On November 18, 2024, President Biden submitted to Congress his plan to cancel $4.65 billion in Ukrainian debt owed to the United States. To block this debt forgiveness, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered a resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 117) to disapprove the president’s proposal.
The Senate rejected Paul’s motion on November 20, 2024 by a vote of 37 to 61 (Roll Call 295). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the $4.65 billion, which is just a small fraction of U.S. aid to Ukraine, not only should not be canceled, but never should have been loaned to Ukraine in the first place. Moreover, the United States should not interject itself into the Russia-Ukraine war by providing aid to one of the combatants, and should instead follow a noninterventionist foreign policy that puts America first.
