Vance: US Shouldn’t Subsidize European Security, Instead Focus On China
During an interview with “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) argued that the United States government should be focusing on the threat posed by China instead of sending billions of taxpayer dollars to fund the never-ending war in Ukraine.
The discussion began when Bream pointed out that, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee memo, there are “20-plus other countries” contributing to Ukraine’s effort to defend its territory from Russia — noting that “the math doesn’t add up.”
Vance explained that the memo essentially “makes my argument for me” — that even if “the Europeans step up production by the end of 2024, and if the Russians don’t radically increase production from where they are right now, then Russia will still have a 3-to-1 advantage over the Ukrainians.”
The congressman noted that “that’s not now, that’s by the end of the year. That’s almost a full year from now.”
“The argument that I’m making is quite simple,” Vance continued. “It’s not that we don’t admire the courageousness of the Ukrainians, we certainly do. It’s that America is stretched too thin.”
He pointed out that the U.S. doesn’t have “the industrial capacity” to support the various wars raging around the world, including Ukraine, Israel and a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan — and thus, “America has to pick and choose.”
According to Vance, the same elites who chose to send America’s manufacturing base to China and weakened the country’s ability to produce weapons “are now the same people who’s saying we can get involved in three wars at once. The math doesn’t make sense. We’re stretched too thin. We’ve got to focus.”
He then pointed out that the same European countries demanding that the U.S. gets involved in foreign wars are still refusing to spend what they are required to on defense and “have allowed their own industrial might to atrophy.”
“So why are Americans subsidizing European security?” Vance asked. “We should be focused on our own problems and that’s mostly China.”
Bream then argued that, according to the memo, U.S. officials believe that it is possible to manage multiple wars at once — but Vance shut that down, pointing out that the last time U.S. generals dared to admit that the country’s war policy was flawed, they had their careers ruined. Thus, how can the American people trust that they are telling the truth now?
“I remember when generals stepped up and said that our war policy in 2003 was a joke and all of them had their careers ruined,” Vance said. “So I think we have to look at this honestly as policymakers and ask ourselves the tough questions. Unfortunately, you have to ask yourself is China going to be more dissuaded by us thumping our chest and acting tough in Europe or are they going to be more dissuaded by us having the weapons necessary to prevent them from invading Taiwan?”
Bream then pushed the establishment narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to “go beyond Ukraine” — which serious analysts have cast doubt upon, as Putin has made his ambitions clear and does not appear to want to start a full-scale war with NATO.
“So I understand this argument, Shannon, but unfortunately, I don’t think it really passes muster,” Vance replied. “So people who want us to put limitless resources into Ukraine, they want us to believe two things at once.”
“On the one hand, they want us to believe the Ukrainians are on the verge of victory in the far eastern part of Ukraine,” he continued. “On the other hand, they want us to believe that Vladimir Putin is about to march all the way to Paris. You can’t believe both of those things at the same time and the reality is the Ukrainians have showed that Putin is a lot weaker than people feared, and importantly, they’ve shown that if the Europeans are willing to step up and take more responsibility for their own defense, they can handle Putin. Let us focus on China.”
