Primum non nocere.

After overcoming Rand's attempt to block the legislation, Congress today passed a $40b aid package to Ukraine.

The argument for it, and overcoming Rand's hurdle, is that it's urgently needed now and can't wait to be something better and more transparent (his demand was based on having an inspector general oversee how it was spent).

In the long run, though... if the goal is trying to help protect Europe from Russian aggression? $40b would be better spent on energy infrastructure aimed at decreasing European dependence on Russian gas via promoting alternative tech to decrease fossil fuel primacy.

And you know what? Some of what we can do on that end is literally free. The government does enough damage by actively blocking tech development in this sector that it could just... stop doing, while funding fossil fuels that it could also just... stop doing.

Every nuclear power plant that gets a permit that they've been denied without justification for decades equals lives saved. Every taxpayer dollar that isn't going to prop up big oil and the petrodollar is another dollar not indirectly helping Putin maintain control.