Tea Party Republicans Dis American Troops Fighting Wars They Support

The imminent threat of a government shutdown has been the goal of the incumbent Tea Party majority in the House of Representatives since they were elected. They broached the subject initially when discussion turned, before they were seated but after the election, to budgetary matters. They love the idea of the kind of confrontation that makes them look like they are standing on principle when, by and large, there are no real principles involved, the fiscal mess has nothing to do with spending patterns, but the mash-up of a burst financial bubble and two unfunded wars (with a third now added, just to make things interesting). We are told, over and over, that the troops in the field will not be effected by the shutdown, it only deals with "non-essential" matters, like postal service, day-to-day operations of civilian departments, that kind of thing.

Except, of course, that, like the Republican protestations they do not want the shutdown, is a lie.

U.S. military troops at war in Iraq and Afghanistan would receive one-week’s pay instead of two in their next paycheck if the government shuts down this weekend due to the federal budget impasse, according to a senior defense official.

As the Cable’s Josh Rogin reports, after that initial one-week’s worth paycheck, “all uniformed military personnel would continue to work but would stop receiving paychecks.”

If the federal government shuts down, “you could have forces deployed in the field, with their families back home, and no one’s getting paid. And that could be an issue,” the defense official said.

You think it could be an issue? Hmmm . . .

As I have been saying all along, the lack of any fundamental grasp of the reality of our economic situation in the midst of fighting two wars is breathtaking, but in a bad way.