The Democrat government shutdown is “devastating” to military readiness, Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) said, calling it a distraction.
Speaking on Fox News, Pfluger, a 20-plus year active duty Air Force fighter pilot who now serves in the Air Force Reserves, explained that the shutdown majorly impacts military readiness.
“This shutdown that Chuck Schumer has orchestrated is devastating to our readiness, because it doesn’t allow those service members to go train and do the things that they need at a high level if we continue on with this nonsense,” he explained.
“And they’ve got to get back to work. … This is a distraction,” he said, emphasizing that they need to get back to getting ready “for that next conflict.”
Additionally, payment for active-duty troops will stop as of October 15, yet they will still be reporting for duty.
Pfluger is among Republicans who have continued to correct the record from the left’s misinformation campaign, as Democrats — not Republicans — opted to shut down the government, rejecting the Republican-passed continuing resolution that literally kept Biden-era spending levels the same.
“The American people overwhelmingly want to keep the government open, and that’s exactly what @HouseGOP voted to do,” he wrote on September 30.
“Yet once again, Democrats are putting Americans LAST, ignoring the wishes of the American people, and pushing our country toward a reckless government shutdown,” he added.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) also sounded the alarm over the impact on the military, highlighting issues with those nearing the completion of temporary duty assignments. They are now going to their home units before the tasks are complete due to the shutdown, and according to Fox News, “costs associated with a service member’s per diem while on temporary duty assignment can range from $178 per day, to more than $1,000 per day for others.”
“Not only is this Democrat shutdown wasting taxpayer dollars, it’s wasting the time of our servicemembers,” he said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday reminded the American people that Democrats are responsible for the shutdown.
“They created a red herring. A red herring is a distraction. They decided that they would pick a fight on healthcare. Let me look right into the camera and tell you very clearly, Republicans are the ones concerned about health care,” Johnson clarified.
“They’re two totally separate things. The clean continuing resolution would simply keep the lights on so that the members in the House and Senate can have those debates on healthcare. We were always planning it. We have lots of ideas on the table on how to fix it, but we don’t yet have consensus on it because it’s very complicated,” he said. “We have time to do it.”
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