While President Obama Parties, Soldiers Suffer from Sequester Cuts
Kyle Becker
On June 1, 2013
https://twitter.com/kylenbecker
While America’s jet-setting president will be bouncing from fundraiser to fundraiser, the nation’s troops will be suffering from military budget cuts proposed by the Democrats and signed into law by President Obama.
Among the most egregious cuts is the laying off of medical staff at Walter Reed hospital for wounded warriors. ABC 7 in Maryland reported:
Hospital officials say the furloughs affect 2,392 caregivers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. That’s 94% of the civilian staff there.
The furloughs stem from the automatic budget cuts from sequestration.
Out of the Department of Defense’s 800,000 civilian workers, about 68,000 are exempt from the furloughs. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has said furloughs will save the department $1.8 billion.
Meanwhile, special hot food rounds for Marines is being scrapped in Afghanistan, where more than 70% of the fatalities from the 12-year war have come under President Obama. NBC News covered the deplorable move at Camp Leatherneck:
The midnight ration service — known there as “midrats” — supplies breakfast to Marines on midnight-to-noon shifts and dinner to Marines who are ending noon-to-midnight work periods. It’s described as one of the few times the Marines at Leatherneck can be together in one place.
The base, which is located in Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand Province, flanked by Iran and Pakistan, also will remove its 24-hour sandwich bar. It plans to replace the dishes long offered at midnight with pre-packaged MREs, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore, who has been deployed in Afghanistan since February.
And while nearly all Americans will be roasting brats and clinking beer bottles on the Fourth of July, soldiers at Fort Bragg and the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst will have cancelled their “Independence Day” celebrations. It would be remiss not to mention that Allied forces in Afghanistan suffered a major assault on the Fourth of July last year.
Couldn’t the president have cancelled a White House concert jam to save a little extra cash to thank our troops on the Fourth? Maybe have foregone one of his white tie dinners? Or most seriously, made sure our wounded vets have round-the-clock top notch care? Not majority Democrat constituents, not his problem?
And isn’t the furloughing of medical staff at Walter Reed a perfect example of rationing under a single-payer healthcare system — one run by the Veteran’s Administration? Because, after all, no matter how many decrees government passes, resources are always limited. Not to mention the fact that Obamacare is already rationing care for folks with pre-existing conditions. Wasn’t that supposed to be free? I thought it was going to cut the deficit and even lead to better marriages.
The U.S. government has a nearly $3.75 trillion budget, and the 2.4% budget trim known as the sequester does not even cut spending, it only reduces its growth. But Democrats obviously want to make America feel the burn for the government cutting any spending, ever, and so they have devised some pretty nasty targeted cuts to rub the citizens’ faces in it.
Remember that come 2014. And while you’re out celebrating this Independent Day, send a care package to our troops and have a toast for the men and women who make freedom possible in this country. Because it’s currently under siege and we should thank our veterans now more than ever.
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Originally Posted by 7SteelGal43
