Well, the problem you failed to see is that unlike combat operation in NATO or even just America alone, Ukraine is probably never going to have complete air superiority, let alone air dominance, Russia still process enough air power to at least try to make Ukrainian airspace even, while it's a surprise that Russia was not able to gain air superiority outright, it's another issue to actually overcome Russia air power and air defence and for Ukraine to gain complete domain. Think about it, it takes Allied 500+ advance aircraft to subdue Saddam's air defences in the first gulf war, and Russia is not Iraq and Ukraine is not the Allied power....
Which mean the entire Air Power/Air Superiority talk for this or any counteroffensive is really a pointless thing because even if US were to transfer 100-200 F-16, and even if Ukraine have enough pilot to fly them, this is not going to even make a dent on Russia Air Domain, you probably can fly a few combat mission with relative odds but it's not going to be without casualty if Russia wanted to fight it, if they don't want to fight the air domain then that's another story, but there are virtually no chance for Ukraine to gain any air superiority, local or across the entire domain, in reality and in practicality.
Which mean it's never going to have air superiority to begin with for their counter offensive, it's not even a starting point to begin with, you probably have mistaken the parameter on how Ukraine fight and how NATO fight, they can't fight like us in NATO, they aren't us and we can't give them everything we have.
sad truth is this is a popularity contest like American Idol, just unlike American Idol, people died every day because of it.
You can't make policy unless you play political game, the issue here is, you need to make the party look good to be interested in something, on the other hand, this is not going to go away just because one party wants to.
That's the difference between bi-partisanism and absolute power you guys are used to in Europe, where the dominate party that form government have all the power they need, the political environment is always going to be on the middle in the US and one party need to make deal with the other even if they are holding office if you want to do anything, that's why these political game are played. This has been and continue to be since 1776.
