The government shutdown was short, but not without its casualties. Unfortunately some of the lowest ranking poorest soldiers, and the new recruits, suffered because of the delay in receiving their paycheck.
Some of the military bases decided to shut down mess halls during the government shutdown. That meant that soldiers had to look else where for their meals.
One new recruit had to ask his mother to send money so that he could buy food.
I recently learned from the mother of a soldier that mess halls were shut down on military bases during the government shut down. While soldiers are guaranteed that they will get paid when a shut down ends that doesn't do anything for the poor soldiers that run out of money while they are waiting for their paycheck to arrive.
What I learned from this mother is that her son called her to ask her for money, because he didn't have any money to buy food. The mess hall was shut down, and he was forced to go out to eat for sustenance. His mother was forced to wire money to her poor son so that he could afford to get something from one of the local fast food places nearby.
The people who were hardest hit by this delay in pay unfortunately are the poorest soldiers. This young man is a new recruit in the military. He is among the lowest pay grade of soldiers, still in basic training. He has very limited access to services outside of what the military provides. Traditionally soldiers in training are fed at no expense to themselves, but because this situation they were all left to starve or beg for money from their parents.
The other group of soldiers hard hit by this situation are soldiers with families that live off base. Just because their paychecks stop coming doesn't mean that their bills stop coming. I spoke with one soldier who received a shut off notice from the water company because he was late. What is a soldier to do when they receive a shut off notice for their utilities and the check that they are due simply isn't coming? This man has a wife and two young children and they are talking about shutting off his water. Luckily for him his father is willing to loan him the money till his check comes in, but I could tell that he was very embarrassed to have to ask.
The shut down has ended for now. Luckily our government was only held hostage by Chuck Schumer for three days, but sometimes these things can really drag out. There once was a shutdown that lasted for 2 weeks. Democrats should be ashamed of themselves putting their push to get amnesty for illegal aliens over the hard working men and women of our military.
The truth is there is no excuse for a government shutdown over a budget bill. If congress followed the procedures outlined in the 1974 budget act then there would be none of this nonsense. There are clear rules about not attaching anything to the budget that has nothing to do with expenditures. The budget is supposed to be done according to an carefully outlined procedure that deals with each aspect of the budget one bullet point at a time. Instead they try to ram rod a huge budget bill all at once so that congressmen don't have time to read everything that is in it. That way they can sneak stuff in there that has nothing to do with the budget like this DACA stuff.
It is high time that congress stop this nonsense. Quit playing political games and taking food out of the mouths of our soldiers. Our men and women in uniform deserve better from you. They sacrifice much and they work very hard to maintain our national security. I believe that the majority of the blame for this nonsense is on Democrats, but Republicans are not blameless. If you were doing the budget correctly, according to the 1974 budget act then you would never have this issue. It is time to get back to doing this the right way.
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