Rep. Massie Proposes Ending Foreign Aid To Israel: “They’re The Biggest Welfare Recipient of the U.S.”
Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Wednesday proposed an amendment to the 2027 funding bill for the State Department that would cut foreign aid to Israel. The amendment failed 104-314-10. 103 Democrats voted in favor, 10 voted present. Massie was the only Republican to support the amendment. “Israel has the strongest economy in the Middle East,” Massie said. “Their debt per GDP is in much better shape than ours. They don’t need our money. In fact, they’ve claimed recently they want to get off of the welfare. But I’m concerned that the other funding mechanisms they’re talking about, or commingling our technology and supply chains, will have even less transparency than what’s going on here today. So I’m opposed to that as well.” “I’m opposed to all foreign aid,” Massie said. “I didn’t pick on Israel here. I’ve offered an amendment to defund Egypt and also to defund the aid to Jordan, which we’ll talk about in a little bit.”
REP. THOMAS MASSIE: (R-KY): Madam Chair, my amendment is simple. It strikes $ 3.3 billion of foreign aid to the country of Israel from the State Department funding bill. You know, we’ve got $ 39.4 trillion of debt. We’ve got needs at home, which include our infrastructure, our roads and bridges. We’ve got a shortfall in that fund. We’ve got our locks and dams that we’re perpetually trying to figure out new funding mechanisms to come up with. And we’ve got homeless veterans. And we’re sending more money to Israel in this bill than we spend on homeless veterans in this country. Just to put it in perspective, there are 3,000 counties in this country, and if you divide that into $ 3 billion, that’s a million dollars from every county. This is not a significant amount of money that is going overseas. So I think we should stop it. We should put them on a diet. They’re the biggest welfare recipient of the United States and have been for many years. $ 310 billion has been received by Israel from the taxpayers of the United States. That’s in inflation-adjusted dollars since we’ve been giving them money. And that’s why I think this amendment is important, and I reserve the balance of my time… And with that, I would like to close by saying that Israel has the strongest economy in the Middle East. Their debt per GDP is in much better shape than ours. They don’t need our money. In fact, they’ve claimed recently they want to get off of the welfare. But I’m concerned that the other funding mechanisms they’re talking about, or commingling our technology and supply chains, will have even less transparency than what’s going on here today. So I’m opposed to that as well. I’m opposed to all foreign aid. I didn’t pick on Israel here. I’ve offered an amendment to defund Egypt and also to defund the aid to Jordan, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. But I am particularly concerned this year about the foreign aid to Israel. There have been 70,000 casualties in Gaza. And I don’t think we should be part of that. American taxpayers should not be conscripted into funding the military adventures of Israel. And I urge adoption of my amendment. And with that, I yield back.
