U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is demanding that the Biden administration accounts for spending in the war in Ukraine now that President Joe Biden seeks to push total U.S. aid beyond $100 billion.
This week, Biden sought another $37.7 billion to help the Ukrainian army repel Russian invaders. As Defense News reported, if approved it will bring total U.S. support for the war to $104 billion in less than a year.
In response, Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, has joined a GOP effort to audit all the funding Biden has directed to Ukraine since the war started in February.
“In the words of Democrats who don’t seem to understand the consequences of printing money on demand, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.’ This is exactly what is happening with Tuesday’s White House announcement, which demands more of your money to fill the coffers of Big Pharma and the Ukrainian government,” Gaetz said in a statement on Friday.
Besides Ukraine, Gaetz was referring to an additional $10 billion in emergency health funding that Biden requested this week — 90 percent of which, Politico reported, will be spent on COVID-19 vaccines, “next-generation” COVID vaccines, long COVID research, and other items.
But for Ukraine, Gaetz has joined lawmakers backing Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s request for any and all of the administration’s documentation of how it is fighting the war.
Greene introduced a resolution that wants Biden, the Defense Department, and the State Department to hand over copies of “all documents, charts, or tables, including notes from meetings, audio recordings, records (including telephone and email records), correspondence, and other communications, and any financial statements detailing purchases, recipients, and government expenditures to the extent that any such one or more items … refer or relate to congressionally appropriated funds directed to the nation of Ukraine — whether in regard to military, civilian, or financial aid.”
Greene seeks the records going back to the day Biden took office.
Several Republicans besides Gaetz have co-sponsored Greene’s resolution, including Rep. Greg Steube of Sarasota.
“If Joe Biden truly wanted to combat a crisis, he would be focused on reducing federal spending to combat the evaporating value of the US Dollar,” Gaetz said in his statement. “For these reasons, I am a proud cosponsor of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Resolution of Inquiry to audit every American taxpayer dollar sent to Ukraine.”
“The American People deserve answers on what $91.3 billion to Ukraine is actually accomplishing. Our role in Congress, provided by the Constitution, is to legislate on behalf of the American people, not [Ukrainian President] Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I look forward to answers to where our money is being spent overseas.”
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