Dear Editor:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been a longtime advocate of the Ukrainian American community and has vocally defended Ukraine against Russian aggression. He has gone above and beyond reaching out to our community in Arizona and defending our home country. It is no secret that Sen. McCain has been a strong critic of Vladimir Putin for many years, and now he is ensuring the United States does not reward Mr. Putin and his corrupt allies with hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.
Sen. McCain and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) recently introduced legislation that will repeal a provision of last year’s spending bill that allows unlimited purchase and use of Russian rocket engines manufactured by a Russian company with close ties to Mr. Putin for U.S. national security space launches. First of all, it is a shame this provision passed in the first place. Secondly, I am proud that Sen. McCain is fighting to address this issue.
Sen. McCain said it best when he introduced his bill: “It is morally outrageous and strategically foolish to ask American taxpayers to subsidize Russia’s military industrial base when Vladimir Putin occupies Crimea and destabilizes Ukraine,… sends weapons to Iran and bombs U.S.-backed forces in Syria to prop-up the murderous regime of Bashar Assad.”
Why on earth would the U.S. financially support a country that is causing instability across the world? Your guess is as good as mine. We should all be thankful to Sen. McCain for leading the charge to bring sanity back to Congress and prevent Mr. Putin and team from profiting off of the U.S.
Glendale, Ariz.