President Joe Biden would veto House Republicans’ aid proposal for Israel that would be paid for with IRS cuts, his administration announced Tuesday, while the Congressional Budget Office says the IRS offsets would add to the national debt.
The White House Office of Management and Budget released a statement Monday saying the administration “strongly opposes House passage of the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriation Act (ISSA)” — a $14 billion aid package for Israel without funds for Ukraine or Taiwan attached. Biden seeks a bill that bundles aid for all three countries, with $61.4 billion going to Ukraine.
“[R]ather than putting forward a package that strengthens American national security in a bipartisan way, the bill fails to meet the urgency of the moment by deepening our divides and severely eroding historic bipartisan support for Israel’s security,” the statement reads in part.
“If the President were presented with this bill, he would veto it,” the White House Office of Management and Budget added.
Another blow came for Republicans Wednesday morning when the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the bill, finding it would add $12.5 billion to the debt by 2033 by decreasing IRS revenue by a projected $27 billion, as Punchbowl News reported.
🚨 BREAKING — CBO says the House's Israel aid bill is not offset at all.
Will add $12.5B to the deficit in the next decade.
Cuts to IRS will decrease revenue by $26.7Bhttps://t.co/wLg6CUqwzR
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 1, 2023
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman suggested that if IRS cuts were not attached to the bill, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) “probably would’ve passed it with 350-400 votes and jammed the Senate.”
Here's what's quizzical about @SpeakerJohnson's strategy on the Israel funding.
Had he not offset the $14B bill, he probably would've passed it with 350-400 votes and jammed the Senate. Johnson could've made law in his first week.
That would've pushed Senate Rs to try craft a…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 1, 2023
Sherman added that Democrats’ votes for the legislation with IRS cuts would likely be in the single digits, and the Senate would be unlikely to take it up. In this scenario, the possibility that Senate Republicans consider passing a bill implementing Biden’s proposal where aid for Israel is tied to an aid package for Ukraine as well as funding for more asylum officers and border patrol agents at home increases, per Sherman.
Sherman notes that strong passage of a stand-alone Israel bill without offsets tied to the IRS would have forced Senate Republicans to work on a separate bill to fund Ukraine and Biden’s proposal for additional asylum officers and border patrol agents.
Notably, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has backed Biden’s call for Israel aid to be tied with appropriations for Ukraine aid.
“I mean, I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different. I view it as all interconnected,” McConnell told CBS News’s Face the Nation in late October.
WATCH: McConnell Sides with Biden on Bundling Ukraine, Israel Aid: “I View It as All Interconnected”
House Republicans are set to vote on their aid package on Thursday.
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