Reckless Ukraine Aid Spending Could Haunt Biden, Most Of Congress At Midterms - Experts

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2022) The Biden administration and most of Congress could face trouble in the midterm elections for wasting billions on a Ukraine aid package - loaded with defense industry handouts - all in the name of supporting a corrupt regime in Kiev, experts told Sputnik.

The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $40 billion Ukraine aid package that includes more than $20 billion in military funding. Only eleven senators opposed the bill - all Republicans - citing concerns with oversight of weapons transfers and failure to prioritize America's economy as the country faces inflation and supply chain crises.

The legislation was initially delayed by Senator Rand Paul's call to establish a special inspector general and oversight panel exclusively dedicated to overseeing how the funding is spent, similar to the one set up for Afghanistan. However, such an amendment was never even considered.

The new package comes on top of $4.5 billion in military aid the Biden administration has already committed to Ukraine. However, although most voters backed the early aid packages, polls show that Americans' interest in spending money on Ukraine is waning.

Foreign policy experts Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, the first Western journalists the communists allowed back into Afghanistan during the 1980s, believe American voters will realize the true nature of what is in the Ukraine aid package and Biden and those who backed the reckless spending could pay a price during the midterm elections.

"He's carrying forward an ideological agenda that more and more Americans become opposed to as they realize what's really going on," Fitzgerald said.

Voters in Trump country will likely turn up the heat on Republican lawmakers who supported the bill while progressives - none of whom voted against the legislation - may face a backlash among the antiwar crowd, Gould and Fitzgerald said.

In terms of managing the aid, the couple did not express confidence in boosting oversight and preventing weapons from entering the black markets, despite the fact everyone knows corruption is rampant in Ukraine and the funding will help arm Nazi militants.

"There should by all means be an oversight committee to control that money, but it won't happen under Biden because there's too much at stake," Fitzgerald said. "It's a straight out giveaway for the defense companies and they don't want anybody looking over their shoulder."