As I write this blog, if Congress cannot agree on a budget in a few hours the U.S. government will be forced to shutdown. Thought I’d weigh in on what this will mean to the 1.6 men and woman currently serving on active duty. As someone who was on active duty in the military the last time this happened, I think I’m uniquely qualified to comment on the consequences of this situation.
According to an article in the New York Times, Secretary of Defense Gates said, “If the government shuts down from April 8 to 15…troops would get half their pay in the checks received on April 15th. If the government were to stay shut down until April 30…troops would miss a whole check…once the government starts up again…troops would receive the pay they were first owed.”
The families of military members will be those most affected as the ability to pay for cost of housing and other living expenses will be severely impacted. I know conventional wisdom says you need to have enough money in the bank to cover expenses for six months but many of our service members live paycheck to paycheck. For most of my time in the military I was lucky to have about three months of expenses saved up at any point in time. To those that would say shame on you and your poor financial management skills, I would say there are many reasons for this and only a few are the results of poor financial planning.
Service members change jobs every three to four years. Most job changes require a change of geographic locations. The military does give you moving expenses but most of the time it does not cover all of your expenses. Lodging costs for you and your family while looking for housing in your new location take a major chunk of your savings. Once you get your new home, the cost of furnishing it can be pretty steep. Even if you have furniture, the costs of buying things like cleaning supplies and paying extra costs to have utilities and phone services turned on can add up pretty quickly. It always seemed to me, just when you were able to catch up financially and start to save again, you were moved again.
If you are able to live in on base military housing a lot of these moving expenses can be avoided. The reality is frequently on base housing is not available neither in the U.S. or overseas. According to an article in Stars and Stripes, “Troops outside the United States receive Overseas Housing Allowance, while stateside personnel get Basic Allowance for Housing. OHA is paid to approximately 60,000 servicemembers overseas, at a yearly cost of $1.8 billion, according to DOD. And having a nest-egg of three or six months’ expenses might not be easy for junior servicemembers, especially for those stationed near large population centers. At South Korea’s U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, in the middle of Seoul and surrounded by some of the city’s priciest neighborhoods, the overseas monthly housing allowance ranges from $2,666 for E-1s with no dependents to $3,580 for accompanied O-6 officers, according to the garrison website. In Tokyo, housing allowances range from $8,600 for a junior enlisted with no dependents to $10,597 for an accompanied O-6, according to the Defense Department’s Web site. In the Ramstein, Germany, area, housing allowances range from $1,498 for E-1s without dependents to $2,946 for top-ranking officers.”
I live in a beautiful condo on the river in a resort town in Colorado and my mortgage payments don’t come close to the costs most of are young men and women overseas are paying for housing. Costs of housing overseas are not the only thing that can be expensive. Costs of utilities and food can be expensive as well. Most serving overseas have access to military grocery stores (commissaries); but it is unclear at this time if even those will be open. Even if the stores are open, the troops will have no money to buy food for themselves and their families.
It is my hope that reason will prevail and at a minimum the lawmakers will come up with a compromise that will allow troops to continue to get paid. It is my understanding that regardless of what happens in the next few hours members of the House and Senate will continue to receive their pay during a government shutdown. If this is the case, I don’t know how they can look at themselves in the mirror. Our troops are in harms way being shot at every day and with many being killed, wounded and maimed daily.
I’ve followed politics for a very long time. I can’t remember a time when I’ve seen so much pettiness and political infighting in the federal government. I’m not even convinced they know what they’re doing. To be sure there is a lot of waste in government spending but my gut tells me there are a lot of spending cuts that could be made that would save money and not be so contentious. For instance, I just heard on the news that the yearly letter you get from the Social Security administration telling you what your income history is and how much you will receive when you retire will no longer sent via snail mail but will be available online. The savings in just this one thing will be $70 million a year.
Regardless of their political views or affiliations, it is the responsibility of our legislators to keep the government running and pass laws and legislations for the greater good. If they can’t do that, they have failed. I can only speak for myself but if the budget negotiations fail and the government shuts down, I will not vote for any current standing member of the Senate or the House. As always, my views are my own.
