Government funding, Ukraine funding, aid to Israel, and a complete lack of accomplishments—Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t solved any of it. And Republicans are noticing it.

After Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7, Republicans and Democrats in Congress both said they needed to act quickly to help Israel.

At the time, the House was floundering without a speaker, and members cited the necessity of sending immediate aid to a close U.S. ally as a motivating reason for solving the speaker drama.

But five weeks after Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected speaker, and nearly eight weeks since the attack, Congress doesn’t appear any closer to passing an aid package—for Israel or for Ukraine, the latter of which has been “weeks” away from running out of weapons for months now.

As Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) told The Daily Beast this week, Ukraine needed an aid package in October.

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
    671·
    1 year ago

    Republicans negotiated with, capitulated to and were just steamrolled by a small cadre of political terrorists who’d held their party and the US government hostage and they won’t suddenly make everything okay? You don’t fucking say…

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
      27·
      1 year ago

      I had hoped the humiliation of endlessly voting only to capitulate to the extremists only to then get burned by said extremists would at least shame them into at LEAST picking a less odious republican that might sway some dem votes. What actually happened really shouldn’t surprise me but here we are.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        181·
        1 year ago

        Nope, it just got a bunch of them to retire so they can bitch and moan about it on cable news channels.

    • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
      25·
      1 year ago

      Yes, it’s weeks away from running out of weapons, then we approve an interim relief bill, then they’re weeks ways again, etc, ad museum for months because the republicans refuse to pass an omnibus spending bill or even relief and weapons bill that gives them what they really need before they have to turn around and ask again.

      They created this mess so they could then bitch about it and blame the dems, just like the national debt they always rack up when in power.

        • tristan@aussie.zone
          6·
          1 year ago

          The US isn’t the only country giving aid and weapons… other countries have provided extra stuff in the meantime

        • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’m not sure which of the most recent bills included aid for Ukraine, but that just reinforces my point about GOP interference with the continuity of support.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    29·
    1 year ago

    Removing the previous speaker wasn’t about “solving problems”, it was about creating problems and gridlock.

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      Yes. More than anything they want to shut down the government; McCarthy prevented them from doing so. And they want someone controllable in the third-in-line seat of Speaker, just in case something unfortunate should happen to the president and VP.

      But if there were some emergent situation that they could use to funnel money out of the national coffers and into private ones, like all the pandemic aid that disappeared into thin air, they’d be on that like flies on shit. Also, anything quick and superficial that they can use as a cudgel in the media, like John Fetterman’s short sleeve shirt in the Senate.

      They CAN do it when they want to, quickly and easily; there are just too many anymore who want to cripple daily governance, civil service functions, and break the US government altogether.

  • btaf45@lemmy.world
    12·
    1 year ago

    Ukraine aid would easily pass if it came to a vote. Isn’t there some way to bypass a speaker on important stuff? There certainly needs to be a way. If not then some republicans need to cooperate to make a temporary Dem speaker from time to time.