Most of the EU has missed the target GDP spend by a significant margin for decades. The failure to penalize the annexation of Crimea and the EU’s almost wholesale inability to provide material to Ukraine without compromising their own defensive postures can be traced heavily to this funding failure.
Obama’s soft stance on Russia was certainly a large part of our current situation, but Merkel and the overly pacified EU were major contributors as well.
Not to mention this is essentially the same line of reasoning Repubs keep using to make voting worse for everyone. Can’t give out water in line to vote because you might be “buying votes”, so you gotta wait in line 6 hours in the hot sun if you’re in a poor district.
But hey, totally cool when it’s ol Musky doin it for cash not for health!