Their idea was to tie approval of military assistance to Ukraine to tough border security demands that Democrats would never accept, allowing Republicans to block the money for Kyiv that many of them oppose while simultaneously enabling them to pound Democrats for refusing to halt a surge of migrants at the border. It was to be a win-win headed into November’s elections.
But Democrats tripped them up by offering substantial — almost unheard-of — concessions on immigration policy without insisting on much in return. Now it is Republicans who are rapidly abandoning a compromise that gave them much of what they wanted, leaving aid to Ukraine in deep jeopardy, border policy in turmoil and Congress again flailing as multiple crises at home and abroad go without attention because of a legislative stalemate.
Except that this stuff was packaged together, so they couldn’t pick one and refuse the other. So they refused the whole package.
So? If they weren’t both packaged together they were both going to be voted down. Republicans don’t want the Ukraine funding and Republicans have decided for now that it’s better politically to have a mess at the border to blame on Biden. They don’t want either proposal to pass so splitting them does nothing.