Ukraine has been begging America for billions of dollars since its war with Russia started and Washington has been more than happy to fork it over by the truckloads as a means to weaken Putin, but as it turns out, our money has been enriching Ukraine, not just helping it fight a war.
This report comes from CBS of all places. In a segment on "60 Minutes," reporters went to Ukraine to see how our money was being spent. Sure enough, they found war machines and weapons, but then they left the front.
While some of the money is being given to other war-adjacent efforts such as the training of rescue dogs and bomb detection in the rivers and creeks of Ukraine to keep unexploded bombs from harming civilians, our money is going to Ukraine's economy in various ways.
As it turns out, our money is also going to farmers, purchasing seeds and fertilizer:
American taxpayers are financing more than just weapons. We discovered the U.S. government's buying seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers… and covering the salaries of Ukraine's first responders – all 57,000 of them.
We're also subsidizing Ukraine's businesses:
Russia's invasion shrank Ukraine's economy by about a third. We were surprised to find that to keep it afloat the U.S. government is subsidizing small businesses…
…like Tatiana Abramova's knitwear company.
According to 60 Minutes, USAID has helped Abramova's knitting business find customers overseas. The reason we're paying for her business? According to Abramova, the Ukrainian economy is the backbone of the war.
Given the amount of money we've sent, it seems that the American taxpayer is the real backbone of this war:
In total, America's pumped nearly $25 billion of non-military aid into Ukraine's economy since the invasion began – and you can see it working at the bustling farmers market on John McCain Street in central Kyiv.
We're also paying the salaries of Ukrainian first responders. All 57,000 of them.
While it's probably not surprising that billions of our taxpayer dollars are going to things other than the war effort, what really chaps American backsides is that all of this help is going to non-military Ukrainians while Americans are struggling in a myriad of ways themselves, especially in places like Maui where a fire sent the death toll to around 100 and the destruction they suffered was met with the Biden administration handing them a paltry $700.
As Honolulu Civil Beat noted, the Biden administration sought more aid for Maui to the tune of $12 billion, but tying $24.1 billion in more aid to Ukraine to it, forcing Republicans to block it:
But the effort to get a speedy appropriation has foundered after the Biden administration sought $12 billion in emergency funding that would extend disaster relief programs while simultaneously requesting some $24.1 billion in military spending for Ukraine in the same package.
That means that funding Hawaii’s needs for Maui’s recovery has been tied to funding to back Ukraine’s military, an increasingly unpopular topic in some Republican circles. When the House passed its fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill early this summer, a contingent of several dozen House Republicans sought to prohibit additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
As all of this is happening, more and more is being revealed about the corruption in Ukraine. As RedState reported, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul himself denounced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for canceling Ukraine's elections and the ruling party effectively becoming tyrants:
They've banned the political parties, they've invaded churches, they've arrested priests. So no, it isn't a democracy, it's a corrupt regime. Are the Russians any better? No, the Russians are worse, but at the same time, we don't always have to pick some side to be on, but the ultimate reason I'm against this is we don't have the money and when we borrow more money it leads to more inflation, leads to more likelihood of recession in our country, and so we can't keep doing it.
We're funding Ukraine to the detriment of the American people, and it would seem Democrats are more than willing to hurt the American people more in order to make Ukraine better. We don't have the cash to fund Ukraine, and we especially have better uses for what we borrow here in the States. However, the Democrats are continuously choosing America last.
They're certainly putting the Ukrainian people first.