Government Shutdown Looming. Seriously?

We have a large family: 3 kids, a dad, a mom and a dog. My husband has been in the Army for 12 years and I am an intern at USASOC. We aren’t making 6 figures, and with the cost of living steadily rising the financial strain is really killing us. It all boils down to money - this shutdown means that no money will be coming in to support our family.

Already we have bills that need to be paid, there are medications that need to be bought, and food needs to be to put on the table. I’m not sure the federal government is really in touch with ordinary people out here in the states, especially places like Ft. Bragg and its surrounding military communities. There are military families that live paycheck-to-paycheck, and just one missed pay period is very hard to recover from.

The government is basically asking my husband and others in the military to make sure the citizens of this nation are protected, but at what cost? He’s supposed to fight a war in another country while worrying how is family back home is going to make ends meet? He’s supposed to NOT be distracted from his mission by this? Such a distraction could cost him his life, and that’s one cost I’m not ready for him to pay.

It would be different if I had land and a garden or a farm where we could grow our food, but we live in government quarters. I am already about as frugal as I can be now now with coupon-clipping, but I don’t think I can squeeze any more green out of Lincoln and Grant to cover an entire month without pay, as no one in my house would be getting paid.

Also, I shop at the Commissary and PX, my children attend military schools, and we do just about everything on post. If the government shuts down, so does life as we know it around us.

You know, we elected a new Congress in November, and they’ve been seated for nearly 3 months now. So why did they wait to the last minute to fix the budget? This isn’t something that was a surprise to them. They knew it was coming and they kept putting it off, all while taking multiple recesses.

These leaders need to meet in the middle and agree on something. Both sides are behaving irrationally and this is ludicrous. I can’t believe they have the audacity to act like my 3 and 5 year olds arguing over who is going to play Super Mario on the Wii.

We have about a month’s worth of savings in the bank, but who knows how long is this going to last?