Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
There’s a very simple logic to the Democrat position on Ukraine: Its continued welfare sponsored by American taxpayers is very important, but it’s not more important than maintaining an open Southern border for the world’s criminal and destitute to flood the nation (again, sponsored by American taxpayers).
We know that’s the indisputable Democrat position because while they, including the Biden White House, insist there’s nothing more urgent than sending tens of billions dollars more to Ukraine, they’re not willing to do so if it means blocking the access of a single illegal alien to America’s interior. After months of negotiating a matter that shouldn’t require more than a second’s worth of debate, Democrats put forward a bill that legalized the unauthorized entry of up to 5,000 aliens per day. That’s how serious they are about keeping the border agape.
It’s an untenable position, yet that brings us to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican who has stunningly revealed himself this week to hold the exact same position. Immediately after he was elected to lead the House and his party, Johnson emphatically stated in public multiple times that solving the border crisis, both instigated and exacerbated by the president, was not just a priority but mandatory.
“Any national security package has to begin with the security of our own border… We have to effect real policy change at the border, and that is a necessary condition to anything we do going forward,” Johnson said on December 6, 2023.
When Democrats presented their “bipartisan” bill to legalize nearly another 2 million aliens per year, enough Republicans walked away to kill both that bill and any further welfare for Ukraine. But then Johnson had a few meetings with Biden administration officials and he’s now on the same side as Democrats. He’s calling himself a “wartime speaker,” a consequential figure of historical proportions, and promising to put up another round of legislation for Ukraine after having secured nothing on the border.
If Democrats weren’t willing to budge on the border for the sake of their beloved Ukraine, but Johnson is, what does that mean?
No matter how you cut it, Mike Johnson supports an open Southern border, too.