We’ve seen multiple polls now indicating that a majority of Americans feel that we’ve done enough for Ukraine and should pause additional aid to them as they continue to attempt to thwart the Russian invasion. When this debate comes up in public discussion, one of the more common questions that is asked involves why we should be investing our resources to secure Ukraine’s borders when we can’t or simply won’t secure our own. That’s the specific question that Rasmussen Reports put to the public last week and the response suggests the priorities of Americans are fairly clear. Voters said that securing America’s border was more important than Ukraine’s by a two-to-one margin. Significant majorities also described the situation on the border as “a crisis.” And yet it appears that nobody in the White House or either party in Congress seems to be listening.

By a 2-to-1 margin, voters believe controlling the U.S. border is more important than helping Ukraine fight Russia.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. voters believe getting the migrant crisis at the U.S. border under control is more important for America’s national security, while 30% say supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia is more important. Another 10% are not sure.

When voters are prioritizing the American border over Ukraine’s border on a 60/30 split, that’s not even close. (Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s fairly close to the same margin who believe that Joe Biden is too old to serve another term.) The difference between political parties was significant in these results, however. Democrats are narrowly sticking by the President, with 45 percent saying Ukraine’s border is more important and 42 percent prioritizing the American border. That really tells you something about Democrats these days, but as I said, it was a close split.

The split among respondents when asked if the situation on America’s southern border is a legitimate “crisis” was even more stark. With a three-to-one margin, 65% described the situation as a crisis, while just 24% said it was not. On this question, even a slim majority of Democrats (51 percent) agreed. Interestingly, 60% of independents joined 84 percent of Republicans in saying it’s a crisis.

Some may ask why this needs to be an “either/or” decision. Why not do both? And it’s true that America should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, so we can obviously try to do both. And that would be awesome in some hypothetical alternate reality. But here on Earth in 2023, we are apparently capable of doing neither, at least with the current leadership we have in the White House. We could control our own border and we actually did it during Donald Trump’s presidency. Ukraine’s border is another question entirely and nobody may be able to hold that line unless Putin can be convinced to stand down.

Since we have this much data piling up and revealing the public’s feelings on these issues, we should return to the question I suggested above. How long will it take for this message to sink in with the President and with the leaders of both parties on the Hill? We just found out yesterday that we’re sending another $250 million in arms and armor to Zelensky on top of the $43 billion we’ve already given him. That’s almost three times as much as it would cost to finish the wall across our entire southern border. And when Biden inevitably comes back to Congress asking for even more money for Ukraine, leaders in both parties are already standing by to say yes, even if some of the Republicans are beginning to balk.

Can none of these people read a poll? The President, every single member of the House, and one-third of the Senate are all up for election next year. They appear to believe that their power is unshakable and they can simply thumb their noses at a majority of the American people and suffer no consequences for doing so. And sadly, they may turn out to be correct.