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'We Are in Dire Straits': Speaker Johnson Puts Mandatory Conditions on Israel Military Aid Package

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Speaker Mike Johnson will not consider bringing to the House floor a bill for Israeli military aid that doesn’t also include spending cuts elsewhere to offset the expense, he told reporters Thursday.

Asked whether he’d bring such a bill to the floor in light of President Joe Biden’s threatened veto of a recent bill that would pay for the aid by cutting funds to the Internal Revenue Service, Johnson’s position seemed unequivocal.

“Listen, we are in dire straits as a nation,” he said.

“If you talk to leaders at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon — sometimes, even in recent years, under oath they’ve testified before the House Armed Services Committee where I served until last week — if you ask them what the greatest threat is to our national security, you would expect — most people expect they’d say China, Russian, Iran, terrorism. They say it’s the national debt.

“We have to address it. We have obligations and we have commitments. And we want to protect and help our friend Israel, but we have to keep our own house in order as well,” he explained. “And I think people at home, I think the American people understand that.”

You can see Johnson’s comments here:

“At home, you have to balance your budget,” Johnson explained. “At home, you have to make tough decisions. And Washington should run the same way.

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“And so, we are here to change the environment. To change the paradigm, the way Washington thinks. If we continue on the trajectory we’re on, it’s going to hurt our country terribly. And it’s going to hurt hardworking Americans even more, seniors, and the rest.”

Johnson said he’d made the same point in a meeting with Biden that he described as “cordial” as well as to those members of Biden’s cabinet with whom he has met, as well as to Senate Republicans when he spoke at a luncheon with them on Wednesday.

“We’re going to do this in a responsible manner, and that’s a very important principle for us,” he concluded.

Johnson also said he and the House Republicans were committed to supporting Israel, and said that recent calls from Democrats for a ceasefire in Gaza were “kind of disturbing.”

“There was a ceasefire,” Johnson said. “It was before October 7th. And Hamas broke it.”

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Mike Johnson Puts His Foot Down: First Trans Rep. Sarah McBride Reacts After Being Forbidden from Using Women's Bathroom

“Israel doesn’t need a ceasefire,” Johnson said. “It needs its allies to cease with the politics and deliver support now.”


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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of "WJ Live," powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English as well as a Master's in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
Birthplace
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Beta Gamma Sigma
Education
B.A., English, UNCG; M.A., English, UNCG; MBA, UNCG
Location
North Carolina
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Faith, Business, Leadership and Management, Military, Politics




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