U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) said that the U.S. cannot afford to send billions of dollars to Ukraine given the record-high inflation and rising gas prices that its citizens are currently experiencing.
In a tweet, Burchett said, “The United States cannot afford to blindly send billions of dollars to Ukraine while we deal with record-high inflation and gas prices here at home. Europe needs to provide the primary financial aid since the war is right on its doorstep.”
The United States cannot afford to blindly send billions of dollars to Ukraine while we deal with record-high inflation and gas prices here at home. Europe needs to provide the primary financial aid since the war is right on its doorstep. I joined @ShaunKraisman to discuss. pic.twitter.com/lCEpOCaneV
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) June 2, 2022
Burchett’s tweet additionally shared an interview that he did on Newsmax.
“$40 billion is what we sent to them, basically unchecked. The president already sent, I believe, $13 billion. That makes $53 billion. Russia’s entire military budget this year is just $62 billion – not just ‘just’, but it is $62 billion. We’ve got to start questioning where this money is actually going. Is it getting to where it needs to be,” he said in the interview.
“And you’ve got to look at the complexities of the bill. Its just beyond me that this amount of money that we don’t even have – which we’re borrowing from the Chinese, which they, all our intelligence tells us that’s where our next conflicts are going to be involving – so it raises a lot of questions,” Burchett continued.
“And this reminds me of very parallels to Vietnam. If you remember our short history, I mean, our short memory of that – we sent money. They stole some of it. We sent some armament in there. They couldn’t handle it. We sent advisors, and then we sent troops in, and then they sent body bags home of American soldiers,” he said.
“And I just – this further increment towards war to me is a very, very serious issue,” the 2nd District U.S. representative said. “And you’ve got to figure China, good gosh. They’ve enslaved millions of Uyghurs, and yet we’re still buying our good from China. Nobody’s raising Cain about China.”
“So the military industrial complex is alive and well,” he said. “Start looking at stock portfolios when you have members of Congress making 75 percent, in leadership, making 75 percent returns on their stocks investments.”
Burchett believes that the flow of money needs to be tracked.
“We sure got to start looking at what the heck’s going on. As my daddy used to say, let’s follow the money, and we’re going to clearly have to follow the money,” he said.
He later said, “Europe is going to have to step up at some point, and they are not financially doing their fair share. It’s continuously going to be my great-grandkids paying for this war. At some point someone has got to answer some of these questions.”
Burchett serves on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
