(BrightPress.org) – Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) was surprised that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell couldn’t garner more support for his recently unveiled “border” bill which included tens of billions in additional funding for the Ukrainian and Israeli war efforts.
Senate Republicans rebuffed the bill, refusing to even pass it to the House for approval. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had said the bill was “dead on arrival” for multiple reasons. The $118 billion whopper of a bill required 60 votes to move on to the House and was only able to garner 49 in support.
Many Republicans were deeply upset about the contents of the bill which included $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, additional funding for security in the Red Sea, and Pacific allies coping with Chinese aggression.
The bill had been in the works for months and was allegedly negotiated by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and James Lankford (R-OK) along with several White House negotiators.
Murphy says he’s now discovered that McConnell himself was responsible for much of the written text. In comments to NBC, Murphy said McConnell “wrote the deal,” and wasn’t just its champion. Much of the credit, or rather, the blame for the contents were shifted to the virtually unheard of Lankford. McConnell is already unpopular within his own party.
Murphy said it was “worrying” that the deal only mustered 4 Republican votes. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said he never saw legislation implode quite this rapidly when it had McConnell’s support.
McConnell took a public relations beating online, with commenters and colleagues mocking him openly on X (formerly Twitter).
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was fiercely opposed to the disaster bill. He pointed out that Republicans can blame McConnell for allowing their party to be blamed for the border situation.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said McConnell isn’t “aligned with conservatives” when it comes to the Ukrainian war effort. Conservatives have largely rejected continued involvement and support for the Ukrainian war.
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