President Biden is considering asking Congress for a massive $100 billion spending package for the Ukraine war, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The idea of the huge spending package would be to fund the proxy war through the 2024 election without having to worry about the growing opposition to the policy in Congress, as the majority of the House and the Senate currently still support arming Ukraine.
"The ‘big package’ idea is firmly supported by many throughout the administration," a source familiar with discussions on the matter told The Telegraph. "
Supporters of Ukraine want this to be a one-and-done big bill, and then not have to deal with it until after the next election."
Defense News recently reported that multiple senators have also proposed passing a massive Ukraine aid package to get through a whole year. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put the price tag at $70 billion.
An unnamed Biden administration official told The Telegraph that the White House is "not making any decisions about whether to do one big package or about how much it would be" until after a new House speaker is elected to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), which is expected to happen on Wednesday.
While the majority of Congress supports more spending on the Ukraine war, it could be difficult to bring a massive aid package to the floor of the House for a vote due to the sway GOP opponents of the policy have over the speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) launched the effort to oust McCarthy after accusing him of cutting a secret deal with the Democrats on Ukraine aid.
If a $100 billion aid package is authorized by Congress, it would bring total US spending on the proxy war to about $213 billion.
