On Tuesday, 80-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell found a microphone and said something stunning — something that made us question both his honesty and his grasp of reality.

“Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians,” he said, “that’s the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That’s how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”

MCCONNELL: “Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans.”

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— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 20, 2022

By “most Republicans,” does he mean “most Republicans that I’ve talked to here in the Senate”? Because sending tens of billions of American taxpayer dollars to Ukraine certainly isn’t the top-most topic of discussion across Americans’ kitchen tables. Not even close.

In its most recent survey, Gallup, whose business it is to understand what’s on the minds of the American people, suggests that the issue of greatest concern to our citizenry isn’t what’s happening 5,000 miles away in Kyiv; it’s what’s happening right there in Mitch McConnell’s DC Swamp:

For the seventh year in the past decade, Americans name dissatisfaction with the government as the nation’s top problem in 2022. An average of 19% of U.S. adults have mentioned some aspect of the government as the most important problem facing the country in Gallup’s 11 measures this year. The government edges out the high cost of living or inflation (16%) and outpaces the economy in general (12%). Further down the list, immigration, unifying the country, COVID-19, race relations and crime each average 4% to 6% of mentions in 2022.

Whoa. Where’s Mitch’s “number one priority,” Ukraine? Did it fall just out of the top eight? Nope. After COVID, race relations, and crime come gas prices, the judicial system, poverty and homelessness, abortion, ethics and morals, and the environment.

That’s not to say that Ukraine’s plight was never of interest to the American people. As Gallup reports: “After Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Americans’ mentions of Russia as the top U.S. problem jumped from 2% to 9% in March. Although the war continues, mentions of it as the most important problem dropped to 5% in April, and it has not been named by more than 1% of Americans in the latter half of 2022.”

Let that sink in. Mitch McConnell, in trying to justify the tens of billions that we’ve already spent in Ukraine, along with the additional billions we’re about to commit, says Ukraine is the number one priority for the United States right now. Not our government’s incompetence, not the ongoing invasion across our southern border, not inflation, not crime.

As for that invasion, at least one House lawmaker had her priorities in order: “I will oppose giving more money to Ukraine,” said Illinois Republican Mary Miller, “while our own southern border remains open to an invasion led by drug cartels.” She’s right. For far less money, the U.S. can secure its utterly chaotic southern border — and its failure to do so is a matter of far greater immediate and long-term consequence than which side wins the Ukraine war. Or do we think 5 million (and counting) mostly unskilled illegal immigrants can be absorbed and assimilated into the U.S. without any impact?

Regarding our budget for European land wars, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a wartime visit to DC yesterday to appeal to lawmakers for their continued support, and, according to the Associated Press, to report that “against all odds his country still stands, thanking Americans for helping to fund the war effort with money that is ‘not charity,’ but an ‘investment’ in global security and democracy.” (To give you a sense of congressional Republicans’ priorities, just 86 of the 213 House Republicans in the 117th Congress attended the speech.)

Zelensky has a monumental task: continuing to resist a brutal invasion by a barbaric enemy while the cold Ukrainian winter kicks in, all while trying to reinvigorate support for his country here and around the world at a time when his allies are staring at their own strapped bank accounts and growing weary of the disruption to their own energy and food supply chains.

“Your money is not charity,” he said. “It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”

Investments in “global security and democracy” sound good, but they can’t be bought with blank checks from drunken sailors, which is essentially how Joe Biden and his merry band of globalist handlers are behaving. Where costs are concerned, not much has changed since the war’s onset. Here’s how our Thomas Gallatin put it back in May:

The need for more military aid may indeed be urgent, but is it $40 billion urgent? The question of whether to support Ukraine is effectively moot, as the majority of Americans support helping Ukraine repel Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack. The major issues are Biden’s price tag and the allocation of the money. Of the nearly $40 billion package, just $6 billion is allocated for military assistance purposes, so where is the other $34 billion going?

Here’s the running total according to The Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. has so far provided some $21.9 billion in total military or other aid, and Congress this week is voting on another $45 billion … Some countries such as the Baltic states have donated more as a share of national GDP. But the U.S. has provided by far the most in dollars and military hardware.”

Not surprisingly, the American people are in for the most, even though Ukraine is right next door to our European friends. Were Donald Trump president instead of Joe Biden, he’d have long since headed overseas to demand that the Germans and the French and the Brits and the rest of ‘em pay their fair share. But what are we saying? Were Donald Trump still president, Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine in the first place.

Elections have consequences — often very expensive geopolitical ones.

The accountability question is a great one, though. Indeed, it’s the question insofar as American coffers are concerned — especially as it concerns a country, Ukraine, that’s known to be among the world’s most corrupt. (They had Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, didn’t they?) And it’s the question that’s increasingly on the minds of many Republican lawmakers and, we suspect, many millions of American citizens.

Presumptive (but far from certain) House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems to have gotten this message much more clearly than Mitch McConnell. “I thought it’s a very good speech,” said McCarthy after Zelensky’s joint-session address to Congress. “He laid out a number of reasons why the free world wants to continue the fight. My position has never changed. I support Ukraine, but I never support a blank check.”

McCarthy is on record having signaled that Republicans will ramp up scrutiny over military aid to Ukraine once they retake the House in January. They’d better. Many members of his caucus, whose support he’s trying to enlist in his quest for the speakership, have balked at the dollars going to Ukraine.

In his remarks to lawmakers, Zelensky harked back to U.S. victories in the Battle of the Bulge, a turning point against Nazi Germany in World War II, and the Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga, an American victory that helped draw France’s aid for U.S. independence. The Ukrainian leader predicted that next year would be a “turning point” in the conflict, “when Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom — the freedom of people who stand for their values.”

By all means, let’s help the Ukrainian military fight this fight. Naked aggression like this can’t be allowed to stand in a civilized world. Otherwise, an emboldened Russia will look for the next former Soviet-bloc neighbor to prey upon. And China will follow into Taiwan, and who knows where next?

But above all, let’s cease with the blank checks. In case Washington has forgotten, we’re already $31 trillion in debt. Where Ukraine is concerned, let’s be ruthless about how much of our children’s future we mortgage, and let’s demand a thorough and accurate accounting for every American dollar that gets spent.

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Updated with additional comments about Ukraine, our southern border, our priorities, and our national debt.