US Government threatens to NOT PAY our military

It’s been years since I have actively watched or read the news. I have purposely made myself ignorant in all things political. Today though I cannot bite my tongue. Today has made me so angry with our current government that I long for the days when there were truly people in office who actually cared about the people! Today I am going to just air all my anger about the injustice and exactly HOW it will affect hundreds of thousands of people.

See, today I read in the Army Times (http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130923/NEWS05/309230018/No-mid-Oct-paycheck-troops-government-shuts-down-lawmaker-says) about how our current government officials have screwed up spending to the point that paychecks for our military are no longer guaranteed. In fact, I quote this, “All military personnel will continue to serve and accrue pay, but will not actually be paid until appropriations are available,” Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, warns that the troops’ morale and readiness will suffer even though the Defense Department does not shut down when its funding stops.

Hmmm…troops’ morale and readiness will suffer. Yes, yes it will. Why will it suffer? Because THEIR FAMILIES will not be able to PAY THEIR BILLS or BUY FOOD to FEED THEIR CHILDREN. I cannot begin to tell you the sheer number of military families that the spouse does not work. Not because they don’t want to work, okay…well some don’t actually want to work, but they’re the rare ones, but because they move around so much that their length of unemployment is so great that most companies won’t even take a second look at their application. Some turn to home based businesses like Mary Kay or Scentsy, etc., but that income is not something that they can regularly depend on. So the threat of not paying our spouses is a very real nightmare in the making.

This isn’t the first time this threat has been made about suspending pay to our military. I’m sure it won’t be the last either. Historically, in our relatively recent past, they have suspended the military’s pay and there were a couple months where no paychecks were given. I know that desperate times called for desperate measures. My own husband SOLD PLASMA so he could buy groceries. How sad is that?! The bigger question I pose is what measures am I going to have to resort to? I received a job offer today and should start work before the end of the week. So, my paychecks will start coming in right as our government suspends my husbands pay. Let me tell you, I make PENNIES compared to him. Seriously, his pay is 4 times greater than what I can make, even if I pick up a second job, I still won’t be able to keep our heads above water. At this point, I may have to get a work permit for my 14 year old and put her to work as well!

I will admit that I voted for the Commander in Chief in 2008. I did not vote in 2012. I didn’t think we had anyone qualified enough to do our country justice. Today has proven my point. Our government spends billions in other countries supplying their military and their country with needed supplies and training in an effort to “harbor good will” amongst their government. How do I know this? Okay, that I can’t actually tell you, but I will say that my eyes have been opened very wide over the last 11 months. The budget given to certain people are astronomical. Money may not actually ever change hands in these other countries, but I can definitively say that we supply A LOT to areas that don’t even know how to properly USE the things we supply even AFTER training! Do you have any idea just how much money our government spends on bringing foreign military personnel to our country to train? Trust me, you really have NO idea the amount of money that WE spend to do this. Don’t get me started on the sheer number of things our current military provides to other countries, think ships, planes, weapons, etc.

When did our ELECTED OFFICIALS decide to completely RAILROAD the very people they have DEFENDING THEM?! Oh, that’s right! The very moment they realized that these were the hundreds of thousands of soldiers THAT HAVE TO SHOW UP TO WORK REGARDLESS EVEN WHEN THEY RECEIVE NO PAY!!! Wow, seriously? Cause Lord knows, if I have a job and my employer comes and says that I still need to show up and do my job, but they aren’t going to pay me, guess who ISN’T showing up to work? Oh, but no…our military is the one branch that is put on salary the moment they sign that dotted line and still have to show up and EFFECTIVELY do their jobs even without the possibility of being paid.

NO!

Enough is enough!! STOP THREATENING THE MILITARY WITH NO PAY!! STOP ENDANGERING THE LIVES AND THE LIVELIHOOD OF THE MILITARY FAMILY!! WE HAVE MEN AND WOMEN OVERSEAS FIGHTING AND YOU AREN’T GOING TO PAY THEM?! HOW ABOUT THE FAMILIES LIKE MINE WHO HAVE THEIR SPOUSE AND FATHER OVERSEAS FOR A YEAR, WITH ANOTHER YEAR TO GO, AND YOU WON’T EVEN ALLOW HIM TO COME HOME UNLESS IT’S OUT OF OUR OWN POCKET?!

FUCK YOU!! EVERY LAST SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!

I am sick and tired of being threatened by the very people elected to run our country. The ONLY thing I see being done is they are running our country INTO THE GROUND!!

WHY DON’T THE ELECTED OFFICIALS STOP THEIR OWN PAYCHECKS AND WORRY HOW THEY ARE GOING TO PAY THEIR BILLS AND FEED THEIR FAMILIES! Even better than that…

I say that the elected officials learn how to pay all their bills, feed their families and still have money to do something fun with their families ON THE PAY GIVEN TO OUR SOLDIERS! Then and only then will I even start to listen to a single complaint that they have.