The U.S. Senate leadership is not giving up its effort to pass a massive war bill that will fund Ukraine, Israel, and likely even Hamas through aid to Gaza. This audience helped defeat the previous bill, which was disguised as a “border” bill. But Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) joins Glenn to warn that the Senate likely has enough votes to pass the same crazy package, just without the border parts. But there’s still a chance to stop it if YOU speak out and call your senators.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So, Mike, what the hell has the Senate done this time?
MIKE: Well, the Senate this time has yet again, put together a bill that now appears quite likely to pass. That you and I's Democrats. Sharply divides Republicans. On an issue where most Republican voters.
And most Republican senators are adamantly opposed to the Democrat's position.
But Senate Republican leadership, and a small handful of others, have given the Senate -- the Senate Democrats more than enough votes. To where it looks like, they will be able to pass this thing. In the next 48 hours or so.
Really is too bad.
Still stop it. All the Republicans. Still band together.
We could still top it.
The clock is ticking.
GLENN: You have Murkowski, and Romney.
So, you know --
MIKE: Yeah. But the remaining -- the remaining 31 of us, who didn't vote for this.
Have strong concerns, big concerns. Concerns that are backed up by voters all across America.
Not -- not all of them Republicans, by the way. But certainly an overwhelming super majority of Republicans, in the country, have great difficulty for this.
With this. You know, I stood on the Senate floor all day, on Saturday. I spoke for four continuous hours, trying, again, and again and again. To get amendments pending.
Amendments pending in the Senate. Meaning, they're in the cue, to be voted on.
To be addressed. Democrats wouldn't less us do it. I put up an amendment for example, making sure that this -- this aid wouldn't end up going to Hamas.
You send this through any of these entities. Through the UN. They make a lot of, hey, about the fact, oh, well, we cut UNRWA out of any aid.
Oh, great. There are 19 UN agencies, operating in Gaza. And guess what, you said aid to Gaza. We're going to send this to Gaza, but not Hamas. It's not real.
I don't know how to -- that's like saying, we'll give money to the UK. But it won't go to the British.
It's not a thing.
GLENN: So hang on.
$90 billion. What's in this package?
What are we sending?
MIKE: All right. So up to $92 billion in the package, about 60 billion of it goes to Ukraine.
Within that portion of it, you've got about 8 billion, that goes to direct economic assistance, and to the Ukrainian government.
Where the Ukrainian government is expected to spend that, on things like, paying all of Zelinsky's bureaucrats. Every government employee, in Ukraine. Civilians. The whole thing. For an entire year.
They're also free to use that for their own welfare benefit system.
They're also free to use that for their own sort of Ukrainian crony capitalism. Sort of thing.
Which they've got going on.
We've got actual instances of this type of aid that we've given to Ukraine over the last couple of years.
Being used to buy people concert tickets in Ukraine.
To shore up the viability of clothing stores in Ukraine.
Sort of real mother lode of opportunities here.
Opportunities for those who are close to the Ukrainian corruption.
Now, look, we could have a real debate here, if this were just military aid.
But there's so much in this package. That is not military aid.
It's going to other things.
Also, in the bill, you've got a total of between nine and $10 billion.
It's going loosely speaking to some humanitarian aid.
And it just says in the different account, that add up between nine and $10 billion.
It says, that they can go to this loose humanitarian concerns, in and around Ukraine, and in and around Israel.
Which in theory, the Biden administration could chapel most of even all of that aid to Gaza.
Guess what Gaza does, when we get that humanitarian aid.
It's not Gaza broadly. It's Hamas.
Well, Hamas in the past, used our aid money, whether funneled through the United Nations, as it usually is. Or it built tunnels.
They buy arms. They prepare to attack, to attack innocent civilians -- and to do the whole thing.
GLENN: Okay.
MIKE: This is giving them more of an opportunity to do that very thing that resulted in October 7th. But make no mistake, Hamas is not content with October 7th.
That's just a preview of more things to come. All they need are the resources. And apparently, we provided them with those.
PAT: Mike, it's Pat Gray.
Just to be clear, I want to make sure I understand, you are anti-American concerts then, as well as anti-Ukrainian clothing stores.
GLENN: Yeah. I got that too. Good catch, Pat. Good catch.
PAT: Thank you. He was going to let that slide. And I don't want it to.
