One of the first legislative moves by newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was to sever military aid for Israel from military aid for Ukraine, a key demand of Freedom Caucus officials skeptical of giving further assistance to Ukraine in the first place — but then he took it a step further, pairing Israel aid with $14 billion in cuts to IRS funding authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, which would make tax evasion likelier and actually increase the deficit.
In so doing, wrote Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman on Wednesday, Johnson appears to have made a strategic blunder and decreased the likelihood of the House getting its way on foreign aid.
"Here's what's quizzical about Speaker Johnson's strategy on the Israel funding," wrote Sherman on X. "Had he not offset the $14B bill, he probably would've passed it with 350-400 votes and jammed the Senate. Johnson could've made law in his first week. That would've pushed Senate Rs to try craft a Ukraine/border bill — which has been the party's preference now for months."
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Now, however, Sherman wrote, with "the Dems going to provide single-digit votes in the House (most likely), Senate will likely ignore. And it's pushing senators to now consider a massive Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan bill which will have zero offsets."
This comes amid previous reporting that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is already at odds with Johnson, and is pushing for a comprehensive military aid package among Republicans in the Senate that ties together Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
Johnson, a backbench lawmaker known for pushing Biblical literalism and spreading Satanic panic, was elected to the speakership after several weeks of chaos and House paralysis that left Republicans fighting with each other and several speaker candidates going down in flames.
