Some of the details of President Biden’s bundling of military aid to Ukraine and Taiwan with that of Israel are spelled out in the White House Office of Management and Budget’s 69-page proposal sent to acting Speaker of the House Patrick McHenry on Oct. 20. The $105 billion package has $61.4 billion for Ukraine and $10.6 billion for Israel. Even though Biden refrained from mentioning in his Oct. 19 narrative anything about Taiwan or the U.S. Southern border, they are included in the other $33 billion.
Money to pay Ukraine’s government employees is decreased from the $13.2 billion level to $11.775 billion in 2024 (on the way down to a $9.9 billion amount in 2025). The OMB says that it assumes a “robust burden sharing by the EU, Japan and other donors” and says that propping up Kiev is necessary because Russia “is explicitly seeking to ensure that Ukraine’s economy collapses in order to secure Ukraine’s surrender.” It adds that the money will be provided “through the World Bank as reimbursements for authorized and verified expenditures to the government of Ukraine in line with the current conditionality framework” developed by the U.S.
