US troops won't get paid during shutdown: Pentagon

[Nanjing to Seoul]

Source: Yahoo News

Washington (AFP) - The US military's nearly 1.4 million troops will stay on the job in the case of a government shutdown but they will not get paid, the Pentagon said Friday.

And if Congress fails to agree on a new budget measure by the close of the fiscal year on Monday, September 30, "roughly half" the Defense Department's nearly 800,000 strong civilian work force would be placed on unpaid leave, top officials said.

The war effort in Afghanistan and other high-priority missions would not be affected but most training and a range of maintenance work would be cancelled if Congress remains deadlocked, according to the Pentagon's top financial officer Robert Hale.

"We wouldn't be able to do most training, we couldn't enter into most new contracts, routine maintenance would have to stop," he told reporters.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/us-troops-wont-paid-during-shutdown-pentagon-190746122.html

---

Way to support the troops, Republicans.

[Hydra]

1. *lol*

They said on the runup to Syria that they had $89 billion set aside for their rainy day fund. Not willing to pay out of that out to the actual troops? Fail.

[Heather MC]

5. My Rainy Day fund has .89 cents, until pay day which I hope is on the 1st

[greiner3]

15. Be very, very quiet, I'm hunting;

BTW, are you multi-headed, one of the 'bad guy's outfits' in a James Bond movie (or some film in the same genre) or a ' small, simple, fresh-water animal that possess radial symmetry'.

But seriously, by not paying the troops it is not going to look good to the families of the soldiers, who will no doubt start the phone calls.

A big plus is I've read that a lot more of today's volunteers come from 'their states' than ours.

Don't let this get out, but I'm pretty sure the move is calculated to draw political capital.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. Maybe the "other" oh-so-cute water animal ...

[Hydra]

41. Awww, you caught me in the morning before my coffee!

[Hydra]

40. Hydra:

Last edited Mon Sep 30, 2013, 11:20 AM - Edit history (1)

[div style="width:50%"]

I felt the need to point out that there is money there, but it's for something "more important" than the troops.

[tecelote]

30. The $89 billion is for contractors and the new war.

The troops are just one level above the veterans. Both mean little to the politicians because they cost money and put nothing in their pockets.

'Doubt any drones are going to be shelved.

[freshwest]

2. '...couldn't enter into most new contracts...' The repuke's donors will be screaming now.

Nice jobs program you guys got there, 1.4 million without pay.

The Libertarians may say this will end the wars, but it won't. Their war is the class war, 24/7.

Work for nothing, sing about the tea party and the flag and see what you get.

[alittlelark]

10. ^^^^^ What he/she said !!! ^^^^^

[delrem]

3. That might just be the one savings grace of the whole debacle.

It would be just a hiccup to the US military, but it might give a blessed respite to the many countries that the US is militarily engaged with/in - which is a shitload of countries.

[Heather MC]

4. I just checked my bank account

it is showing that we should be getting paid on the 1st. I think this shut down will effect the 15th payment.

not the 1st.

The last time they pulled this bullshit we learned our lesson and switched our pay to once a month.

Hopefully our little trick will work and we will get fully paid on the 1st and beat the Rethugs at their own game at least for the month of October.

I can't believe they are doing this shit again.

[SaveAmerica]

13. Are you in the military? I think I read at the Army Times you're cool

for a couple weeks, they don't expect it to have an impact (if it happens) til around the 10th. I hope it doesn't, how they can even send the military in to work without pay while they've done nothing in Congress but cause problems and a shut down won't keep any pay from them is beyond me.

It was the Stars and Stripes.

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/gis-could-still-get-paid-on-15th-if-budget-drama-ends-by-oct-7-or-soon-after-1.243808

"If the government shuts down Tuesday, Congress will likely still have a week to work out a deal to fund federal operations before military members’ Oct. 15 paychecks end up delayed, Department of Defense Comptroller Robert F. Hale said Friday."

[enlightenment]

51. The article states

edited because I should never post before a second cup of coffee. Sorry!

[blkmusclmachine]

6. The MIC rakes in the sweetheart Gov't $$$. And the grunts get stiffed.

[inch4progress]

7. Wow! These Kids join to get an education, income, benefits etc

where they know they can get them during an economic recession/depression. The Republicans regularly tout the message that joining the military is an HONORABLE DUTY AND PATRIOTIC SERVICE!

Yet the Republicans don't wanna take care of these kids while they perform this "Patriotic Service"!

Downright criminal!

[Marie Marie]

9. Now now. I'm sure that these Republicans have one of those

cheap (Made in China) "Support Our Troops" magnets plastered to the back of their vehicles. Who says they don't care about out service men and women?

[inch4progress]

12. Jeesh that takes me back......................Made in China Romney.

I remember the meme that his campaign pins were made in China. It turned out to be false, yet it remains completely believable.

Believable because..................

