In the wake of the most recent foreign aid package including billions of dollars earmarked for Ukraine, a growing number of Republican lawmakers are speaking out in opposition to the continued flow of U.S. taxpayer funds being funneled into the notoriously corrupt nation for the ostensible purpose of propping up its military in an ongoing war with Russia.

Mike Johnson is governing in a European-style coalition government.

More Republicans voted against Ukraine funding than for it.

Johnson had to rely on Democrats for passage. pic.twitter.com/rFKT5bhjy3

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) April 25, 2024

For his part, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) spoke out against prioritizing Ukraine assistance as a more direct threat to homeland security — China — receives little attention from elected officials. 

During a recent Fox News Channel interview, he reacted to a recent Senate Armed Services Committee memo outlining the projection that, even with increased support from the U.S. and European nations, “Russia will still have a three-to-one advantage” over its neighboring country by the end of the year.

“The argument that I’m making is quite simple,” he added. “It’s not that we don’t admire the courageousness of the Ukrainians; we certainly do. It’s that America is stretched too thin. We do not have the industrial capacity to support a war in Ukraine, a war in Israel, potentially a war in East Asia if the Chinese invade Taiwan. So America has to pick and choose.”

In his estimation, China represents the most pressing threat to America and requires the lion’s share of the federal government’s attention.

“If we focus on East Asia, if we focus on containing the Chinese, the Europeans can step up in Europe,” Vance explained. “Germany still, after Donald Trump demanded it, still doesn’t spend 2% of GDP on defense. A lot of the NATO countries have allowed their own industrial might to atrophy. So why are Americans subsidizing European security? We should be focused on our own problems and that’s mostly China.”

Interviewer Shannon Bream brought up the argument that, without U.S. intervention, the Russian military could become emboldened and potentially seek to invade regions outside of Ukraine.
“So I understand the argument, Shannon, but unfortunately, I don’t think it really pastes muster,” the senator replied. “So people who want us to put limitless resources into Ukraine, they want us to believe two things at once. On the one hand, they want us to believe the Ukrainians are on the verge of victory in the far-eastern part of Ukraine. On the other hand, they want us to believe that Vladimir Putin is about to march all the way to Paris. You can’t believe both of those things at the same time and the reality is the ukrainians have shown that Putin is a lot weaker than people feared, and importantly, they’ve shown that if the Europeans are willing to step up and take more responsibility for their own defense, they can handle Putin.”