Moulton Statement on Politicized Israel Aid Vote
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today at a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing, Congressman Moulton called attention to water-related priorities in the 6th District–including the Hall-Whitaker Bridge in Beverly, the Plum Island Jetty, and funding for shallow harbors in Gloucester, Salem, Newburyport, Lynn, Rockport, and Beverly.Congressman Moulton issued the following statement following his "no" vote on a standalone Israel aid package that would have defunded the IRS and that did not include humanitarian funding or funding for Ukraine.
“Just days into his tenure, Speaker Mike Johnson is making the same mistake his recently ejected predecessor made: catering to the far right and politicizing policies that should be easy to support, like providing aid to Israel.
I support Israel, but I cannot support the Speaker’s hypocritical move to force an Israel aid package with an ‘offset’ of $14.3 billion in cuts to the IRS that increases the deficit by more than twice that on the backs of hardworking Americans who pay their taxes. Make no mistake: Cutting the IRS may sound good, but it only helps tax cheats. In fact, it helps wealthy tax cheats the most. This bill literally gives more aid to wealthy Americans than to our closest ally in the Middle East.
This proposal also sets a dangerous precedent. If every emergency supplemental request must be “offset” by spending cuts, then Congress will quickly find itself unable to respond to global emergencies. Emergency assistance exists to be above politics, but the new Speaker seems to want to put his hard-right politics into everything. Add to the list his choice to simultaneously exclude any humanitarian funding for Gazans, something I have argued is important both for innocent Palestinians and the Israeli mission to eradicate Hamas.
Fortunately, both the President and Senate Majority Leader Schumer oppose this bill. I hope we can work toward a vote on a package that mirrors the President’s supplemental request: including adequate military and humanitarian aid for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan as well as border security funding. Each one of these is a national security imperative.”