White House Fuming Over Hardline Stance by Speaker Johnson

Make no mistake about it… there is a new sheriff in town and the White House does not like it one bit.

Part of the reason why Speaker Johnson (R-LA) won the gavel was because of his promise to pass single-issue spending legislation.

He also promised to dial back spending, and part of that plan was to use money allocated in other spending packages that continue to sit on the sidelines.

Unprecedented Bar

This approach by Johnson makes sense, which is why Democrats and the White House are against it.

With Israel now at war with Hamas, it will need our support, but this country is not exactly in the best financial shape. So, if you are going to spend money that you had not anticipated spending, it means, you need to cut the budget in other places.

Biden does not want to do that, however. He just wants more money.

An example is the aid for Israel that Biden had tried to put in an omnibus spending package for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.

Johnson and GOP House members had a better idea. There are still tens of billions from the Inflation Reduction Act earmarked for the IRS that has not been used, so how about reallocating $14.3 of that money for Israeli aid?

Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates just about lost his mind in a memo stating, "Despite strong bipartisan agreement that the United States must support Israel as it defends itself after the worst terrorist attack in its history, House Republicans are engaging in a dangerous political stunt that for the first time in American history demands emergency national security funding be fully offset.

"Though the United States has delivered urgent defense funding to a wide range of allies over many years, this has never been a requirement."

Just because it has always been done a different way does not make it right, and we need only look at our nation's debt that business as usual just does not work any longer.

Bates went on, trying to make this sound as though the GOP was being anti-Semitic in its requirements.

He wrote, "Why should Israel be singled out in this way? Why should it be treated differently, especially when they were just subjected to the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust?"

This legislation will be supported by the GOP caucus when it goes on the floor, it will pass, and it will be forwarded to the Senate, where it will be up to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to put it on the floor or table it.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) also backed the idea of offsetting additional spending by making cuts to other programs, stating, "The American people must see that it's going to cost something if we're going to give another $14 billion to Israel. So, I'm for it. But it should be paid for … with real money, not budgetary gimmicks.”

Any Republican that does not support this bill should be primaried and removed from office. So far, there are two of them making a stance against funding for Israel aid: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Israel is our ally, our most important ally in the Middle East, and this aid should be a no-brainer. If they cannot see that, especially if we are getting the funding by reducing spending in another area, they have no right to be in Congress and voters in their respective states should then be tasked with voting them out of office.