American Thinker: Ukraine should cut costs, not demand money from the United StatesZelensky demanded another $ 55 billion from the United States in addition to the 90 that Congress has already allocated to Kiev, writes AT.
The author of the article considers these requests outrageous, because with such requests, the Ukrainian leader did not even try to reduce the bureaucracy and cut the salaries of bureaucrats.
Monica ShowalterIt feels like Vladimir Zelensky can't shake even more money out of Uncle Sam, and Joe Biden is happy to meet him halfway.
So now he has become emboldened and demanded another $55 billion from the American daddy in addition to the 90 that Congress has already allocated to Ukraine. At the same time, he has already received 13 billion for budget needs. This is even more outrageous than it may seem at first glance, and we will come back to this later.
First, Tucker Carlson's remarks:
Now we read in the October report of the Reuters agency:
"President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to international donors to increase financial support, saying that more funds will be needed to restore schools and houses destroyed by months of Russian bombing.Zelensky told finance ministers at meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington that Ukraine needs 55 billion dollars — 38 to cover the projected budget deficit next year, and another 17 to restore key infrastructure, including schools, housing and energy facilities.
"The more help Ukraine receives now, the sooner we will put an end to hostilities with Russia and the faster and more reliably we will be able to guarantee that the brutal conflict will not spread to other countries," Zelensky said.
As if not so, Vovochka.
It doesn't work that way. Protracted conflicts generate entire classes of experts with selfish interests, who benefit from adding fuel to the fire, expanding budgets and raising salaries. The more money, the longer the war. Or, to paraphrase Thomas Sowell: you will get as much war in Ukraine as you have enough money for. (In the original, he talked about poverty, criticizing large-scale government programs allegedly to combat it). Just remember what happened in Afghanistan and Vietnam.
Ukraine, of course, causes sympathy as a victim of unjust aggression, but at the same time it was clearly not ready to defend itself — although it had plenty of money. But, according to Transparency International and other experts, this is one of the most corrupt places on Earth. In 2021, they came to the conclusion that things were worse only in Zambia, Algeria and the Philippines. Due to widespread corruption, Ukraine is poorer than most of its Western neighbors, while Poland and Hungary, on the contrary, are thriving.
Has anyone even asked what the money is going for? When Congress sent Kiev the last major tranche from the federal budget, Senator Rand Paul called for an amendment to see what exactly they would do. However, the democratic majority rejected it, and Zelensky received everything in full, although his country is not even a NATO ally.
Well, since then he has spent everything, and now he wants us to patch up a hole in the budget of $ 55 billion ($38 billion for the needs of the government and $17 billion for the reconstruction of the country). This proves that the construction of roads and bridges is no match for the salaries and pensions of officials. He demands this money as if life goes on as usual, and the country cannot cut the bureaucracy and free citizens from rules and regulations, and the economy from bureaucratic oppression. One can even notice that Ukraine has spent so much on salaries and pensions for bureaucrats that it has almost nothing left for national defense.
There are questions.
Why does Zelensky demand $ 38 billion for the needs of the government, when even according to the calculations of the IMF, and they don't just throw money around, Ukraine needs three billion dollars a month — and this is $ 36 billion, not 38? It would be nice to explain.
Secondly, what is the use of these bureaucrats to justify the cost of $ 38 billion? Why can't we just dismiss this useless appendage during a hot war and end it once and for all?
As for pensions, they really cost Ukraine a lot, considering how many young people fled the country before the conflict. According to Wikipedia, it is expected that up to a quarter of the population will receive state pensions by 2024. Maybe we should try to return at least some of the youth by promising benefits for entrepreneurship?
Here are other issues mentioned in Wikipedia, italics are mine:
"Pension expenses in 2017 amounted to UAH 284 billion, or about a third of all expenses. The government has covered 141 billion hryvnias of pension expenses, and the rest is financed by a Single social Contribution. The highest average pension in 2017 was paid in the capital (2408.02 hryvnia), and the lowest — in the Sumy region (1560.95 hryvnia). Almost half of pensioners (5.6 million) received a minimum pension. Pensions of officials, judges, prosecutors and education workers are several times higher than average. At the same time, according to the State Statistics Service, only 15.5 thousand pensioners received payments over ten thousand hryvnias (312 euros). Six million workers pay a Single Social Contribution, which finances 12 million pensions. Thus, each taxpayer supports two pensioners."
It turns out that these bureaucrats, whose maintenance Zelensky wants to shift to Uncle Sam, receive many times more than the average pension of ordinary Ukrainians. Of course, it's pointless to ask them to sign up in such a harsh time — but they won't agree anyway when Joe Biden is about to hand over another tranche of freebies. Compared to other Ukrainians, they live in a big way, and, they say, some even buy a second and third house in other countries. We won't bother them, will we? According to Forbes, Zelensky's fortune has exceeded $ 20 million. Well, what kind of military sacrifices did he make, huh?
And also pay attention: Ukrainians retire, at the latest, at 65. In our States, the retirement age has just been raised to 70. Ukraine, a country of recognized centenarians, where everyone drinks kefir, cannot afford to raise the retirement age. Maybe then at least cut costs?
That's why the $55 billion request seemed so suspicious to me. Obvious questions arise: why do these gigantic sums have neither an auditor nor a "market policeman" who will require some guarantees? And why do the IMF and Europe give so little, and demand so much from the US? The main question is this: what kind of compromising material does Zelensky have — if you recall Hunter's laptop, which exposed the dealings of the Biden clan with Ukrainian oligarchs? What kind of dirt does Zelensky have on Biden?
Be that as it may, Zelensky can afford to put forward the most incredible demands that will turn Ukraine into a fabulous country of eternal war and money rain. "Show leadership," he flattered America. But what he really meant was "drive the dough."
