Betrayal of Ukraine: Republicans obstruct vital humanitarian aid while seeking profits for Big Oil

[Celerity]

Much needed financial aid for Ukraine to fight back Putin’s brutal invasion has been delayed while special interests in America demand greater profits for Big Oil, Big Coal and Big Gas.

https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/thom-hartmann/betrayal-ukraine-republican-senators-obstruct-vital-humanitarian-aid-seeking-profits-big-oil/



If such a thing happened in any other developed country in the world, many of these U.S. Senators would be in prison, or at least barred from office and paying huge fines. Sabotage Ukraine aid because your donors paid you to? Sabotage your own country’s energy and environmental policies because your donors promise you millions of dollars?

In every other advanced democracy in the world, that is called bribery and corruption and is criminal behavior. Not only are such corrupt politicians held accountable by the legal systems of most other democracies; if word of their paid shilling became public they would never get re-elected to their existing positions and probably couldn’t even win an election as dog-catcher. But here in America, thanks to five radicals on the Supreme Court, it is perfectly legal for legislators to take piles of cash from Big Oil and the billionaires it is made and then openly — proudly — trash America and abandon other democracies like Ukraine.

The Biden administration requested an emergency $10 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine attached to the federal budget. House Majority Whip Stenny Hoyer (D-MD), who is in charge of shepherding legislation in the House into law, pushed as hard as he could and got what he thought was a firm commitment for a congressional vote on March 8. Full contemporary funding of the federal government has already been dragged out over the past year with stunts by Republicans like Rick Scott, whose contribution to slowing the legislative process in the Senate was to block legislation to fund the Post Office.

But that was a few weeks ago; Hoyer and Schumer still thought they could get funding through the Senate and onto the President’s desk quickly. Until, of course, Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby announced that he wants, as CNBC’s Ylan Q. Mui reported, “a better sense of how much unspent money remains.” That, of course, will drag things out another week or two, perfect for Putin to wipe the floor with the blood of the children of Ukraine. Shelby was joined in blocking the new legislation as part of the 2022 budget by both oil-state senators from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, using a BS excuse that they wanted an accounting for disaster relief funds allocated from previous years in the 2020 budget.

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