America's Talking - Johnson Risks His Job Over Israel, Ukraine Votes

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has set up a week of controversy, political posturing and even risked his own job over federal funding for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine. The Senate passed a $95 billion aid package earlier this year that combined Israel and Ukraine funding that included $60 billion for Ukraine and $14.1 billion for Israel. That bill made no progress in the House so far, but the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel have pushed the issue to the forefront. Full Story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_c40105ae-fc12-11ee-b11a-339751511969.html Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAliab, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, April 19th. U.S. national security officials are keeping a close eye on developments in the Mideast as Israel overnight Friday launched missiles into Iran in retaliation for Iran's barrage of more than 300 drones and other missiles into Israel last weekend. Iran said last weekend strikes were in response to Israel's attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1st. While near their attack appeared to do a lot of damage, U.S. national security officials are worried that the escalating tensions in the Midees could grow even worse. Israel is a U.S. staunchest ally in the region, yet at home, sometimes violent protests by anti-Israel factions in America also are boiling over.

joining me to discuss the tense situation and what it means for Americans is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief of the Center Square. Casey, this story has so many different angles, not the least of which is national security concerns. Where do you want to start? Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right about that. Let's start with the taxpayer angle, as always, Dan. I mean, I do want to get into the energy angle, into the foreign policy angle a little bit. But there's major taxpayer considerations this week, as you likely remember. the Senate passed a $95 billion, billion with a B billion dollar foreign aid package earlier this year.

That was about, you know, $60 billion for Ukraine, a little bit for Taiwan, and then I think, you know, $10 or $15 billion for Israel. And so that is really languished in the House. Johnson has not taken it up. He said they would think about it. You probably also remember that that $95 billion deal came after a draw now. not totally failed effort to add some border provisions to the foreign aid funding. You know, Republicans, many Senate Republicans and other Republicans wanted border provisions,

but then the border provisions sort of seem to have poison pill elements to them or just weren't good enough in other respects. So that's kind of the latest taxpayer angle. But now this week, the tensions between Iran and Israel have been escalating. I would just add that I think that the media bias has been. particularly strong on this issue, Dan, and all the more important to be tuning in and reading tuning into this shows like this and then reading at thecentersquare.com because the full context is not often given to the Israel. Iran conflict, for instance, you know, saying,

people were saying that, you know, Israel basically started this with the strike on the consulate. But listeners may not know that Iranian-backed terror groups have been attacking Israel on its own territory, especially in northern Israel, for months now. Iran financially backs groups with similar ideologies that attack Israel all day. It would be similar to if we actually be very similar to if we found out, you know, if the cartels were actually launching missiles into California and Texas, and we knew for a fact that the Mexican government was supporting them. But then when you try to blame the Mexican government, Mexican government says, hey, it's not us, it's the cartels. But we know that Mexico gives money to the cartels. It is.

in this hypothetical situation. It's very similar with Iran, these groups, and Israel. Iran's funding these groups, the groups attack Israel. It creates a degree of separation, but not really. And so Israel has been persistently peppered with these missiles, especially in the north, for months and months. And so, you know, that's the backdrop for Israel attacking this Iranian consulate in Syria, right? So it didn't come out of nowhere.

That's important context. But back to the taxpayer implications, all this has boiled over and put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has probably the least fun job in the world now, Dan, as we know, House Speaker isn't what it used to be. It seems like you have a short lifespan and everyone hates you for a little while and you try to get something done. And he's always got this sort of Damocles hanging over him to be removed from his speakership.

But we're heading into this weekend with a likely vote on more funding. Maybe that likely that $95 billion figure coming back up, money for Ukraine, money for Israel, money to hold back China and the Taiwan region, the Indo-Pacific. So it's coming to a head this weekend day on that taxpayer angle. I think, you know, Johnson's not going to have the votes unless he works with Democrats. And I think he actually can succeed in doing that, but it looks like it could just cost him his speakership. Casey, just a bit of a different angle here. Iran is a staunch enemy of the United States, sworn enemy of the United States. President Biden, has taken some heavy heat this past week since Iran, for the first time ever, by the way,

directly attacked Israel. As you mentioned, in the past, they've gone through these terrorist groups that they sponsor in other Mideast countries. But after Iran sent 300 or more than 300 missiles into Israel last weekend, it was revealed the topic came back up that President Biden last year eased sanctions on Iran. Iran, unfreezing billions of dollars and assets that Iran now has access to and potentially used to help fund what's going on over in the Mideast. Tell us more about that. Yeah, I mean, this is part of a pattern of, it's very clear that Iran is ideologically driven

to oppose Israel. Also, I think, religiously driven. There is kind of a radical Islamic thread that runs through Iran and the Iranian government that breeds a hatred for Israel that I think is hard for Westerners to understand, especially kind of secular postmodern Westerners, to understand that entire foreign policies, entire nations could be driven by a sort of religious ideology like that. I think they have tried over and again to reason with Iran, but they're trying a reason with someone who's kind of religiously and ideologically taken captive. And so it's really failed. I mean, Obama, of course, former President Barack Obama had his famous Iran deal where just billions of dollars in cash was flown over and, you know, didn't really, over to Iran. And we didn't

get too far with that. Iran is, you know, continued to develop its nuclear capacities, which allegedly maybe have, were the, the sites that Israel attacked in its most recent attack, its most recent targeted strikes. So, you know, there's these efforts. Yeah, Biden has tried to change sanctions around, try to play nice with Iran over and over. You could call it appeasement. You call it whatever. But so far it hasn't worked. We've tried to play nice. And I think the reason for that is, you know, I think they're afraid that if they play too hardball with Iran, they're going to turn off all the other Muslim countries in the region. But, you know, so far it worked playing nice with Iran hasn't worked. They've only continued to attack Israel.

I think people look at, you know, Israel is such a small country. We're only going to take the side of one country. And maybe geographically, they're small. But when it comes to economics, when it comes to military, when it comes to, you know, finances, when it comes to technology, Israel is actually a very large nation. So they may not have the land, but they're really important. They have a much stronger economy and technology sector and several other things than their neighbors. And so at least for now, we've stuck by Israel. I think they want to just de-escalate and keep the status quo in the Middle East, but every day it seems less likely that's possible.

Casey, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com. Attention, parents, teachers, and taxpayers. Do you care about the decisions being made in K-12 public education? Do you want to know how those decisions impact your students and school district? Chalkboard news has you covered. We're delivering fact-based reporting on the policies that shape school safety curriculum and recovery from learning loss.

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