The House passed its multibillion-dollar Israel aid package on Thursday, advancing the legislation that President Joe Biden has already threatened to veto and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said will be dead on arrival in the Senate.
The $14.3 billion aid package is intended to aid Israel as it defends itself against an invasion by the Hamas terrorist group that started earlier this month. The bill passed 226-196, with 12 Democrats voting for the bill to help push it across the finish line. Two Republicans voted against it.
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While aid to Israel is something both parties strongly agree with, Democratic support for the legislation broke down after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) added a provision in the bill that would cut $14.3 billion in funding from the Internal Revenue Service to offset the cost of the aid to Israel — prompting Democratic leaders to encourage party members to vote against it.
“It’s a bad precedent to set. It costs resources. But we have never conditioned emergency aid like we have under Speaker Johnson this week. This is wrong. This is wrong for Israelis, this is wrong for the region,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said on Thursday. “This is Republicans playing politics with aid to Israel.”
However, Johnson and Republicans have defended the decision to add a pay-for in the bill because of the growing national debt.
“We are in dire straits as a nation,” Johnson said at a press conference. “We have obligations, and we have commitments, and we want to protect and help and assist our friend Israel, but we have to keep our own house in order as well. And I think people at home — I think the American people understand that.”
But estimates show the cut to the IRS wouldn’t pay for the bill and would actually increase the nation’s debt over the course of a decade, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office released earlier this week.
The CBO said that the pay-for in the bill would decrease revenue by $26.7 billion and add $12.5 billion to the deficit over the next decade.
In addition, Biden has said he will veto the bill if it comes across his desk and instead wants his $106 billion supplemental request to pass, which includes aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and also includes funding for border security measures.
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“We have a common enemy. We should help Israel defeat a common enemy,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) said. “I hope the president’s bluffing or not in his full faculties when he says he will veto that bill.”
But, the likelihood of it reaching Biden’s desk is slim as Schumer has said he won’t even bring the bill up for a vote in the Senate, making it dead on arrival.
