Source: The Washington Post

The Coast Guard’s top admiral said Tuesday that members of the armed forces should not be expected to shoulder the burden of the partial government shutdown, citing the “anxiety and stress” it is causing military families as their pay is withheld.

Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant, said that he is heartened by the outpouring of support Coast Guard personnel have received across the country but expects more.

“Ultimately, I find it unacceptable that Coast Guard men and women have to rely on food pantries and donations to get through day-to-day life as service members,” he said, speaking on a video posted to his Twitter account.

The comments marked the admiral’s most forceful remarks about the shutdown since it began 32 days ago amid a dispute over President Trump’s demands for funding for a southern border wall. While the majority of the U.S. military is part of the Defense Department and has funding, the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, including the Coast Guard, are affected by the shutdown.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/01/23/unacceptable-coast-guards-top-officer-criticizes-lack-payment-government-shutdown/?utm_term=.ae251fdb15b3

---

I am glad to see a high ranking officer of the Coast Guard finally speaking out! Can you imagine if the Army or Navy had been impacted the same way? Cadet Bone Spurs belongs at the bottom of a Bayou somewhere.

I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to be one of the 800,000 government workers who are getting laid off with no pay or forced to work for free. Not all government workers will get back pay either - especially those who are considered "independent contractors." Many of them won't get so much as a dime.

Making America "Great" by turning American workers into slaves for - oh, two or three months, maybe two or three years. But all you Federal workers are just fine with this. We know this because the malignant narcissist in the White House came on TV and told us so. Or maybe he tweeted that one. It's so hard to keep up these days, especially when your mind keeps obsessing about going hungry along with 38 Million other Americans who must depend on food stamps (SNAP) that will lose their funding in 3 weeks when February rolls around.

Me, I'm 67 but I became disabled when I was 51. The catastrophic medical bills cut through my savings like a hot knife through butter. These days I get by on a tiny social security check, a housing voucher and SNAP. There's no margin for error in my monthly budget. I consider it to be a good month when I manage to hit the 30th with my rent and electric bills paid up; my Internet didn't get turned off (not this time, anyhow); and some eggs, bread and coffee to tide me over until there's money on my SNAP card again.

I volunteer as an advocate with the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition when I'm able to. I could tell you all so many heartbreaking stories about low income disabled people around here. There's the woman a judge sent to the county jail for being a schizophrenic. She languished there for months with no evaluation and certainly no treatment. I know of more people than I can count who are disabled and homeless who camp on the public lands.

And I will never forget the woman and her son with Downs Syndrome. She was trying to leave her abusive husband and had managed to finally escape the little fundamentalist Mormon town they had been living in. Mother and son also camped out in a trailer on public land. CCDC had been trying to arrange for housing and medical care for both of them. Then one day the local social services office told the Mom that she and her son did not qualify for food stamps. That poor woman was so beaten down that she went into hysterics at the news and threatened to kill herself. Terrible, terrible situation.

Many people in my small town on Colorado's mostly rural Western Slope aren't doing as well as I am. I am next door neighbors with both the Ute Reservation and the Navajo Nation. The poverty among many of the Utes and Navajo is simply heart breaking. Any time I want to start feeling sorry for myself, all I have to do is walk down the dirt road that leads to the mostly Ute town of Toawoc. It's like stepping into the third world. Folks who live there are largely dependent on programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a Federal Agency which is now also going unfunded. Always hit the most vulnerable first, right?

We don't have any of those cool Colorado resort jobs around here. It's mostly low wage agricultural and tourist trade work. Retirees with decent pensions give the local economy a shot in the arm, but we need more than just shots. Sometimes I think we need a war. What will the people who depend on food stamps do come next month? Two of the local churches trade off on running the soup kitchen. What will happen to that soup kitchen when it becomes overwhelmed by the need to help all the people who suddenly no longer have the means to put food on their tables? The Federal commodities program which distributes food boxes to qualifying low income folk will not be funded either.

Then I try to imagine all the other communities both large and small; urban and rural all across the nations that will be experiencing the same frankly impossible situation that we will be here. Worst of all, little kids are going to go hungry. You can't just suddenly throw 38 million people at private charities and community soup kitchens that were already overwhelmed and expect that the hungry will get fed. Some of us won't.

Oh, how I despise Donald Trump.