Bribery using other peoples' money: Votes on the Ukrainian aid bills.
Possibly most galling, trump's Ukraine bribe wouldn't have come out of his own pocket. No surprise there, he figured out how to gain private advantage with public funds. Putin gets the bigger prize though for gaining in Russian dominance over Ukraine and getting Americans to undercut their own international status, all with our own Yankee dollars. Even when the scam blows up, he wins. Brilliant.
It's always been irritating when conservatives talk about "how my taxes are spent", because it's our money, our taxes, presumably spent on the common good. So let's turn the tables this time. I wonder who's agitated now by how "their money" was used.
Here are the two bills. Since it was bipartisan and supported, I gave up on listing names:
H.R.5515 - John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5515
This includes the military aid to Ukraine.
From the Senate
08/01/2018 Conference report agreed to in Senate: Senate agreed to conference report by Yea-Nay Vote. 87 - 10. Record Vote Number: 181.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00181
From the House
07/26/2018 Conference report agreed to in House: On agreeing to the conference report Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 359 - 54 (Roll no. 379).(consideration: CR H7708-7709)
Only five Rs voted against it
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2018/roll379.xml
H.R.6157 - Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019 and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6157
This includes the civilian aid to Ukraine, most of which came through State.
Senate
09/18/2018 Conference report agreed to in Senate: Senate agreed to conference report by Yea-Nay Vote. 93 - 7. Record Vote Number: 212.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&session=2&vote=00212
House
09/26/2018 Conference report agreed to in House: On agreeing to the conference report Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 361 - 61 (Roll no. 405).
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2018/roll405.xml
You can easily look up the individual votes. The support was close to unanimous, including most of the R-Grandstanders. Trumps bribery makes fools out of everyone who voted for those bills.
What I want to know is, aside from the crimes and impeachment and aside from the horrible precedent it sets, who's okay with having their tax dollars used to leverage bribery and extortion to solicit foreign interference in our 2020 election? Would it be easier to answer if it was a simple kickback?
And not just all citizens, but specifically every person who voted "yea" on these two bills should have to publicly answer the same question. Is this what you voted for? You good with this?
