Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell thinks Democrats should stop splurging Americans’ tax dollars on policies that don’t help with problems such as the U.S.-Mexico border, but it is McConnell who needs to stop pretending he’s powerless to curb the southern border crisis while funneling billions to Ukraine.
“There is nothing compassionate about tolerating or even encouraging anarchy at the border, violence in our streets, and a steady erosion of public safety,” McConnell said in a Senate floor speech titled “Americans’ Top Priorities Are Democrats’ Biggest Failures.” “It is neither fair nor compassionate, not to any Americans, least of all to the vulnerable people Democrats say they’re helping.”
McConnell is not ignorant about the unmitigated calamity that is the U.S.-Mexico border, nor is he unaware of how that is affecting the entire nation. He even mentioned in his speech that it’s President Joe Biden’s “failed border policies” that “have Customs and Border Protection encountering 200 percent more fentanyl and apprehending the most illegal immigrants they’ve seen in more than 20 years.”
As the GOP leader put it in his recent speech, “Americans may want their leaders to cut inflation, fight crime and drugs, and secure the border, but Democrats just spent hundreds of billions of dollars of the people’s money doing precisely none of that.”
You know who else is wasting billions of dollars of the people’s money on causes other than securing America’s borders? McConnell and his fellow swamp creatures who seem to have no qualms with sending endless funds, some of which are designated for U.S. weaponry that will likely end up on the Eastern European black market, to Ukraine. Over and over, McConnell has declined to take legislative action to put America first. Instead, he’s dead set on sticking it to former President Donald Trump and voting to squander Americans’ tax dollars on a foreign nation that is vulnerable to corruption and possible defeat.
The Federalist reached out to McConnell to ask why he hasn’t used his authority to put U.S. border security ahead of Ukraine’s, but the leader’s office directed The Federalist to a Fox News article detailing Republicans’ largely symbolic vote-a-rama amendments, including one that would have codified Title 42.
Unlike appropriations bills, these reconciliation amendments have no teeth and were quickly struck down by Democrats because, more than anything, they are just for show. But the ongoing border crisis and the more than 2 million illegal immigrants who have been caught crossing the border already this year require recourse far beyond the showy amendments found in reconciliation.
When The Federalist again asked if the GOP leader even invoked his authority to stonewall congressional security for other countries until the U.S. border was secure, the leader’s office did not immediately respond.
Yes, Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress, but McConnell is not completely powerless to make them pay for their sins. Look at how he used his weight to orchestrate the creation of a gun bill designed to shut up Democrats’ demands following the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas.
Despite his capability to enact meaningful policy, the GOP leader has so far shown a staunch unwillingness to make any substantial moves that would force Democrats to reconcile with the mess the president and his administration have created. It shouldn’t be hard for McConnell or his GOP leadership colleagues to propose an amendment that demands all eyes on the border before Republicans agree to pour billions into securing other borders overseas.
After all, amendments for emergency assistance for hurricane disaster recovery efforts, mental health, and other research were all proposed as additions to the expensive Ukraine bill.
McConnell could force Democrats’ hand on the border, but because his loyalty lies not to the voters and their interests but to the ways of the old GOP, he simply won’t. That’s problematic and just another example Republicans looking for reasons to replace McConnell could use in the near future.