In a speech at a fundraiser in Virginia last night, Mitt Romney talked about the "We Stand United" lapel pin he had created for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, and used it as an example of how he's going to bring Americans together if elected as president:

ROMNEY: And so we created a little pin and we notified people that we’re now going to be selling these pins and the proceeds are going to go [to charity]. … I just remember going downstairs after it was announced — we were in a big, tall skyscraper in Salt Lake City, and it must have been next door I think where they were selling these pins, and there was a line all the way down the street.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/03/1088542/-Romney-Brags-About-Pro-America-Lapel-Pins-Forgets-to-Mention-They-Were-Made-in-China

[freshwest]

16. Woohoo! Lapel pins was his jobs plan huh? A smokescreen for his jobs plan in China...

[DemoTex]

8. I guess USFS fire crews will not be getting paid, either.

Should we stop attacking wildland fires?

[SunSeeker]

11. Isn't fire fighting considered an essential service?

I would think fire fighters would continue to get paid....I hope.

[Left Coast2020]

18. I believe states have their own funding methods for fire suppression.

In Calif, CDF gets budgeted a certain amount each year. But if it goes over budget in event of larger fire i.e. Yosemite, they would probably have to ask for emergency funding from feds.

But as for military, you would think personnel that are back home would be pissed at the notion of not getting paid.

They should do an ad on the boob-tube screaming about not being paid. Hell, I could write the friggin script.

Just have a military person in uniform standing on camera asking why are repukes not paying us? Are they unpatriotic? Must be if they are not interested in the hardships of military families.

I live near a VA facility, so I take this personally that these friggin scumbags would cut off military families.

[NutmegYankee]

21. They still don't get paid. They have to work and get an IOU.

Those not essential for life and safety get furloughed.

[SunSeeker]

43. That blows. Well Boner sure isn't essential for life and safety.

Hell, every Republican in Congress is a useless piece of shit. If there's a shut down, they should get nothing, not even a ride home.

[freshwest]

48. Rush Limbaugh Attacks Police and Firefighters for Contributing Nothing to the Economy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002797995

What is quoted in that OP is exactly what baggers and libertarians believe.

And yes, they would 'let it all burn' to make a point.

They want civil society to be destroyed. They want coroporatist rule.

And they are very close to getting it as public sector workers are demonized and the privatization forces are applauded.

Privatization is economic apartheid, make no mistake about it.

We better get our act together and support those who are for civil society. It has well-funded enemies who would profit directly from its demise.

[jmowreader]

14. Lots of troops will get evicted from rentals, be foreclosed upon, have cars repossessed...

...have their credit cards go into default, have insurance policies cancelled for nonpayment, starve to death because food isn't free, have the power to their barracks rooms shut off because the military can't pay the light bill, and shortly thereafter lose their security clearances because bad debt is a security risk. Let's only hope there are plenty of refrigerators in stock at the PX, because the troops and their families may need the boxes to live in.

The next time a Republican tells me to support the troops, I'm going to resist the urge to kick him right in the balls...but it won't be easy.

[freshwest]

17. And don't forget their children who will lose their friends and schools from moving. These disasters

are man-made and spread far and wide, but are not given a voice in media.

A number of people I know wirh federal jobs, are telling their relatives to not go for them. Because the GOP is set on ending any kind of job security and jobs.

All the better to help their bosses put people down and out and without a voice in anything.

[jmowreader]

20. It'll be just like dumping a million-plus people on the unemployment line...

...except that these ones won't be drawing unemployment insurance payments and won't be able to go out and get new jobs because they're required by federal law to keep their current ones. Not that there are a million-plus unfilled jobs for people whose resumes include skills like "directing cannon fire," "firefights" and "in-flight missile repair."

I wonder if the creditors of this country can form a class to sue the Republican Party and the groups identifying as "Tea Party" organizations over their manufactured crisis.

[freshwest]

23. That sounds like justice, but they have plausible deniability. 'Ooh, we were only kidding!'

Their true link is to the zombified dittoheads who vote these guys into power to wreck the place. The worst thing is, that people who follow these guys, do get buy during these stunts.

Because they are going with a system of nepotism for the most part, and are not the kind of people that the Democrats are, needing social mobility. We have at least two competing models of economics in this nation and always have.

The more reactionary and oppressive one is out to rob andf then destroy the one that millions of people have created. There are less of these guys, but they are not going to be hurting.

Now, we do have an OP somewhere this week, from a Bloomberg piece IIRC, that says some of the big players have told the GOP to stop playing this game as it will cost them blilions. The catch is, that they will not be destroyed as the lower income people will be by this.

They will survive, but their investors may not. I'm always reminded of the scene from Trading Places where the stock market guys explain the system to Valentine, their social experiment. How no matter what way the stocks go, up or down, they still make a profit.

Now if that was an accurate representation, I doubt. But Valentine listened to how they make money no matter what, and said 'You guys are bookies!'

The GOP is only hurting the middle class and the poor. The media doesn't belong to those groups and will sell a false equivalency in hopes of increasing the pain for the 2014 elections.

[peoli]

19. this is awesome!

[NutmegYankee]

22. WTF

What's awesome about a mother not having money to feed her children?
What's awesome about families falling behind on bills?

[Nanjing to Seoul]

26. Nutmeg, I know the above poster is being sarcastic. At least one can hope.

[sakabatou]

29. Perhaps the poster is saying the article is awesome

[grahamhgreen]

24. What about that 93 billion they had for the 'free' war in Syria?

[dipsydoodle]

25. This is an attention grabbing inconsistency -

an allusion to an unlikely event. As you mention - if they'd the dough for Syria that's currently unspent.

