[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 80 (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H4808]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





               DANGEROUS BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS ON UKRAINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Gaetz) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GAETZ. Madam Speaker, I rise to warn of a dangerous bipartisan 
consensus that is walking us into war with Russia.
  In the days following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, Senator 
Rob Portman said: ``I haven't seen this kind of unity since 9/11.'' It 
is a nice statement, but what does it really mean?
  Unity always seems to come before the worst decisions we make. Our 
drive to unity often overruns our reason and discernment. The post-9/11 
consensus gave us the Iraq war, the PATRIOT Act.
  The COVID lockdowns and mandates came from unity bundled by fear. 
Defund the police took off because dissent wasn't allowed. You were 
shouted down as a racist, just as now questioning our actions in 
Ukraine makes you a traitor.
  Do we have amnesia in this House? Is memory loss a consequence of the 
gerontocracy of Congress? Just a year ago, we lost a war against goat 
herders waving rifles. Now, we are rushing to fight a nation that 
possesses 6,000 nuclear warheads.
  Representatives now recklessly assert that we are at war. Congressman 
Moulton said last week: ``We are not just at war to support the 
Ukrainians. We are fundamentally at war, although somewhat through a 
proxy, with Russia.''
  The clandestine services are supposed to be the quiet professionals. 
Seems now they can't stop bragging to news outlets about how America 
helped Ukraine assassinate Russian generals and sink Russia's flagship.
  How exactly is this supposed to end? It is as if the administration 
is probing Putin's nuclear red line.
  A game of chicken between nuclear powers is insane, and this from Joe 
Biden, who campaigned to be America's calming sedative. From Russia, I 
worry about nuclear weapons, not broken tanks.
  Last night, this House approved $40 billion for Ukraine as American 
families go without baby formula. To put that in context, Biden's 
budget calls for $15.3 billion for Customs and Border Protection, so 
apparently, Ukraine is more than twice as important as our homeland.
  Two weeks ago, we voted on the Ukraine lend-lease act. I was 1 of 
just 10 Representatives to vote ``no,'' and here was the response from 
MSNBC: ``GOP's `Putin wing' balks at supplying weapons to Ukraine.''
  So, you are a supporter of Putin if you think it is a bad idea to 
give the White House blanket permission to send ``any weapon, weapons 
system, munition, aircraft, vessel, boat, or other implement of war'' 
to Ukraine while surrendering our rights to repayment.
  We are sending so many weapons to Ukraine that we are depleting our 
own stockpiles, and we aren't just sending bullets and rifles. Now, we 
are sending howitzers that can fire up to 15 miles. This means weapons 
we supply and train Ukrainians to use could potentially strike Russian 
territory.
  These weapons aren't just ending up in the hands of the Ukrainian 
military, either. One official said weapons drop ``into a big black 
hole.''
  Many of these are ending up in the hands of the Azov Battalion. Forty 
House Democrats called them a neo-Nazi foreign terrorist organization 
just 3 years ago. Now that they are killing Russians, are these avowed 
ethnonationalists apparently not so bad?
  Democrats go on a daily snipe hunt for white supremacy here in 
America, yet they are fine giving rockets to actual white supremacists 
in Ukraine.
  Taking the position that we arm anyone to the teeth who will shoot at 
Russians has actually not always worked for America. It is Javelins to 
neo-Nazis today; Stinger missiles to the mujahideen in Afghanistan 
yesterday.
  In Syria--another conflict that Washington had consensus on--we 
supplied jihadist terrorists in their fight against Assad. Assad, like 
Putin, is an evil man, but does that mean the American taxpayer must 
arm his enemies without any further inquiry? I don't think so, and I 
would imagine most Americans don't think so. But that is why we never 
have real debate on these issues.
  The swamp would rather talk about saving democracy than our actual 
dangerous reality. If we are at war, like Congressman Moulton says, 
then why not vote on an Authorization for Use of Military Force, or are 
we just going to operate in Ukraine like we have in Yemen and 
throughout the world? Forever, undeclared wars.
  I suspect many in this body won't want a vote or a debate because 
regime change in Russia is their actual objective, not defending 
Ukraine. To achieve this goal, they are willing to send billions to 
Kyiv that will line the pockets of corrupt officials, just like we did 
in Afghanistan. We are sleepwalking into a war, and the American people 
are left in the dark.

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