Congress Affecting Troop Readiness

On September 30th, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi banged the final nail into the adjournment coffin. Instead of dealing with the important issues that she and her comrades were sent to do – pass budgets – they went home to face the music and sure defeat. They may not have thought about (or even care) the consequences of these actions, specifically not passing the Defense budget.

Simply put, we have no money. That means that I cannot send Soldiers to schools to get training that will help them in combat or assist them in growing in their military occupational specialty. Those Soldiers that we can’t wait on to get training, must travel on “borrowed” money that we may or may not be able to pay when they return. I’ve had to literally cancel numerous courses that are necessary to prepare for major training events and our upcoming deployment. I’ve had to cancel training for our chaplains to be able to care for our troops and their families. Without this training, they are unable to coordinate spouse retreats that assist with marital bonding and provide counseling to couples.

And this is just one unit. All across the Army units are scrimping on training in preparation for deployments or upon returning from deployments. Our returning troops won’t get some of the opportunities to help them deal with their experiences in combat because Congress decided to take care of themselves than the people who elected them. I don’t know how this budget issue is affecting our troops in combat, but I can bet that if it isn’t fixed soon, contractors will be sent home, troops will be forced to eat packaged meals, and R&R trips may be cut short or altogether canceled.

We are fighting two simultaneous wars and instead of dealing with important issues like tax cuts and passing a budget, Congress finds the time to pass a bill that provides money to the State Department to give to FOREIGN COUNTRIES!! Our troops are suffering, but gosh darn it, thank goodness we can help the Ethiopians! They had time to pass the Plain Writing Act “to improve the effectiveness and accountability of Federal agencies to the public by promoting clear Government communication that the public can understand and use.” Good idea? Yeah. Necessary? No. They passed budget measures to fund NASA through 2013, but can’t fund the military in 2011.