WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) is pulling out all the stops to clear-up any misconceptions that his constituents in the 1st Congressional District might have about his support of a controversial $95.3 billion foreign aid package signed by President Joe Biden last week.
“As China and Russia seek to undermine our economic prosperity and security,” Moore explained on April 26, “(this package) is squarely in our national interest because it allows us to improve our supply chains and industrial base; modernize our weapons; and encourages our European partners to increase their own defense budgets as well as overall burden sharing.”
That legislation authorized $60.8 billion in lethal aid to Ukraine; $26.4 billion in arms to Israel and humanitarian aid to Palestinians; and $8.1 billion in aid to Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific allies like the Philippines.
Republicans on Capitol Hill had sought for months to tie the foreign aid package to concessions from the White House on border security with Mexico.
In the end, however, Biden successfully played a waiting game and stubbornly gave up nothing to secure nearly a trillion dollars in funding.
But Moore wants to emphasize what he considers two important facts that have been glossed over in media reporting of the Democratic victory.
The first of those points is that the overwhelming majority of the funds included in the foreign aid package will be supporting the U.S. economy and bolstering U.S. employment.
“Nearly 80 percent of the Ukraine funding,” he pointed out, “will never leave U.S. shores. Instead, those funds will replenish old defense articles and stocks or purchase new defense technologies from U.S. businesses.”
The $8.1 billion to Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific allies is also similar, Moore added.
“About $5.3 billion of those funds goes directly into building submarines at home, fixing our dry-docks and ship-building capacity as well as replenishing old stocks,” Moore said.
His second point is that supporting Ukraine in its struggle against the two-year-old Russian invasion of that country is sound strategic investment.
“With these funds,” Moore exphasized, “we continue to deteriorate the Russian military, fortify the (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and expose Russian weakness – all without putting a single American soldier at risk.”
But Moore’s cogent arguments about the foreign aid package may have come too late.
At the state GOP convention at the Salt Palace on April 27, a political unknown – electrician Paul Miller – nearly snagged enough delegate support to put Moore out of his job in Washington.
In what had to be seen as a vote of GOP hardline disapproval of Moore’s reputation for bipartisan cooperation in Congress, Miller won nearly 55 percent of convention ballots, while the incumbent two-term congressman took about 45 percent.
That will leave those competitors still vying for Moore’s seat in Congress in the June 25 statewide Republican primary.
Although he was disappointed that the GOP wasn’t able to wring border security concessions out of the White House as part of the foreign aid package signed last week, Moore blamed that failure on “…extreme voices in both parties that refused to compromise … to stem the brutal tide of violence and chaos at the border. ”
“We must find a bipartisan compromise because Congress cannot continue to play political games with our security,” according to Moore.
“It is egregious that Biden is not securing our borders under his current executive powers or reinstating policies from the Trump administration.”