When Republicans control just one chamber of Congress against a Democratic White House and Senate, it can be difficult to secure viable wins. But the Senate GOP has a superb opportunity to extract major conservative victories out of both.
An amended national-security supplemental is before the Senate as we speak. It’s best explained as an America-first, “Arsenal of Democracy II” bill. If passed, factory furnaces across the country will ignite to replenish stocks of weapons and ammo and bombs and bullets that have been depleted from our arsenals since the Cold War. Our Israeli allies will get key relief in the form of American-made interceptors, Chinese communists will be confounded by an influx of new weapons for our sailors and Marines in the Pacific. New counter-drone systems, which could well have saved the three Americans we lost to an Iranian suicide UAV last week, will be churned out by blue-collar American workers in Arizona, Missouri, Alabama, and California.
It is worth noting that the bill is suffering from mislabeling, as legislation so often does in D.C. Some have called it a foreign-aid bill. But as goes the old line, follow the money. Over 75 percent of the spending goes to America. That’s the American military, deployed American forces overseas, American companies, and American workers turning wrenches at those companies. It’s restocked American arsenals and more bullets in American rifles.
Conservative radio star Hugh Hewitt put it in plain English: “Vote for the package.” It is rare when Republicans can extract this level of value on one of our core platforms — strong national security — from a Democrat-controlled government. We shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.