Fish in Illinois wrote a great diary today about the upcoming shutdown and what it will mean for military families:
What does this mean for service members? Let's look at some numbers. The pay scale for a typical enlistee, an E3, is $1950/mo, or $23,400 per year. This is barely above the official poverty level for a family of 4 in the U.S. Many service members are married with families. I can't imagine that many of them have much in the way of savings to tide them over through even a temporary disruption in income. Members who live off base still have rent or mortgage payments to make. Somebody has to put food on the table. Service members receive a housing allowance in addition to their regular pay, but these payments will be disrupted, too.
Honestly, even those living on base are in trouble because most bases have privatized housing - they pay rent to companies like Pinnacle, not the US Government.
Basically, a lot of families are going to be screwed but VoteVets is asking that we take steps to point blame where the blame belongs - at Republicans who are holding us hostage.
Here's what Ashwin Madia, Interim Chair of VoteVets is asking military members and their families to do:
We need you to lay out the facts in a letter to your local newspaper. While our troops will be asked to continue serving, they won’t be paid for their sacrifice until the government shutdown ends. Though they will receive full back-pay when the budget is resolved, troops and military families who depend on their bi-weekly paycheck will not be seeing it on time. For troops who have spouses and kids on the homefront, who live paycheck to paycheck, even one delayed pay day could cause huge problems for them in this economy. It simply isn’t right to ask our military families and troops who sacrifice so much already to give up their paychecks because of Republican obstinacy. Shutting down the government isn’t responsible.
TELL YOUR PAPERS – A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN HURTS VETERANS
Facts are facts. The Republican House Leadership is wholly responsible for putting us on the course towards a shutdown of the government, and that shutdown will hurt troops and military families. It’s time that they know you’re on to their game, and that you won’t sit idly by. Click on the link above, and make your voice heard.
He's write, facts are facts. Military families are traditionally quiet about such issues. There is a strong compulsion to remain quiet because those in uniform are not supposed to speak out about political issues, especially while identifying themselves as military members. But military family members can speak out! We can also ask our friends and extended family to speak out as well! We're not in this one alone.
President Obama could use our help on this one. Front-pager, Jed Lewis has a great diary up - Obama has promised to veto the House Bill that Republicans would like us to think is meant to save the day:
So House Republicans are voting today on a stop-gap funding measure that they say would keep the government open for one more week and guarantee that troops would get paid during a shutdown. But there's a catch—they are adding strings to their proposal, demanding $12 billion in cuts over the next week in exchange for funding troops. On an annualized basis, that works out to $624 billion in cuts, making the GOP proposal an extortion demand of epic proportions.
We could include the fact in these LTE's that Congress will be receiving full pay during the shutdown. Nice.
If you need some more ideas, VoteVets published a press release today with even more:
"Facts are facts. President Obama and Congressional Democrats have proposed tens of billions of dollars in cuts. When the Republican Leadership refused to give on some of their demands, like cutting funds for Homeless Veterans, the President and Democrats proposed even more cuts in other areas, in a good faith effort. At last count, the White House has proposed $33 billion in cuts, as much as the House GOP originally proposed," he added. "The Republican House Leadership is wholly responsible for putting us on the course towards a shutdown of the government, and that shutdown will hurt troops and military families."
My family is currently discussing our personal game plan. Because we're living overseas without base support, we rely on the US Embassy. We've just been told it will be shutting down. That means no post office. Not a big deal for us. But it also means no bank for cash. Argentina is a cash society. Our bank cards will help but when bills come due, the bank card isn't enough. And I can't imagine explaining to an Argentine landlord that I can't pay him because the US Government has shut down. I mean, really, what a thing to have to say.
We will survive a government shutdown - my husband is a field grade officer and we have a savings account that will see us through. I want to see our enlisted families get their paychecks, especially those who have a military member deployed at this moment in time. Stress levels for those families are already at an all time high. The last thing they need to be worried about is putting food on the table. And, believe me, some of them will be worried about that.
So, will you write a letter? The VoteVet LTE tool makes this an easy deal.
If you want to see what else will be effected by the government shut down, take a look at this graphic over at Texas Insider is praising Senator Hutchison for an effort to pay military families... 40 co-sponsors and only 6 of them are Democrats. WTF?
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