On February 6, local time, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress voted on the "Israel Security Supplementary Appropriations Act". The bill, which provides $17.6 billion worth of military aid to Israel, was not passed.
In addition, the U.S. Senate announced a $118 billion bill on the 4th, including U.S. border control and foreign military aid, proposing a series of measures to strengthen border security, while requiring military assistance to Israel, Ukraine and other countries and regions.
Of the $118 billion listed in the bill, $14 billion is provided to Israel to help it "update its air defense system," $60 billion is used for military aid to Ukraine, $20 billion is spent on the U.S. border, and $9.2 billion is provided for humanitarian assistance to countries and regions such as the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Ukraine.
Q1: Judging from the timing and content of these two versions of the bill, what kind of differences exist between the Senate and the House of Representatives, or between the Democratic and Republican parties, or even within the parties?
Diao Daming, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of Chinese:
The fact that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party each have majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives respectively have introduced these two bills, clearly showing that they have great differences on domestic and international issues.
In terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, although both parties as a whole support Israel, the Democratic Party does not want the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to continue indefinitely, so there are concerns about Israel's support.
When it comes to aid to Ukraine, the bipartisan divide is even greater. The Republican Party firmly opposes the continuation of aid to Ukraine, while the Democratic Party supports the continuation of aid to Ukraine.
On border issues, Democrats are trying to reduce the drag on the election results by using federal funding to deal with the U.S.-Mexico border issue "immediately." Republicans are clearly inclined to let the states solve the border issue, preventing Biden** from responding, and then allowing the border issue to continue to plague the Democrats' election results.
On January 28, local time, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced the ** accusation against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, saying that Mayorkas "deliberately and systematically refused to comply with the law" on immigration issues, resulting in the failure of immigration control at the U.S.-Mexico border, which violated public trust, and accused him of obstructing congressional investigations.
Now, the U.S. House of Representatives has failed to pass a ** against the Secretary of Homeland Security. This is considered by the outside world to be a landmark event in which the feud between the two parties will further intensify in the first year of the United States in 2024.
Q2: Why has the issue of immigration and illegal immigration once again become a key topic of partisan debate in the United States?
Diao Daming, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of Chinese:
At present, although it has not been passed, the difference between the support and dissupport of the voting result is very small, so if the ** vote is held again in the future, it is still possible to pass it in the House of Representatives of the Congress. Behind the motion for Mayorkas** is actually the political calculation of the Republican Party to put pressure on Biden through the immigration issue.
Both parties are serving their own political interests by hyping up the immigration issue. The reason for this is that during the Trump administration, the border control policy led by the Republican Party was relatively strict and controversial. Trump himself has made a lot of extreme remarks on immigration, which has caused great discontent among Democrats.
After Biden took office, he completely halted the border control policy during the Trump era, which directly led to the influx of a large number of immigrants and brought a lot of pressure to the border states. Some Republican-dominated states send immigrants to Democratic-dominated states in order to transfer the conflict to the Democrats.
After the 2022 midterm elections, Biden** also began to deal with the challenges at the border, and even reverted to some of the practices of the Trump** period. However, the Republican states did not cooperate due to partisan considerations.
After entering 2024**, partisanship will intensify, Biden will be helpless on the immigration issue, and more migrants will pour in, making the border immigration problem continue to worsen, forming a vicious circle of partisan strife and immigration issues.
Q3: Whether it is dealing with the border immigration issue or the confrontation and tearing over the foreign aid bill, what shortcomings do the shortcomings of the US political system and governance reflect?
Diao Daming, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University of Chinese:
The essence of the problem is that the two parties put their own selfish interests above the interests of the United States and the people. On major domestic and foreign policies, the contradictions and differences between the two parties have accumulated and it is difficult to return, and they have fallen into a vicious circle of political predicament.
The increasingly severe and unresolved border issue is a man-made disaster for the vicious struggle between the two parties in the United States to encroach on national interests, and also reflects the continuous decline of party politics in the United States.
Material**: Global Information Broadcasting "News Inventory".
Anchor: Qiu Xiaoyu.
Reporter: Dong Jingjing.
Editor: Wang Yiming.
Signatory: Yang Zhuoying.
Producer: Zou Haoyu.