No Mitch McConnell, Ukraine Aid Is Not ‘Rebuilding Our Industrial Base’

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to reassure Ukrainian aid skeptics that billions in foreign assistance is being spent on American manufacturers to build weapons at home.

“If you look at the Ukraine assistance,” McConnell said on CBS, “a significant portion of what’s being spent in the United States and 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we send to Ukraine with more modern weapons, so we’re rebuilding our industrial base.”

But a closer examination of the aid for Ukraine reveals an overwhelming majority of taxpayer dollars are going overseas. Just a fraction of the $113 billion spent has gone to “rebuilding our industrial base.”

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, about $67 billion of the $113 billion in Ukrainian aid went to defense spending. Of that $67 billion, about $27 billion went to “drawdown replenishment,” and $15 billion went to the U.S. military. Another $18 billion went to the Ukraine security assistance initiative, nearly $5 billion went to the foreign military financing program, and $2 billion went to “other defense.”

Richard Stern is the director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation. An August analysis from the conservative think tank found the total aid to Ukraine cost taxpayers $900 per household.