Cut a Deal Now on Ukraine Aid, Joe

If President Biden wants to keep Russia from gaining an edge over Ukraine, winning the war and then threatening broader aggression, he needs to cut a deal with Republicans on a Kyiv aid package. Pronto.

Biden wants a $106 billion funding bill that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, but some lawmakers rightly question major parts of it.

On Sunday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) doubted Congress would OK funding by the end of the year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stresses that Democrats need to accept changes to secure the southern border.

Those changes — to keep out migrants who seek asylum but don’t meet requirements, resume border-wall construction, etc. — are essential by themselves: Biden’s come-on-in policies have created a nightmare, including a heightened risk of terror attacks on US soil. Yet his aid plan funnels funds to get newcomers in faster.

Republicans hold the House, so a deal is the only way to getting critical aid to Ukraine; Biden may need to compromise more.

Yet the Defense Department is down to its last $5 billion in equipment it can send Ukraine and just $1 billion to replenish that. And as Kyiv and Moscow slog through a virtual standstill, victory may well on who runs short of resources first.

Lawmakers on both sides get it: “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to march through Europe,” Johnson stresses. “The Russians are just counting on us to give up and walk away — and then they walk in,” warns Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI).

Biden plainly can strike a Ukraine-aid deal — if he thinks it’s important enough to rein in his (disastrous) other priorities.