I'm glad to see that $60 billion in Ukraine military assistance (plus $35 billion for Israel and Asian allies) is finally likely to pass Congress!
A few thoughts:
This package is very similar to what was proposed months ago. It could and should have been done a long time ago. Was only delayed because of reprehensible internal GOP politics. Meanwhile, Ukraine suffered both civilian and military losses that could easily have been avoided.
For those who worry about costs, this is actually highly cost-effective. It's by far the most cost-effective way of degrading the power of one of our two major adversaries: Russia, which is suffering huge losses in Ukraine. Defeating Russia will be even more cost-effective, as they then won't be able to threaten the West for some time to come. And that's on top of the strong moral case for helping a liberal democracy (even a flawed one like Ukraine) counter aggression by a mass-murdering neo-fascist dictatorship.
For those who worry about diverting resources from countering China, remember that the Asian allies of the US (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea) all strongly favor aid to Ukraine. They know that countering Russia also helps to deal with China - and deter the latter from aggression.
What is true of helping Ukraine against Russia is also true of helping Israel against Iran and Hamas. The Israelis have significant flaws. Their enemies are vastly worse. Israel, however, has far less need of aid than Ukraine does, because facing weaker adversaries.
Many thanks to Donald Trump for ensuring that this military assistance for allies will probably NOT be tied to any of the cruel and cruddy border/immigration policies promoted by congressional Republicans. Trump killed the deal the latter struck earlier with Democrats.
The main difference between this package and those put forward earlier is that this one will be broken down into 4 separate bills (3 foreign military assistance bills, plus a border bill that has almost no chance of being enacted). This is to enable each bill to be passed by a different coalition (e.g. - some Republicans who support Israel aid won't vote for Ukraine aid, and some Dems have the opposite set of preferences). History buffs will recall that Stephen Douglas used a similar manoeuvre to pass the Compromise of 1850. But whereas the Compromise was filled with mostly shitty, proslavery measures, this one is mostly good.
Mike Johnson is still a despicable weasel. He should have done this months ago! But he's less despicable now than before.
Will Johnson now get ousted as speaker? I don't know. Could go either way, I think. Maybe Dems will cut a deal to save him if Marjorie Taylor Greene & friends try to remove him. If necessary, they can zap her with the Jewish space lasers!
As you can tell, I have little love for the congressional GOP. But you should not assume I have any great fondness for congressional Dems, either. Plenty of suckitude to go around on Capitol Hill.