Senate’s $61B for Ukraine Could Build Wall Across Entire U.S. Border

"This week, the United States Senate approved a $95 billion foreign aid package which will send another $61 billion to Ukraine despite prior funds going unaccounted for.

 

While Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) were the only non-Republicans to vote against the funding, 22 Senate Republicans joined Democrats to pass the package.

 

Sens. John Boozman (R-AR), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Kennedy (R-LA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), James Risch (R-ID), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN) voted with Senate Democrats for the Ukraine funding.

 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), though, has said he has no plans to put the package on the House floor for a vote.

 

The $61 billion in American taxpayer dollars to Ukraine included in the package could build a new wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border where hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are pouring across every month, 85 percent of whom are being released into American communities by President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

 

On average, each mile of border wall costs the federal government anywhere from $20 million to $45 million to build.

 

Former President Trump initially vowed to build about 1,000 miles of wall along the border, but the total mileage was wound down to 450 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile border.

 

In the end, the Trump administration spent about $15 billion constructing a little more than 450 miles of border wall in four years. Roughly 40 miles built were actual barrier extensions — that is, building wall where there was previously no barrier — while the remaining 410 miles was wall replacing old, dilapidated barriers built by prior administrations.

 

At that cost, the additional $61 billion approved by the Senate for Ukraine could build a brand new wall across the entire southern border with likely funds left over to replace old sensors and other technologies designed to detect illegal crossers.

 

If the latest funding is approved by the House and signed by Biden, the United States will have sent Ukraine close to $200 billion in taxpayer money since its conflict with Russia started in early 2022.

 

Much of the money is ending up in the hands of the nation’s powerful defense contractors, who make billions from federal contracts and profit from foreign intervention overseas.

 

As Reuters reported last year, the likes of General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, and others are all seeing sales rise thanks to the events in Ukraine. The defense contractors are so integral to the events that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has sought to court executives to effectively lobby Congress for endless funding."