Ukraine Aid Bill Passes No Thanks To Republicans

It’s a good thing Democrats are united on national security and the military threats to our allies from the likes of Russia, Iran, and China because Republicans certainly aren’t. This past Saturday, April 20th, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) brought H.R. 8035 the Ukraine Aid bill up for a vote. 210 Democrats voted for it including all Texas Democrats. Most Republicans, 112 out of 218, voted against it including Monica de la Cruz (CD-15) who represents most of Guadalupe County and southward and Chip Roy (CD- 21) representing Comal County and westward.

Republicans like Roy and de la Cruz argue that Ukraine should seek peace with Russia which will only happen if they give up the 18% of their territory currently under Russian occupation. That would be like the United States giving up Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Louisiana to end a war with Mexico. I don’t see any American accepting that so why would anyone expect Ukraine to accept it. Texans certainly wouldn’t find that acceptable.

Speaker Johnson spoke out on the bill saying “I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten, I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Balkans next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland, or one of our NATO allies.” Johnson added “If so, we might find ourselves sending troops to defend allies from Putin later.”

The tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and much of the other hardware we’ve previously sent to Ukraine are previous generation gear that has been sitting in storage for years. The same applies to some of the artillery shells and other munitions. Republicans as to be expected also argue about the cost of supporting a country that isn’t even a NATO member. Of course, that argument fails when you consider the cost of Ukraine’s defense collapsing and Russia’s Putin being emboldened to continue its conquest into the rest of Europe. Putin has made it very clear that he wants to restore Russia to the borders it had prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. What message would it send to China’s leadership with regard to their desire to annex Taiwan, or Iran’s leaders or Donald Trump’s buddy Kim Jong Un in North Korea?

Aggressors cannot be allowed to win wars of conquest or others with similar ambitions will most assuredly feel freed to do the same. As it stands now Ukraine is providing the manpower and much of the materiel while the U.S. and other democracies provide tanks, artillery, planes, missiles, ammunition, and training as well as cash to pay for personnel and other needs. The Republican controlled Congress has withheld support for more than 5 months simply by denying an opportunity to vote on the bill. During that time the Biden administration used every bit of its authority to continue supplying vital materiel.

There was once a time when the Republican Party claimed to be the defenders of democracy and the world order. I would argue they weren’t alone as Democrats certainly have done their part; but in recent years, since Trump, Republicans have shown themselves to be fans of autocrats and tyrants.

Republicans must be held accountable in November and defeated in detail. Your vote, the votes of your family members, neighbors, and co-workers are important to defeating them. It isn’t too early to start talking to the people closest to you about voting for Democrats in November, the election is less than 7 months away.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 24, 2024

Economy Good Under Biden

There are plenty of social media meme’s being published right now asserting that things were better 4 years ago while Trump was in office. The reality is that while prices were lower for many things, that isn’t the whole picture. In fact some of the distortion comes from the collapse of the economy during the pandemic which caused many prices to go down due to lack of demand.

The United States added 303,000 jobs in March, the 39th straight month of growth. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent. There are 2.6 million more Americans employed today than there were at the previous peak in February 2020, just before the pandemic set in.

Another economic indicator is GDP. To be fair, rather than compare numbers from 2020 when the pandemic depressed everything let’s use 2019 instead. The fourth quarter of 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) was $21.9 trillion, in the fourth quarter of 2023 it was $27.96 trillion or an increase of more than 27%.

Mortgage rates which seem high are below rates from 1980 to 2010. We’re just spoiled by the rates since the sub-prime mortgage crisis that wrecked banks from 2008 to 2010. I well remember as I re-financed my mortgage in 2010 and shortened the term from 30 years to 15 years while only paying an extra $100 a month.

On April 1 of 2024 the national average for a gallon of gas was just under $3.64 and no one likes that. We must remember the price of anything is a result of the tension between supply and demand. The U.S. is both the number one producer and consumer of oil. Unlike most nations we produce more than we use. The price of gasoline is up because demand around the world is up and some of our oil is being sold to other countries. After adjusting for inflation gas was almost $4 a gallon back in 2007. Don’t let anyone tell you that the high price of gas is Joe Biden’s fault.

For those invested in the stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard and Poor’s 500 indexes are both now at historic highs due to record profits. As a reminder those profits are a significant cause of the inflation mentioned earlier. Let’s call it greed-flation.

If you’re going to complain about the high price of groceries and gas you should also complain about the fact that minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour and many better paying jobs haven’t seen pay increases even as businesses see record profits. While it’s true that over the last 12 months wages have risen nearly 2% more than inflation each month, over the previous 2 years inflation was higher than wage increases so we have some catching up to do. Now remember who controls the state government in Texas, its Republicans, and they have zero interest in raising minimum wage regardless of how high prices rise. Republicans also control the House in our federal legislature and those folks also refuse to raise the minimum wage.

If you want to place blame for high prices, put that blame where it belongs, greedy businesses raising prices to increase profits while not raising wages to keep up and Republican politicians who think the same minimum wage from 2009 is appropriate today even though total inflation since then has been over 43%.

You have an opportunity to fix the imbalance between corporate profits and wages by electing Democrats to all levels of government this November.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - April 10, 2024