tuberville’s stand would be popular within the party, especially when critical nominations can move forward or the President could reverse course. Also considering Senator McConnell’s own obvious parliamentary skills and mastery of the rules of the Senate, one might think he would be impressed by the creative exercise of power alone. One would be wrong on both counts, however. He rather strenuously disagrees with Senator Tuberville and he said so once more this week. “I’m sure you remember that I said this was a bad idea quite a while ago. I still think it’s a bad idea, particularly applied to people who don’t make policy. So, I have been among those trying to convince Sen. Tuberville to express his opposition some other way,” he said without specifying how that way could have the same impact. Later, he referred to his fellow Republican as being against “war heroes.” Not surprisingly, Democrats have been saying much the same thing, railing against Senator Tuberville for months. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently described the holds as “extremely risky” and “playing politics,” blaming Senator Tuberville for provoking an “emergency” after a general recently suffered a heart attack. Of course, he can bring any nomination he wants to the floor at any time, or he could urge President Biden to change course. Instead, he attacks Senator Tuberville along with Mitch McConnell.
What’s the old expression about friends like these? I know I’ve used it before, but this time Senator McConnell has simply gone too far to recover in my mind. The Republican hold on power in the House of Representatives is tenuous at best, after looking like fools for three weeks. To vocally oppose the new Speaker with Biden Administration talking points is the classic bridge too far. We can thank Senator McConnell for his service, but he needs to go fast.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 