Hey, what’s a paltry fifty billion dollars between friends, right? That’s roughly the amount of money that the Biden administration is asking Congress to approve in a short-term spending bill. The request is being described by the White House as “technical assistance to Congress” in the form of a continuing resolution. Biden’s people would like to see this spending bill pass as a standalone measure before the debate over the big spending bill takes place. That needs to be done by September 30, barely five weeks ahead of the midterm elections. And where will this latest mountain of money be going? To Ukraine, of course. And also to fight COVID, which will apparently be an excuse that we use indefinitely from here on out. Oh, and monkeypox too, or whatever we’re supposed to be calling it this week. There’s also some money for natural disaster recovery in there, which should probably be handled by FEMA. (Government Executive)

While Congress and the Biden administration are still hammering out a budget deal for the upcoming fiscal year, the Biden administration is asking for a short-term funding measure with specific funding, totaling $47.1 billion, to support Ukraine, respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and monkeypox spread as well as help areas impacted by natural disasters.

The White House said on Friday that a continuing resolution will be needed as the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, however the administration is confident Congress will come to a bipartisan agreement. If no agreement is reached by the end of the fiscal year, then a government shutdown will begin just over a month from the midterm elections.

“Today, as part of our prudent planning for the end of the fiscal year, we are providing technical assistance to Congress on a short-term CR,” which “provides guidance to lawmakers on funding and legislative adjustments that are necessary to avoid disruptions to a range of important public services,” wrote Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a blog post.

One part of the problem with this situation is that we have blown through so much magical money over the past couple of years, measured in the trillions and largely blamed on the pandemic, that people have likely become numb. At this point, $47.1 billion dollars probably sounds like “no big deal.” Some of us are old enough to remember when a billion dollars sounded like a lot of money.

We should be asking the White House to explain precisely how much of this batch of money would be going to Ukraine. We have given more cash and other forms of aid to the Ukrainians than just about every other country combined. Where is all of this money going? How many of the weapons we have sent over there actually made it to the battlefield to fight the Russians and how many of them mysteriously disappeared? We don’t know because we’ve never been told and nobody seems to be keeping track of any of this. Even CNN is admitting that the White House is unable to track any of this. Before the invasion began and Zelensky was turned into some sort of superhero action figure, his government was regularly being investigated for corruption and a lot of arms trafficking took place in Ukraine. Shouldn’t we have a better idea of what’s going on?

Some of the rest of the money is supposedly going to “fight COVID.” But how long will we be footing those bills? Not that many people seem to be lining up for booster shots and our businesses and schools are allegedly almost entirely open. Is “fighting COVID” going to be the new magical phrase every time the White House wants to pluck the next fifty billion dollars from the magical money tree in the Rose Garden? The money for natural disasters seems fine, provided it goes to where it’s really needed. Of course, that’s a pretty big assumption these days when we can apparently spend any amount of money domestically provided you work the phrase “climate change” into the title of the bill.

I have to wonder how much of this request is legitimate and how much of it is intended to be used as a potential political trap. The Democrats would love nothing more than to see the GOP balk at another massive spending spree and shut down the government right before early voting starts in the midterms. The airwaves would be filled with images of barefoot children standing forlornly on the sidewalk, waiting for a school bus that never arrives. “SEE WHAT TRUMP AND THE MAGA REPUBLICANS HAVE DONE NOW???”

It’s all getting to be a bit much to bear. And unfortunately, Biden and the Democrats probably know that this is the time to cash in as quickly as possible because congressional Republicans are terrified at the idea of a government shutdown that they will be blamed for. And if they don’t figure out a way to stop falling behind in what should be totally winnable House and Senate races, you can look forward to at least two more years of the same.