(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is pushing back against the notion that the United States can sustainably finance multiple global conflicts without compromising its national security.
During the latest installment of Fox News Sunday, Vance responded to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had defended the allocation of $60 billion in taxpayer funds to support Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia.
“It’s not that we don’t admire the courageousness of the Ukrainians, it’s that America is stretched too thin,” Vance told host Shannon Bream.
“We do not have the industrial capacity to support a war in Ukraine, a war in Israel, potentially a war in east Asia if the Chinese invade Taiwan. So, America has to pick and choose,” he added.
Vance’s remarks were prompted by Graham’s assertions aired during the same program on April 21.
At that time, Vance had penned an op-ed for the New York Times, contending that the U.S. lacked the requisite manufacturing capabilities to supply the weapons needed for Ukraine to prevail against Russia.
“With all due respect Senator Vance, he is wrong,” Graham told Bream last weekend, responding to the Vance’s Times op-ed. “We were told within four days Kyiv would fall. … He’s wrong about the whole concept that we can’t deal with multiple problems.”
In response, Vance advocated for a redirection of focus towards countering China, rather than allocating resources to conflicts such as Ukraine, which currently lack a clear strategy and timeline for victory.
“The math doesn’t make sense. We’re stretched too thin, and we’ve got to focus,” Vance conveyed to Bream on Sunday.
🔥🔥🔥
“Some of the very people who shipped America’s manufacturing base overseas to China…are now the same people who are saying we can get involved in three wars at once…Why are Americans subsidizing European security? We should be focused on our own problems.” – @JDVance1 pic.twitter.com/XcvQEtLuAM
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) April 28, 2024
The Ohio senator also called out European nations for their failure to increase aid for Ukraine, despite their geographical proximity to the embattled Eastern European nation.
“Germany still, after Donald Trump demanded, still doesn’t spend two percent of GDP on defense,” Vance added. “A lot of the NATO countries have their own industrial mind to atrophy so wire American subsidizing it European security? We should be focused on our own problems which is mostly China.”
