(USNewsMag.com) – Just as the country moves closer to the June 1 deadline for defaulting on its debt, the U.S. is poised to send another $375 million in military aid to Ukraine. This is on top of an extra $3 billion allocated for Ukraine in early May due to an accounting error.
The latest round of military aid is said to include more artillery rounds, HIMARS rocket launchers, armored vehicles as well as anti-tank weapons.
During the G-7 Summit, President Joe Biden said his administration will back any of the Western allies that send their advanced F-16 fighter jets to help Ukraine and will help train Ukrainians to use the fighter jets. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in the summit.
However, at home in the U.S. the country inches toward default if the debt ceiling is not raised. According to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in order to not default, extraordinary measures have been put into place since February, when the $31.4 trillion debt limit was reached.
Republicans are asking to cut spending while raising the debt ceiling, with the House passing its bill, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, on April 26, which raises the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion by the end of March 2024, whichever comes first. Democrats and Biden continue to say they will not negotiate and want to simply raise the debt ceiling with no cuts to spending.
Defaulting would mean a delay in Social Security payments and pay for military members. The U.S. has never defaulted.
Since Russia’s invasion during the spring of 2022, the U.S. has sent $26.4 billion in financial aid, $46.6 billion in military shipments as well as $2.9 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. In total, Biden has committed over $113 billion in aid to Ukraine, more than all the European nations combined.
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