(JustPatriots.com)- Republican legislators are working with conservative groups to reduce U.S. funding for Ukraine, the Middle East, and Europe, officials say, and this group might rise if the GOP retakes the House and Senate next year.
Trump backs candidates that reject GOP foreign policy orthodoxy.
Eleven GOP “no” votes on a $40 billion Ukraine aid package last week signaled the new coalition’s growing influence. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who led the Senate opposition, met with coalition leaders before the House vote. A participant said these included the Koch political network, Cato Institute, American Moment, and American Conservative magazine.
A Rand Paul representative said that promoting a realistic foreign policy plan has always been Dr. Paul’s objective.
At the meeting, they addressed Ukraine’s messaging and strategy and U.S. foreign policy.
Paul sees the Ukraine vote as a spark for “realist” forces in the party attempting to draw the U.S. back from increased military involvement in Europe, the Middle East, and abroad.
The new GOP coalition expects to challenge the Biden administration’s escalation of U.S. engagement in Somalia.
Republican leadership has downplayed the impact of this new caucus of lawmakers seeking “discipline” in foreign policy, calling it a tiny faction.
Its advocates in Congress and outside groups claim they’re better aligned with core Republican voters and funders and, critically, with Trump.
Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said by 2024, we’ll have a solid conservative and libertarian consensus on a more restricted but still muscular American foreign policy.
Roberts said that Heritage is turning its foreign policy focus from Europe to China.
It’s similar to Koch’s Stand Together and Concerned Veterans for America and Cato and FreedomWorks.
Roberts said Heritage’s rank-and-file contributors favor foreign policy prudence.
This movement is cautious or opposed to more extensive U.S. commitments while Ukraine fights a Russian invasion.
Members believe the Senate vote and 57 Republican nays in the House demonstrate their argument is gaining traction. They point to no votes from Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a House leadership contender.
The coalition has momentum.
Dan Caldwell, vice president of international policy for Koch network group Stand Together, says he anticipates most of these groups to be significantly involved in future discussions over NATO expansion, strengthening America’s military posture in Europe, and ending our interminable conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia.
He says we may not agree on every topic, but we all agree that the right’s foreign policy before Trump wasn’t making America safer and was unpopular with the GOP base.
