WATCH: Ben Shapiro Weighs in on ‘Game of Chicken’ over Israel Aid

November 6th, 2023 10:21 AM

The Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro praised House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for passing a standalone Israel aid bill and working to claw back funding that drastically increased the size of the IRS in the process.

Shapiro addressed the “game of chicken” playing out between Senate Democrats and House Republicans over aid to Israel during the Nov. 3 edition of The Ben Shapiro Show. Shapiro pointed out that the aid to Israel was being shoved into a much larger proposal. “The Biden administration, which is trying to lump together a bunch of things; they’re trying to lump together Ukraine aid, they want $60 billion more in Ukraine aid, some $14 billion in aid to Israel, a few billion dollars for border security and like $7 billion for Taiwan. They’re trying to lump all that together in a $105 billion package,” Shapiro said of the broader global aid package sought by Democrats. 

Republicans have repeatedly sought to reduce or eliminate the Biden-led $72 billion in funding provided to the IRS in the ludicrously named “Inflation Reduction Act” of 2022, arguing that hiring 87,000 new IRS agents will result in the harassment of ordinary Americans. 

After mentioning the IRS cuts, Shapiro broke down the impasse, “Basically what we have now is a game of chicken, the game of chicken is that the Democrats are hoping to wrongfoot the Republicans by getting them not to fund Israel in favor of not funding Ukraine and the Republicans are trying to wrongfoot Democrats by saying, ‘Guys, why can’t you just give aid directly to Israel?’ Obviously I’m on the right-wing side of that argument. I don’t understand why these issues are the same. They are not.” 

Shapiro expressed his support for Ukraine, but cautioned that “$60 billion is a lot of money” and added, “That is a different issue and its a slightly more complex issue than the issue of funding Israel in attempting to exterminate an actual terror group Hamas, which it can do and is achievable, very achievable.”

After playing a clip of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-CA) promising that the bill “is dead before it is even voted on,” Shapiro predicted that Speaker Johnson would disconnect the Israel aid from defunding the IRS and see if Democrats still opposed the more focused aid bill. 

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