U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to hold separate votes this week on new assistance packages for Israel and Ukraine, aiming to assemble fragile coalitions to support both embattled allies.
I’m just waiting to see what the poison pill is. Johnson didn’t stall Ukraine aid for months just to put a clean bill forward. If he wanted a clean bill, he would have put the Senate’s bill up for vote months ago.
Any obvious poison-pills could be amended out though once debate starts. And I think that Democrats are unified enough that the small group of Hawkish moderate Republicans would support the amendments to fix the poison pills.
I dunno, I’m somewhat optimistic here. I think Johnson actually screwed himself over. This kind of “split” will prove to the American People that Republicans are against Ukrainian aid.
Johnson is from the far-right, who were collectively against “Omnibus” bills and whatnot. Johnson might actually be working with his morals / ethics here, and is biasing him towards this obvious error in politics. I think we should just accept the gift, if possible. I recognize that Johnson controls a lot of debate here, but if Johnson can promise behind close doors that all four of these bills will get “proper” treatment (ex: amendment process, debate, etc. etc.), its hard for him to screw this over.
Johnson’s main ability is killing the debate before it gets started. If he lets regular order debate the bill, it basically leaves his hands and can be changed for the better.
Or maybe I’m overly optimistic? But I’d rather be optimistic and accept a potential win, than pessimistic and reject this possible win for Ukraine.
I’m just waiting to see what the poison pill is. Johnson didn’t stall Ukraine aid for months just to put a clean bill forward. If he wanted a clean bill, he would have put the Senate’s bill up for vote months ago.
Any obvious poison-pills could be amended out though once debate starts. And I think that Democrats are unified enough that the small group of Hawkish moderate Republicans would support the amendments to fix the poison pills.
I dunno, I’m somewhat optimistic here. I think Johnson actually screwed himself over. This kind of “split” will prove to the American People that Republicans are against Ukrainian aid.
Johnson is from the far-right, who were collectively against “Omnibus” bills and whatnot. Johnson might actually be working with his morals / ethics here, and is biasing him towards this obvious error in politics. I think we should just accept the gift, if possible. I recognize that Johnson controls a lot of debate here, but if Johnson can promise behind close doors that all four of these bills will get “proper” treatment (ex: amendment process, debate, etc. etc.), its hard for him to screw this over.
Johnson’s main ability is killing the debate before it gets started. If he lets regular order debate the bill, it basically leaves his hands and can be changed for the better.
Or maybe I’m overly optimistic? But I’d rather be optimistic and accept a potential win, than pessimistic and reject this possible win for Ukraine.