-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PAUL. Constitution, not to any foreign nation. And no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America.

We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy. In March, inflation hit a 40-year high. Gasoline alone is up 48 percent, and energy prices are up 32 percent over the last year. Food prices have increased by nearly 9 percent. Used vehicle prices are up 35 percent for the year, and new vehicle prices have increased 12 percent or more.

Yes, inflation doesn't just come out of nowhere; it comes from deficit spending.

The United States spent nearly $5 trillion on COVID-19 bailouts, leading to one of the highest and most sustained levels of inflation in U.S. history.

Americans are feeling the pain, and Congress seems intent only on adding to that pain by shoveling more money out the door as fast as they can.

This bill under consideration would spend $40 billion. This is the second spending bill for Ukraine in 2 months, and this bill is three times larger than the first.

Our military aid to Ukraine is nothing new, though. Since 2014, the United States has provided more than $6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. In addition to the $14 billion Congress authorized just a month ago, if this bill passes, the United States will have authorized roughly $60 billion in total spending for Ukraine.

For those who say this is not enough, for those of you in this Chamber who say that our military spending is never enough, let's put $60 billion into perspective.

According to Elias Yousef, a security assistance expert at the Stimson Center, Kyiv would become the largest yearly recipient of U.S. military aid of the past two decades.

Except for the top five countries, $60 billion is more than every other country in the world spends on their entire military expenditures.

If this gift to Ukraine passes, our total aid to Ukraine will almost equal the entire military budget of Russia. And it is not as if we have that money lying around. We will have to borrow that money from China to send it to Ukraine.

The cost of this package we are voting on today is more than the United States spent during the first year of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan. Congress authorized force, and the President sent troops into the conflict. The same cannot be said of Ukraine.

This proposal towers over domestic priorities as well. The massive package of $60 billion to Ukraine dwarfs the $6 million spent on cancer research annually, and $60 billion is more than the amount the government collects in gas taxes each year to build roads and bridges. The $60 billion to Ukraine can fund substantial portions or entire large Cabinet Departments. The $60 billion nearly equals the entire State Department budget. The $60 billion exceeds the budget for the Department of Homeland Security and for the Department of Energy. And Congress just wants to keep on spending and spending.

Our allies and partners have sent aid to Ukraine. Some of them even broke longstanding traditions by sending military assistance. Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and others are stepping up to defend Ukraine like never before.

In other words, it is not all about us. It isn't that we always have to be the Uncle Sam, the policeman who saves the world, particularly when it is on borrowed money. Yet the United States accounted for nearly half of what has been spent so far.

With a $30 trillion debt, America can't afford to be the world's policeman. The United States is trying to recover from the $1.6 trillion we spent on wars in the Middle East, not to mention the $5 trillion borrowed for COVID.

We should not forget that the Soviet Union collapsed, in large part, not because it was defeated militarily but because it ran out of money. In an attempt to save Ukraine, will we doom the United States to such a future?

In the past 2 years, the United States has borrowed more money than at any time in our history. We are already experiencing the greatest rate of inflation in over four decades. The assault on monetary discipline is untenable, and it cannot go on forever. Unless we put an end to the fiscal insanity, a day of reckoning awaits us.

Congress should evaluate the cost of continuing down this path. The biggest threat to the United States today is debt and inflation and the destruction of the dollar. We cannot save Ukraine by killing our economic strength.

So I ask to modify the bill to allow for a special inspector general. This would be the inspector general who has been overseeing the waste in Afghanistan and has done a great job.

Therefore, I ask the Senator to modify his request so that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 368, H.R. 7691; furthermore, that the Paul amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time; and that the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with a 60- affirmative vote threshold for passage.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source