Budget Agreement Saves US from Shutdown, but Ukraine Gets Shortchanged

The witching hour on the East Coast was approaching as America temporarily banished a ghost. It was already midnight in Ukraine. The USA would have slipped into a shutdown from Sunday if the highest elected officials had not agreed on a new government budget. Late on Saturday evening, after the House of Representatives, the Senate also agreed. Shortly before the deadline, President Joe Biden signed the compromise, but he and the Ukrainians are paying a price.

The Americans can be relieved after weeks of dispute between their representatives. State employees do not have to go on compulsory vacation and continue to be paid, national parks, zoos and museums remain open. But the agreement between Democrats and moderate Republicans is only valid for an initial 45 days, and for Ukraine the content is depressing.

Biden had demanded an additional $24 billion for Kiev, but the money does not appear in the consensus paper. That doesn’t mean that Ukraine will now come away empty-handed. 113 billion dollars for weapons and economic aid had already been approved by Congress, and the supplement requested by Biden could still be approved by November. But it is getting harder for the president; right-wing Republicans want to end support for the distant country in Eastern Europe.

Volodomir Zelensky felt this when he recently visited Washington again. The first time it was celebrated in the then completely democratically dominated Congress, this time the reception was cool. Although Biden promised him more weapons in the White House, apparently even that Atacms-Longer range missiles. “Ukraine is not the 51st state,” said a poster by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.

In the US election campaign, it is not just the hardliners who are looking more at their own southern border and, given the tensions with China, at the Pacific, with which the USA shares a coast. Even if most Democrats and moderate Republicans remain loyal to Zelensky. The Senate, a bipartisan statement said, should work “to ensure that the U.S. government continues to provide critical and sustained security and economic support to Ukraine.”

The Republican spokesman is attacked from within his own ranks

Biden is also demanding this from the House of Representatives. He expects “the speaker to keep his promise to the Ukrainian people,” meaning Kevin McCarthy. The Republican McCarthy contributed a lot to the minimal consensus on a short-term budget, and the extremist wing of his group wants to punish him for it. The agitator Matt Gaetz is calling for an uprising against Speaker McCarthy, and it could happen as early as this week.

The duel of camps is shaping the USA before the presidential election in November 2024, driven by Donald Trump. Candidate Trump boasts that he would end the war in a heartbeat, and he and Russian President Vladimir Putin praise each other. And the American trench warfare is not the only bad news for Zelensky. In Europe, after Hungary, other countries are threatening to isolate themselves when it comes to aid to Ukraine.

On Saturday, pro-Russian forces won the parliamentary election in Slovakia. Winner Robert Fico made it known that Ukraine would not receive “a single cartridge” if he ruled. Fico is aiming for an alliance with other Eurosceptic parties as well as a pro-Russian and right-wing extremist party; he has been using rhetoric directed against NATO and the EU since the outbreak of the war. Before the election he said: “I don’t want Slovakia to be ruled by non-governmental organizations and the American embassy.” He accused opponents of being “corrupted” by the EU. The Slovakian president calls Fico a “US agent”.

So far, the EU has been able to rely on the Slovakian government. This neighbor of Ukraine took in many refugees and handed over an anti-aircraft system right at the start of the war, and NATO troops are also stationed in Slovakia. However, in view of inflation and fear of impoverishment, several parties promised during the election campaign that their own people would now come first.

Such tendencies also exist in Poland, where elections will take place on October 15th. The right-wing nationalist PiS government, which has so far supported Ukraine against the Russian attackers, is adopting an unfriendly tone. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said they could no longer supply weapons and had to equip their own army. President Andrzej Duda compared Ukraine to a drowning man who is dragging the helper – probably Poland – into the depths with him.