Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of four Republicans who voted in favor the massive Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan-border bill that failed on Wednesday, is having a hard time with her Republican colleagues who voted against it, presumably including Sen. Dan Sullivan, who was a “no” vote.
“I have a difficult time understanding again how anyone else in the future is going to want to be on that negotiating team — on anything — if we are going to be against it,” Murkowski told a CNN reporter.
“I’ve gone through the multiple stages of grief. Today I’m just pissed off,” Murkowski told reporter Manu Raju.
The bill failed in the Senate, even though Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma was one of the lead negotiators on behalf of the Republicans.
Murkowski lingered on the Senate floor during the hours-long vote, spending her time chatting with Sen. Krysten Sinema, the Arizona independent (formerly Democrat) who was one of the sponsors of the foreign aid package that would have provided $118 billion in taxpayer money for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
Just $20.2 billion was set aside for the border security that Americans have become so concerned about, but the language was concerning and appeared to actually set no real parameters for the Biden Administration in securing the border.
As the vote appeared to be going against the bill, Sen. Sinema lashed out:
“If you want to continue to use the southern border as a backdrop for your political campaign, that’s fine, good luck to you,” she said. “But I have a very clear message for anyone using the southern border for staged political events: Don’t come to Arizona. Take your political theater to Texas. Do not bring it to my state.”
But conservatives have cautioned that the bill is a border sieve, allowing millions of illegals to come through unimpeded.
Liz Wheeler, host of the Liz Wheeler Show, wrote, “Hilarious coordinated narrative from all Democrats: ‘Republicans demanded a border bill & when we gave it to them, they killed it!’ No, you idiots. Conservatives demand border SECURITY. Your monstrosity of a bill allows ~2M illegals in every year, gives $60B to Ukraine (versus only $20B to the border), enables phony asylum claims, & allows Biden to stop a border shutdown if he wants to. THAT is not border security. That’s open borders & it’s dangerous.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, said, “The first “border bill” allocated 3x more money to protect Ukraine’s border than our own. Now that failed, so they’re trying to push the same funding bill for Ukraine to while allocating ZERO to protect our border – which reveals what the whole game was about the 1st time anyway.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said, “Democrats kept their border bill text secret for four months because of the terrible provisions that don’t fix the border crisis. It would have normalized 1.8M illegal aliens per year, taxpayer-funded lawyers for illegals, and immediate work permits. This is why the bill was dead within 24 hours.”
Bradley Devlin, writing for The American Conservative explains what happened in greater detail:
“Since September, a revolving group of senators have been negotiating behind closed doors on a supplemental funding bill that would tie Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific aid to border security. For months, members of the Republican conference were asking for more clarity and detail on what was going to be included in the overly-hyped border deal. Claims made in various statements, leaks, and reports on the negotiations—which primarily involved Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut—were wide ranging. One day, reports would claim talks were heating up or progress was being made. The next, negotiations were on ice and negotiators were at an impasse, particularly when it came to the president’s parole powers, which ultimately were not addressed in the final version of the bill.
“All of a sudden, negotiators dropped the full text of the bill like an atomic bomb on Capitol Hill. The final product spanned 370 pages and would cost American taxpayers $118.3 billion. Sixty of the $118.3 billion supplemental was directed towards supporting Ukraine. Another $14 billion was for aid to Israel, and $20 billion was to ostensibly secure the southern border,” Devlin writes.
Read Devlin’s report at this link:
