This year was a tough one for government employees, government contractors, and military personnel. On October 1st the government started a government shutdown. It was temporary, and only lasted 17 days, but it effected many people. Even before the government shut down there was a lot of talk about what the government could do to save on the budget. They discussed all the steps they could do to make sure that the shutdown would not happen. In the end, it did occur and many people were laid off, and some were told that they would not be coming back to work at all. The government shutdown affected many people, and it also greatly impacted military personnel.
The military it is made up of many parts, military personal include active duty, active reserve, and reserve. Also included in this group would be the civilian side, which includes civilian contractors and government civilian employees. The civilians play a huge role in the military and they work hand in hand with military personnel. In my experience I have witnessed that many active duty soldiers show dislike towards civilian employees on post, but little did they know how much they would miss those workers during the shutdown. Before the actual shutdown many civilian employees were forced to take days off in order to help with the budget. “The combined days off equaled 6.6 million days and at its peak, about 850,000 individuals per day were furloughed” (Burwell, 2013).
With these furloughs many places were affected on posts all over the world, but mainly in the U.S. With many civilians on furlough the hospitals, range control, commissary employees, and maintenance were affected greatly in many ways. With many of these places being impacted by the furlough the military saw a...
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...in order to run the way it is intended to run. The government needs to focus on making sure that everyone gets the proper funding to operate.
The government shutdown has affected many portions of our nation, and the military is definitely one that has been in the news a lot. Most people don’t think about the civilians that work directly with the military and how they were affected as well. Most people also viewed that the military is over funded and that the benefits loss didn’t matter. The truth is that it does matter, these soldiers and civilians are always there to protect the country and should be receiving these benefits, and they do not deserve to be cheated out of what they deserve. Sadly, they will continue to be affected. Many people were impacted in numerous ways by the government shutdown, and the military was one section that felt the negative outcomes.
No matter how important our troops are to the people of America, President Obama is cutting the benefits for our military veterans. ”President Obama put his signature on the two-year budget bill, which includes a contentious provision to pare down annual cost of living increases in benefits for military retirees under age 62, saving the government an estimated $6.3 billion over a decade”(lawmakers, veterans groups push to restore military benefits 1).
Growing up I always had to deal with the fact that my father was involved in the military. My father was deployed twice: once in Germany, and later to Kuwait. I was only four years old when he first traveled and almost every day I asked where dad was. The second time I was fourteen, and I was devastated that my best friend wasn’t going to be home for a year. Both times he left, it was awful for my mom, my brother, and me because he was the one person that kept us together as a family and once he was gone we were just broken. A military family goes through more than a regular family does in a year. Those veterans have families, how do people think they feel. Children who live in a military family have a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and other mental issues. Although many people believe that we should send our soldiers overseas to keep our country safe, there is no reason why our
On October 1, 2013 Obama had signed a law passing the Obama Care to help people with healthcare, but in fact forced the government to shut down and eliminate food share to help pay for the Obama care. Due to the fact that many people rely on the government’s food share to help them survive, thousands of people were declined from Obama care and therefore had no healthcare and no food to help them survive. The Government shutdown is the beginning of Homeland security’s “ENDGAME” plan of taking away citizens’ rights and starting the martial law to have the military take over and place citizens into FEMA centers.
As America heads into a new year, we find our government tightening its purse strings and cracking down on excessive spending, with an emphasis on the US military. According to author Brad Plumer, a reporter at the Washington Post, “U.S. defense spending is expected to have risen in 2012, to about $729 billion, and then is set to fall in 2013 to $716 billion, as spending caps start kicking in.” Pared with a more drastic 350 billion dollar cute going into effect over the next ten years, the military finds itself cutting what cost the most to maintain and support troops (Fact Sheet par. 2). In recent years the military has bolstered an overwhelming 1,468,364 troops (Active Duty). These numbers are to be cut substantially; the biggest cut is to be seen in the Army. The Army must deal with a reduction of 80,000 troops, cutting its force of 570,000 troops to nearly 140,000.Subsequently, the budget cuts, which have led to a reduction of troops in the military, has driven the military to turn to advanced weapons technology that requires less people to m...
This imposes problems on the military and even on the government. One article states that, “Reduced budgets and the threat of sequestration create a sense of uneasiness in the ranks, and those fears are fueled by politicians willing to shut down the federal government rather than compromise.” (Army Magazine) This is because with the increase of budget cuts they start to cause problems for the ones who are working and this creates lost jobs in the military. No one wants to lose their job not even the ones that have put forth a great amount of time and effort in the military. For the ones that have been in the military for a long period of time this can actually have negative effects on their life style and even cause problems when returning
Wars and military battles are always viewed as violent and power hungry things. We never fully grasp the politics of most wars and understand what is going on behind the scenes. Troops in the Middle East are a present day, debatable issue. Most Americans question whether or not they are there for good or for evil. Social aspects of our military also come in place with the current event refugee problem. About half of the United States fears that if we let foreigners in we might also be letting ISIS in. ISIS (Islamic State of Iran and Syria) is an extreme terrorist group that seeks to eliminate America and all of our allies through bombings and attacks. Many people do not know that the military takes up 53.71% which is $598.49 billion tax payer’s dollars. There are great pros and cons of the armed forces. They ensure our safety but also force us to cut down in education spending but increase the spending of our army. Recruitment is more ensuring present day than it was in the past. The military welcomes all patriots that would put their life on the line for their country and their people. Considering there are five different departments in the service, it is easier to
Because of this many Americans have long advocated for Military Defense cuts and redirections of funds to both the public sector and other Military Institutions like Veteran Affairs (VA) and Military Personnel Healthcare. If the U.S. were to reduce/re-appropriate the National Security Budget, they would see improvements in the public sector, in veteran care, and could improve other sections of the FDB (Federal Discretionary Budget).
These Veterans are family members, neighbors, and friends in the community. They fought and served to protect a nation full of people whose freedom is dependent on the men and women who go to war.
According to todaysmilitary.com, “The U.S. Military consists of five active-duty Services . . . The Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air-Force fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense (DoD). The Coast Guard reports to the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime and DoD during wartime.” All five of these Services are vital to our country and deserve to be recognized for how they help create a safe country for us Americans.
This year, the United States is set to end over a decade of continuous combat operations in Afghanistan as well as reduce the size of the military in an effort to restrain the growing deficit of the federal government. While some welcome these actions, they will have a significant effect on the men and women of the armed forces. Since the military is now focused on returning to a peacetime posture and cutting personnel, more veterans will be entering the civilian market. These men and women, who come from all walks of American life, will have had vastly different experiences than their civilian counterparts. These veterans will have spent their formative years in a wartime military and while they have so much to offer society, often, their service and they as individuals are stereotyped with unflattering characteristics by civilian managers, which has a negative impact during their post-military search for employment. Some civilians see them as uneducated and suffering from a host of mental problems related to their service. This problem is not only relevant for recent veterans but for all of those who have volunteered to serve in the military. Veteran unemployment is a serious problem for the United States. Those who choose to serve in the military should not be negatively impacted in the civilian marketplace as a result of their sacrifice.
A military officer must manage pieces of one of the largest organizations in the United States government - an organization that accounts for the third largest piece of the American budget and is comprised of 1.3 million active sailors, soldiers, airmen, and marines, many of whom are tasked with being deployable to any location within 48 hours. This is only possible through concise, professional communication on the part of every service member, especially
funds. This topic is one that gets to me the most. I know that the laws set in place
People also think that the military should not get paid more because they want to “keep the same number and quality of people”, (Forsling, 2014).
I am a daughter of a Veteran. My dad served as a Marine in the United States Marine Corp from 1962- 1966. During that time, he served in combat during the Vietnam War. My dad was proud to have served for the country he loved so much. This would cost thousands of Americans their life. For those fortunate enough to return home after the war, the war was far from over. Many of these service men and women dealt with several health-related problems due to the chemicals that the government sprayed in Vietnam. In most cases these problem did not surface until many years later. It would take serval years for Veteran to receive any benefits from the Government.
In my opinion the government spends way too much money (taxpayers money) to make sure that the bigger institutions do not fail and have a huge negative affect on the economy. The way that many people, myself included, think the government should handle this is to break the bigger institutions up into smaller ones that way we can still let the institutions go bankrupt and not have it effect our economy in a big way.