THE White House National Security Council spokesman has sounded the alarm about the looming US debt default and the way that it is putting the US’ Ukraine war effort in jeopardy.
Spokesman John Kirby told CNN in an interview on Monday that Washington could only support Kiev for a ‘few weeks’ if Congress fails to move and pass a funding bill.
Kirby warned that the government shutdown could have far-reaching effects on the US-led proxy war against Russia.
He said: ‘We’ve got a little bit more funding to go, so I think we’ll be okay for the next few weeks or so. But without the supplemental request that we asked for, it will absolutely have an effect on our ability to support Ukraine well into the fall and into the winter months.’
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Avril Haines, in fact warned earlier that Russia and China would almost certainly take advantage of a US debt default.
In addition, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raised the alarm that a US debt default would trigger an economic catastrophe.
‘A default on our debt would produce an economic and financial catastrophe,’ Yellen said on April 25 at the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce members’ summit in Washington.
Yellen warned that failure by Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling and the resulting default on US debt, would result in job losses and higher interest rates for years to come.
Meanwhile, the White House has confirmed that the Biden administration has spent more than $100 billion on the war in Ukraine.
In this regard, last week, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that Ukraine’s war against Russia ‘will take a considerable length of time’ for Kiev to achieve its objectives.
The White House has confirmed that the administration of President Joe Biden has spent more than $100 billion on the war in Ukraine since last February.
‘This offensive … has operational and tactical objectives that are limited in the sense that they do not, even if they are fully achieved, they do not completely kick out all the Russians, which is the broader strategic objective that President Zelensky has,’ Milley said in an interview with an American broadcaster.
‘It’s bad policy to bankrupt our own country to send money to Ukraine,’ libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul said in a post on X. ‘I will not consent to easy passage of any spending bill that includes funding for Ukraine. Those in charge of this bill need to either take it out or will have to fight me every step of the way.’
The United States is running low on some weapons as it has ‘burned through’ years-worth of stockpiles to arm Ukraine against Russia, says Republican Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin.
In the meantime, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting of ministry officials on Tuesday: ‘The United States and its allies continue to arm the Ukrainian armed forces, while the Kiev regime continues to throw untrained soldiers into senseless assaults and slaughter.’ He added that these ‘cynical actions by the West and their henchmen in Kiev are only pushing Ukraine towards self-destruction.’
Kiev has not disclosed statistics about its military losses, but according to Russia’s estimates, the number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since the start of the counter-offensive has now surpassed 83,000, with at least 17,000 killed in September alone.
US President Biden has issued a warning that: ‘Now a small group of extreme Republicans don’t want to live up to the deal, so now everyone in America could be forced to pay the price.’
US lawmakers have until midnight on September 30 to reach an agreement on a spending bill, before funding for government services is due to dry up.
The USA is heading into a major crisis as more and more workers take strike action to defend their living standards. Forward to the American socialist revolution!