WASHINGTON (Nexstar) – After lawmakers reached a deal to increase the debt ceiling to prevent the U.S. from defaulting, Republican senators are unhappy with the deal that was spearheaded by their colleagues in the House.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says he and other Republican senators are unhappy with the cap on defense spending imposed by the deal. Graham worries the defense spending cap will stop the U.S. from continuing to help Ukraine fight for its independence.
“What the House did was wrong,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “It’s right to want to control spending and there’s some good things in this bill but it was wrong to give a defense a number inconsistent with the threats we face.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Republican senators came to him to figure out how to ensure the U.S. doesn’t abandon Ukraine.
“When they came to me and asked me to do this, I said ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea,’” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.
Schumer says he’s been working with Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and that together they’ve come to an agreement to figure out how to pass additional legislation to keep funding Ukraine’s war effort “through emergency and other ways, but also through the regular appropriations process which was always going to go forward.”
Graham says ongoing support for Ukraine is pivotal, adding, “Putin’s invasion is a defining moment of the 21st century, that if he gets away with it there goes Taiwan and the world will begin to crumble.”
