On Thursday, Republican Senator Rand Paul (KY) blocked a massive $40 billion Ukraine aid package, saying that the bill would further worsen the ongoing inflation crisis.
Paul blocked the package after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) came together to request unanimous agreement from all 100 senators to allow an immediate vote.
“Reserving the right to object, my oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation,” Paul said. “And no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America.”
“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy,” Paul added, referencing the United States’ record high inflation rate. “Inflation doesn’t just come out of nowhere, it comes from deficit spending.”
“Without [Paul’s] consent to move more quickly, Mr. Schumer scheduled the first in a series of procedural votes for Monday afternoon to move the bill toward final passage late next week,” The Wall Street Journal explained. “It is expected to pass overwhelmingly. The House passed the legislation 368 to 57 late Tuesday, with support from all Democrats and most Republicans. All the lawmakers who voted no were Republicans.”
The news comes shortly after new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the inflation crisis continued to worsen last month.
“The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, increased 8.3% from a year ago, higher than the Dow Jones estimate for an 8.1% gain,” CNBC reported. “That represented a slight ease from March’s peak but was still close to the highest level since the summer of 1982.”
