Biden administration has tried to push large foreign aid funds for Ukraine and Israel through Congress. They were held up over immigration issues, a domestic foreign policy issue that has nothing to do with the other funds.
I had wondered how that had happened. I had assumed that the Republicans had inserted the issue into the vote on the funds.
But it now turned out that it was the Biden administration itself which put all three issues into one package. This led to the failure of all three measures.
Biden Tied Ukraine Aid to Border Security, and It Backfired on Him – NY Times – Dec 7, 2023
When President Biden sent his request to Congress last month for aid to Ukraine and Israel, he included a request for more money to help with security at the border with Mexico, a sweetener intended to both address a crisis and win over support of Republicans.
But the move has now left Mr. Biden in a box.
By putting the issue on the table, he ignited demands from the right for broad changes to border policy, leaving his own party divided on a topic that many Democrats see as a political vulnerability heading into 2024 and further complicating prospects for top foreign policy priorities.
The White House had negotiated with itself. It had come up with a 'sweetener' to goad the Republicans into agreeing to the fund measures. But that sweetener was not big enough for the Republicans. It thereby proved to be toxic for the whole deal.
What a huge policy failure.
Why put one issue, immigration, that has for decades been disputed between the two parties, into a package with politically unproblematic funds for Israel and only slightly problematic funds for Ukraine? That did not make sense.
It would be nice to know whoever the genius was who had come up with the scheme.
Is it possible that the White House itself was seeking stricter immigration laws but did not dare to say so openly? To then be able to say 'they made me do it'? The question must be asked because stricter immigration laws is what the U.S. will now get:
The president signaled on Wednesday that he was open to further negotiations with Senate Republicans after they blocked his emergency spending bill.
Mr. Biden now faces a difficult choice about how much to throw himself into talks on an issue that for decades has defied efforts to reach bipartisan compromise. And he will have to decide how far to go in giving in to conservative demands that he substantially choke off the number of migrants admitted to the United States while their asylum claims are considered.
I can not assess if the White House still sees this as sensible strategy or if it somehow misjudged the issue that ended in this huge fuck up.
An alternative question is if this was an attempt by the White House to hold up the Ukraine funds as part of a scheme to push the Ukraine towards negotiations with Russia. I first had favored that view but it now seems to be unlikely.
Anyway, politically this is clearly a loss for the Democrats and a huge win for the Republican side:
The White House has received backlash from both sides, highlighting the challenge of reaching a compromise over one of the most polarizing issues in domestic politics.
Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, said in a statement co-signed by 10 other Senate Democrats that “using a one-time spending package to enact these unrelated permanent policy changes sets a dangerous precedent and risks assistance to our international partners.”
Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, spoke for his G.O.P. colleagues on Thursday when he boasted about pushing immigration to the forefront of the national conversation. “It looks like we’ve got the president’s attention,” he said.
Who in the White House is responsible for this mess?