Senators Vance, Sanders vote against Ukraine-Israeli aid
The old saying that “politics makes for strange bedfellows” was proven again on Tuesday when the U.S. Senate approved a bill providing military aid to Israel, and Ukraine, and banning TikTok.
Republican from Ohio, J.D. Vance, and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders found themselves in the minority as they voted against the package that the Senate approved by a vote of 79-18.
Other than they are both members of the Senate, one would be hard-pressed to find any other similarities between conservative Vance and liberal Sanders.
However, each man had different reasons for opposing the $95 billion aid package.
Vance has long railed against continuing aid to war-torn Ukraine’s battle against the Russian invasion.
“There is no principle of law, economics, or warfare that to manufacture weapons we must commit them to foreign wars. The war in Ukraine consumes more than we produce. Under even the rosiest projection well into the next presidential administration, every day we supply Ukraine is another day we dig ourselves deeper into the hole,” said Vance in a recent email.
For Sanders, the issue is not Ukraine, but Israel.
"U.S. Taxpayers should not be providing billions more to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people,” wrote in a social media post.
Ohio's other U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, and Pennsylvania's Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman all Democrats, voted to approve the package.
President Biden is expected to swiftly sign the aid package.