What was the purpose of Lend-Lease if not to circumvent stubborn Republicans in Congress? (Ukraine)

Politics & Elections
1

Starting a side thread - this could be FQ or GD:

I’ve been confused about Lend-Lease, but I thought the whole purpose of it was that Biden and the D’s anticipated that Republicans might get stubborn (as they are right now) and Lend-Lease being passed in advance in 2022 meant that even if the R’s balked now, Biden now has a way to circumvent them: He could “lend” large amounts of weaponry to Ukraine, knowing full well that the “debt” will be canceled and Ukraine won’t have to pay a penny for them. (After all, the Soviets never repaid America for WW2 Lend-Lease, no?)

If not, then what was the whole point of passing the Ukraine Lend-Lease act in the first place, if Biden can now be obstructed so easily by Republicans right now?

2

AFAICT it expired earlier this year.

3

Look at the date it was signed into law by Biden:

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on May 9, 2022, Soviet Victory Day, which has turned into a fiercely nationalist event in Russia, leading critics to term the holiday pobedobesie (victory mania). This signing date was seen as a “rejoinder to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has seized on Victory in Europe Day — the anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender in 1945 and Russia’s biggest patriotic holiday — to rally his people behind the invasion.”

4

Even if the act was still in effect, there’s a limit to how much of our arsenal we can “lend” to Ukraine without impacting our own military readiness. And backfilling those weapons systems requires appropriations from Congress.