To troops and furloughed Defense civilians, Hagel offers empathy but no hope for budget help

JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. — The audience gasped in surprise and gave a few low whistles as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent pay cut on most of the military’s civilian workforce, probably will continue next year, and it might get worse.

“Those are the facts of life,” Hagel told about 300 Defense Department employees, most of them middle-aged civilians, last week at an Air Force reception hall on a military base in Charleston.

Future layoffs also are possible for the department’s civilian workforce of more than 800,000 employees, Hagel said, if Congress fails to stem the cuts in the next budget year, which starts Oct. 1.

On the heels of the department’s first furlough day, and in three days of visits with members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Hagel played the unenviable role of messenger to a frustrated and fearful workforce coping with the inevitability of a spending squeeze at the end of more than a decade of constant and costly war.

The fiscal crunch also lays bare the politically unpopular, if perhaps necessary, need to bring runaway military costs in line with most of the rest of the American public that has struggled economically for years.

“Everybody’s bracing for the impact,” Army Master Sgt. Trey Corrales said after Hagel spoke with soldiers during a quick stop at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Corrales’ wife, a military civilian employee, is among those furloughed, and they have cancelled their cable TV and started carpooling to work to save money.

“The effects of the economy have started to hit the military,” Corrales said. “It was late in coming to us.”
The furloughs have hit about 650,000 civilian employees but also have slowed health care and other services for the uniformed military, which has stopped some training missions and faces equipment shortages due to the budget shortfalls. Troops were told this month they will no longer receive extra pay for deployments to 18 former global hot spots no longer considered danger zones.

Troops already are facing force reductions, and the Army alone has announced plans to trim its ranks by 80,000 over the next five years.

______________________________________________________________

I remember just a few short months ago many Freepers giggling that the Sequester was "a joke."

I said then, and I will say now, it isn't "a joke" to the US military. Despite being 17% of the budget, it endures 50% of all Sequester cuts, which EXEMPT our explosive Entitlement spending.

Obama and Hagel are shameful, using DoD electricians, maintainers, hospital staff, trainers, and engineers as pawns. No other Federal agency is still furloughing, but lowly paid GS-5 single mothers and fathers who contribute to this nation's defense get 20% of their paychecks stolen from them while we give away Billions to the Muslim Brotherhood, gopher research, and electrical grid upgrades to Sub-Sahara Africa.

Food Stamp takers and SSDI scammers come away unscathed by the Sequester.

The Republicans are no better they knew that DoD had been slammed by two previous massive budget cuts under Obama before Sequestration, but they didn't care.

Now, they are silent as a loyal DoD workforce is punished and financially ruined by its own Federal government. Over 44% of these DoD workers are veterans themselves, many with back to back deployments under their belt, some even with Purple Hearts. It does not matter. They are abandoned.

Shame on this nation.

Because we cannot allow the spirit of this type of volunteerism to continue without some sort of impact from liberal destructive agenda(s)...

Maybe those that are tossed out on the street can get jobs with the local police departments in their hometowns...They are ramping up their militaristic persona in the way they approach policing...So it might not be much of a transition for some of them...

Or they can get a job at the IRS, they need some muscle to keep the peeps in line when Obamacare goes online...

Or even the Civilian Corp Obama talks about every now and then...You know, the one that is supposed to be as well armed and trained as our military...Perfect fit...

Ohhhh, I forgot.../sarc

I returned home in May and started burning down 509 hours of earned vacation. I was told that we had contract extension funding starting in mid-July and the new contract would be starting in July. Reality check: I’m at 312 hours remaining
and the government pushed the new contract date to Oct 1st. The extension funding was rescinded. The remaining vacation won’t bridge the new gap before the HR machinery revs up to shove me out the door. I’m going to find some other tasking and the customer who left me twisting in the wind will have to look for help elsewhere.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.