GLENN: Mike, I have to tell you --
MIKE: Ukrainians -- not on the American taxpayer dollar. That's my position.
PAT: Huh. Wow.
GLENN: Right. Right. So I have to tell you, Mike, every -- at every corner, it seems, since 2008, when we're talking about big money.
The American people have not had any relief. The big corporations have gotten it. The big banks have gotten it. The fed has gotten it.
Foreign countries have gotten it.
The now -- the clothing stores in Ukraine, have gotten it.
But the Ma and Pa -- I had to buy a black suit over the weekend. And I went into this great, legendary clothing store in New Haven, Connecticut, called Ferruchi's.
And as I'm -- I'm talking to the guy behind the counter. And he's like, COVID killed us, man.
It killed the clothing industry. They're struggling. The people that made really good suits for like Brooks Brothers or things for him.
He said, they used to have 2,000 employees. He said, they got down to I think 150 employees. Now they're back up to 500.
And everything is changed.
And not a dime has been helping out these companies.
They destroyed us.
And -- and we were buying -- you know, people were getting stuff.
And they were getting concert tickets here in America.
While the real people trying to keep the doors from falling off, no pun intended with Boeing.
Because they're apparently working to keep the doors flying off.
The people who are really doing the hard work.
They never get the break from this government.
Ever.
MIKE: Never get a break from it. And it never sleeps. It never stops spending.
The more we spend, with multi-trillion dollar deficits. Year after year after year.
It starts to add up. And it starts to make every dollar that we have. That Americans earn, through their hard work.
Buy less.
You know, the average American household, every single month, has to shell out an additional thousand dollars just to live.
Just to put a roof over your head. And groceries on the table.
GLENN: So what is this really all about?
This spending.
What is this really all about?
Who is really getting the money here?
What -- what favors are being done? What NGOs are taking that money, and then funneling it back to an election here?
What's happening?
MIKE: Well, the biggest single beneficiary from these probably defense contractors.
People who make -- look, they're -- there are plenty of people who are patriotic. And who are not part of what I would call the military-industrial complex.
And by that, I mean those who worship at the altar of war. So that they can make more money. Profiteering off of war.
But there are a number of those.
And it's a real thing.
It's been since president Eisenhower. That the bigger it gets, and the more powerful it becomes.
And I would say, the military-industrial complex is the single biggest beneficiary from a package like this.
Sometimes, some of my colleagues will even let the mask slip.
Some of my Republican colleagues have done that in recent weeks, by saying things like, look we have to get this thing done.
We should get this thing done.
Because this will create American jobs.
It's good for us.
GLENN: How. How.
MIKE: It will create American jobs. Because. Because when we put these, you know, men M tens of billions of collars into these weapons procurement contracts, for weapons, by the way.
That are going to go to others. And not us. And that are actually going to commandeer our procurement process in such a way, that we'll have access to weapons for our own uses, later, rather than sooner.
That employs people in America, that employs people who make a lot of these weapons systems, that we will be sending over there.
But the pieces that are -- we have a stash of them.
We have already exhausted a lot of them.
It's already going to take us. Even before we add this package to it. Years, possibly this will 2030 or 2035.
To replace a lot of this stuff.
What happens -- we can see more and more of this stuff. While unable to produce more of it at home.
It really is concerning.
We become less and less capable of protecting the American homeland from whatever attack might face here.
It's deeply concerning.
GLENN: Okay.
Mike Lee in the Senate.
Fighting hard, along with -- they're about 13 of you, are there not?
How many are fighting?
No. No. There's 31.
31.
MIKE: Who were opposing this.
GLENN: Yeah. Right.
MIKE: That means this is an overwhelming super majority of Republicans in the United States Senate.
And yet, our Senate Republican leadership is all for it.
They're teaming up with Democrats.
GLENN: Unbelievable.
MIKE: Democratic policies. The United Nations on issues that are particular to the left. This is concerning.
GLENN: Okay. Last week, gang. You -- you stopped the bill in the Senate.
On the border. You have to do it again.
You make a difference. You do make a difference.
Call your senator. And say, in no uncertain terms.
You're not to keep giving my children and my great, great, great children's money away!
We don't have the money
We don't have the -- enough is enough.
My gosh.
Mike, thanks for the good fight.
Appreciate it. God bless.
MIKE: Thank you very much. Good to be with you.