[grahamhgreen]

27. Yeah, they had enough extra for an entire war, but can't pay the troops... Wretch.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. It would violate the Anti-Deficiency Act. nt

[NutmegYankee]

37. Appropriations cannot be spent in a new fiscal year.

On Oct 1, the budgets effectively reset. Only, they won't have a budget.

[grahamhgreen]

42. Right. The money evaporates because of your sentence, lol. Where does it go?

[NutmegYankee]

44. Unused money gets returned to the treasury.

This is how the government works. It's government 101. No need for your uncivil response.

[GeorgeGist]

33. No troops for that one. Remember?

[Alkene]

28. Remind me again who exactly it is that supports these Republicants.

Rhetorical question, really. But I have to shake my head in disbelief that anyone who isn't among the elite, or at least fairly well-to-do, would still support a party that clearly doesn't serve their interests. Who actively campaign to oppose their interests.

Support our troops? Pay them, and bring them home.

[sarge43]

31. Hmm. Men with guns and hungry families. When's the last time that combination ended well? n/t

[freshwest]

45. TY. Thoughtful response and laughing at your sig line.

[sarge43]

46. Thank you.

Those creatures in congress have no knowledge of history. I use to think the French revolutionaries treatment of the aristos was terrible. Lately, I'm beginning to empathize and understand why.

For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.

[GeorgeGist]

34. To do list.

1.Declare marshall law.
2. Incarcerate enemy combatants from Congress.
3. Mint trillion dollar coin and deposit in checking account.

Have a beer and watch TV with family.

[NutmegYankee]

38. martial law nt

[Trillo]

35. Does failure to pay them release troops from conscription? NT

[freshwest]

47. Nope, it doesn't work that way. And the GOP wants to follow their role models in Russia:

Military Conscription in Russia

A significant portion of Russians of conscript age try to avoid conscription, mostly because of specific code of violence which has developed in the army since 1967 called Dedovshchina and also poor conditions in Russian Army, which makes large number of conscript-age Russian youth worry about their health or even lives while in the army...

Just not going to a draft station – draft-dodging. This is a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison, depending on the time spent dodging. Russian police and military draft boards often perform conscription through detention [1]. Quite often the would-be recruit would avoid signing the papers that require to pass the board instead. Without that, the "invitation" is considered undelivered, and not showing up is not illegal. In practice, that means living a decade off the grid. This is countered by knocking the doors at 5 AM and having the recruit sign before he would become fully conscious...

The Russian voencoms respond by using increasingly illegal means, referring to non-existent laws and acts, "losing" documents that jeopardize the chance of a conscript being deemed fit for duty, and continuous psychological pressure, with 2011 probably being the apex due to a low birthrate in 1993. Those that attempted a medical discharge and failed are often punished for their resistance by assigning them to the worst units and jobs possible, e.g. a conscript with a heart defect was forced to volunteer for contract frontline service because he almost died hulking around 50-kilo cauldrons several times every day, since his defect was 3 mm rather than 5. Voencoms are rumored (no other source is simply possible) to have established an unofficial bonus system for every conscript, especially if he was unfit for duty and yet conscripted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Russia

Compulsory Military Service in Russia

"Like many countries in the world, Russia has compulsory military service for males of 18 to 27 years of age. The required length of service was 2 years, but by the time I turned 18 it was reduced to 18 months, and eventually down to 1 year in (I believe) 2008.

Russia has the second biggest army in the world with 1.5 million personnel (behind China, and just ahead of the United States). And yet, only about 10% of eligible males report for duty. Everyone else uses any legal and illegal means to dodge the draft. There are two reasons for this:

First, the conditions in the Army are reportedly horrible (bullying, torture, rape, malnutrition, etc). Five to ten thousand conscripts die every year due to suicide, medical negligence, avoidable diseases, etc.

Second, there is no overwhelming national pride in Russia associated with this compulsory military service. I think in order for it to work, people need to believe that you are giving something to your country for the benefit of your fellow citizens."

http://lexfridman.com/blogs/thoughts/2012/12/27/mandatory-military-service/

Further reading:

Human rights in Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_russia

[Llewlladdwr]

53. There are no conscripts in the United States military.

The draft ended in 1973. The last draftee retired in 2011. Everyone currently serving is a volunteer.

[malthaussen]

39. It's a very bad idea to fail to pay your troops. n/t

[kentauros]

49. "routine maintenance would have to stop"

No longer maintained military equipment.

What could possibly go wrong?

[sarge43]

50. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Just asked the retired ammo man down in his man cave. He rolled his eyes and said that he couldn't count that high.

[kentauros]

54. None of us can count that high.

When things go wrong while routine maintenance is still being done, they usually aren't catastrophic.

Granted I don't think things will be shut down long enough to have a long-term effect on everything, but when something is up for scheduled maintenance and doesn't get it, then there's cause for worry.

[tavernier]

52. Military will get paid

According to NBC this morning.
Hope so...