August Pfluger: No Appetite Remains for More Ukraine Aid

SAN ANGELO, TX — Rep. August Pfluger (TX-11) addressed the war in the Ukraine at his town hall in San Angelo on Monday. Pfluger has been criticized by some constituents for his initial vote in favor of the $40.1 billion package that was passed under the Democrat-control Congress last year. Pfluger has more recently cooled on sending more aid as major problems inside the borders of the United States have continued unabated and unaddressed.

Pfluger said he didn’t approve of the price tag, the $40.1 billion on the initial package, but the strategic reasons to help Ukraine outweighed the cost.

“Article 5 of NATO says an attack on one member nation is an attack on all,” Pfluger said. New NATO countries, some former Soviet Union states, have borders that press against Russia, Pfluger noted. Latvia and Lithuania (considering that bordering Belarus is squarely in the Russian orbit) are the key new member NATO counties that could become tripwires for at hot NATO vs. Russia war. Member countries Poland, Romania and Turkey are adjacent to Ukraine.

Pfluger said he viewed the initial aid as an extension of the Trump administration policy of supplying lethal aid to Ukraine. He said Trump saw this war coming. It was the incompetent Biden administration that showed the world how weak it was with the debacle in Afghanistan among other foreign policy fumbles that gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the opening to outright attack Ukraine, Pfluger said.

“No one wants World War III and I didn’t like the price tag or the process,” Pfluger said. “But this at least gave them something to fend off the Russians.” And if the Russians were stopped or bogged down like they are now, it makes it less likely Putin will widen his conquest to those bordering NATO nations.

Pfluger’s view on the massive amounts of aid sent to the Ukraine began to sour in December 2022.

“My Democrat colleagues were abusing Marjorie Taylor Greene because she wanted to see an accounting of the money,” Pfluger said. “I stood up and said, ‘Don’t make fun of that. That’s our job.’” Pfluger said he referred his Democrat colleagues Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution where the Congress is given control of the federal government’s pursestrings.

Greene was pummeled in the mainstream press for questioning the amount of money the U.S. was spending on the Ukraine war. Most recently, during an interview on 60 Minutes, she told CBS reporter Leslie Stahl that Ukraine is not the 51st state.

Pfluger said he told the Biden administration when it was seeking more funds for Ukraine in December, “I want to see a list, an accounting, of every dollar that has been spent in the Ukraine. (I want to see) where it has gone, the effectiveness, how it’s helped their military, and where it all sits right now.”

“Until that happens, don’t expect another dime from the United States government. We are certainly not going to pass (another Ukraine package) as Republicans unless we know where it’s going,” he told the crowd of over 100 constituents assembled at the Cactus Hotel, 36 E Twohig, on Monday night. As of January 2023, the Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives.

Yesterday was April 3, 2023 and Pfluger said Congress hasn’t received from Biden the full accounting of the funds already approved for Ukraine aid that was requested nearly four months ago.

Pfluger is also aware of the domestic priorities that are being ignored as billions are poured into the Ukraine conflict.

“I bet if we didn’t have a crisis at the southern border, and I bet if we didn’t have $32 trillion in federal debt, and I bet if we didn’t have 13 new Gold Star families as a result of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, that we would have more (support in) public opinion on the side of helping (Ukraine),” Pfluger said.

He continued, “The fact is, we are not keeping our own house in order. The fact is, we have an economy that’s under water. The fact is we had 110,000 Americans die from Fentanyl last year.”

“So at this point in time, [Ukraine has] gotten their (weapons) systems and there is no appetite right this second to increase Ukraine assistance,” Pfluger concluded.

In a February 22, 2023 article published one year after the war in the Ukraine began, Foreign Affairs Magazine estimated that the U.S. has dispatched to the Ukraine $76.8 billion in total assistance, including humanitarian aid ($3.9 billion); financial aid ($26.4 billion); security assistance (training, equipment, weapons, and logistics) ($28.3 billion); weapons and equipment from DoD stockpiles ($23.5 billion); and grants and loans for weapons and equipment ($4.7 billion).

Israel, usually the biggest beneficiary of U.S. foreign aid and weapons, received $3.3 billion in U.S. aid since the Ukraine aid was ramped up starting when the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, according to Foreign Affairs.