During a recent appearance on Newsmax, Sen. Rand Paul called out the over $14 billion that has been recently allocated by Joe Biden to Ukraine that funds, in part, their military amidst the conflict with Russia.

According to Sen. Paul, this funding of arms “should be sales, not gifts.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Exclusive Shows and Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

On March 15th, President Biden signed a $1.5 trillion bill that funds federal operations through September of 2022. Baked into the hefty bill was $13.6 billion for Ukraine aimed at funding military equipment for the country as well as general economic relief.

On top of the bill signed on March 15th, the White House released a statement on March 16th revealing that they’re sending “an additional $800 million in security assistance to Ukraine.”

Per the White House’s March 16th press release, the $800 million looks to be exclusively designed for military equipment that includes the likes of anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles:

• 800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems
• 2,000 Javelin, 1,000 light anti-armor weapons, and 6,000 AT-4 anti-armor systems
• 100 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems
• 100 grenade launchers, 5,000 rifles, 1,000 pistols, 400 machine guns, and 400 shotguns
• Over 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenade launcher and mortar rounds
• 25,000 sets of body armor
• 25,000 helmets

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt told Sen. Paul during the segment that he’s “one of the few fiscal hawks left in Congress,” and that the billions being allocated to Ukraine is significant but mentioned that to a Congress that tosses around trillions frivolously, perhaps billions are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

Go Ad-Free, Get Exclusive Shows and Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“It’s a reasonable amount of money. Although you know these days when they throw around trillion all the time, I guess billions don’t even really matter anymore. It’s just kind of like pocket change, isn’t it?”

Sen. Paul responded that even when the amounts handed out are in the billions, it should be carefully examined and in certain instances, such as for supplying arms, these countries should pay the United States back.

“Well, billions do matter and I’ve insisted each time that any spending comes through Congress – whether it’s for war, whether it’s for peace, whether it’s for welfare, whether it’s for Covid – that it be offset. So I have introduced amendments in the past – these requests for arms, that they’d be paid for them.”

The senator went on to explain that the military aid being handed off to Ukraine is the “borrowed money” placing the United States into further debt that taxpayers are going to be on the hook for. While Sen. Paul admitted to being sympathetic to Ukraine, he said we shouldn’t be destroying our dollar in the process.

“And this doesn’t mean I don’t have sympathy for Ukraine, or actually not in favor of selling them arms. But I think they should be sales, not gifts, and I think that we should not go further in debt because ultimately we are the backstop to the world. And if we are indebted to such a degree that we destroy our currency or our country who will be the backstop?”

This piece was written by Gregory Hoyt on March 17, 2022. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of DrewBerquist.com. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.