Here’s a little wrinkle in the shutdown drama I have to admit I never saw coming.

The threat of a shutdown is always nerve wracking for U.S. military members – especially junior ones with families – because it’s never made clear whether you’ll miss a paycheck or not thanks to the arm-wrestling going on in D.C.. When you live paycheck-to-paycheck, NOT having that money there on the first or the fifteenth can be a body blow, even with the implied promised that it’s not actually “missing,” per se – you’ll get it all eventually. That’s cold comfort when the rent or childcare payment’s due, you’ve got 2 boxes of cereal left and half a carton of milk for the kids, or you need a tank of gas to get to the job you still have to be at today. Emergency “savings” to fall back on aren’t all that common.

It’s a very real knot in your stomach, as if being in the military wasn’t routinely stressful enough already.

Then there are the variables uncommon to other occupations.

If you’re deployed to the back of beyond, where trying to keep your financial affairs in some semblance of order is a herculean task on the best day (as I can attest to, having spent hours on the phone with USAA on behalf of Ebola deployed in either Afghanistan or Djibouti), you sweat bullets when they start talking “shutdown.” If you are stationed in Europe, and say you’ve just contracted for that massively expensive delivery of heating oil for your home while there is fuel to get – which the government in theory helps subsidize at nowhere near what it’s costing you to be there – you’re in a tough spot making the call to go ahead on faith or cancel.

Odds of Shutdown and Missed Paychecks for Troops Grow Amid Chaos in the House

The threat of a government shutdown — and the missed paychecks it would mean for service members — is growing after a chaotic week in the House that saw lawmakers unable to even take up a bill that would fund the Pentagon.

…In 2013, when the government shut down for 16 days, lawmakers passed a bill just before the shutdown started to ensure troops wouldn’t miss a paycheck.

Absent such a bill, service members in general can’t be paid during a shutdown despite being considered essential employees who have to continue working.

For example, during the last shutdown in 2019, members of the Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, went a month without pay and in some cases had to start relying on food banks. The rest of the military was unaffected in 2019 because Congress had passed a full-year Pentagon spending bill.

Some financial institutions, like Navy Federal, are well-funded enough that they can offer a bridge Government Shutdown Loan program for direct depositor members who get caught up in Congressional wrangling. It’s not a whole paycheck, but, God bless them, it’s money something.

It’s really a tough spot to be in for so many service members.

That’s why it was really…interesting…to see that the Secretary of Defense has their backs – well, what amounts to a morale crushing shiv in them.

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything like this for a war that wasn’t – and troops who weren’t – OURS.

🚨BREAKING: The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can't agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month.

This means America will be sending tens of billions of your tax dollars to Ukraine regardless. pic.twitter.com/iYNeEGuLPQ

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) September 21, 2023

Newsweek is snickering that word of this sent “MAGA Republicans into a tizzy.”

I’m here to tell them, their “MAGA” fever dreams have nothing to do with it. And “tizzy” is too soft a word for how pissed off this is going to make your regular, all-American Joe.

The Pentagon is reportedly planning to exempt aid to Ukraine from the impact of a potential U.S. government shutdown, sending MAGA Republicans opposed to the assistance into a tizzy.

A shutdown is becoming increasingly likely due to a standoff between Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and hard-right Republicans demanding a series of concessions. Former President Donald Trump, who has claimed that he would personally be able to end the Russia-Ukraine war “in 24 hours,” has demanded that Republicans “defund all aspects” of the government as the September 30 deadline fast approaches.

While military operations that are not considered critical to national security are usually halted during a shutdown, the Pentagon is able make some exceptions. Pentagon spokesperson Chris Sherwood told Politico on Thursday that a decision had been made to exempt Ukraine operations during a potential shutdown, just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington, D.C., to make the case for more military aid for his nation’s efforts to fend off the Russian invasion.

This is just an unconscionable signal to send to OUR service members.

Pentagon moves to exempt Ukraine operations from likely government shutdown.

So while the American government is unable to fund itself at home, it will continue fund Ukraine abroad.

Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/vbZ3rQq8ww

— AF Post (@AFpost) September 22, 2023

McCarthy is trying to get a separate defense bill passed, but that, too, keeps getting caught up in faction fights.

…His latest attempt to move ahead with a traditionally popular defense funding bill as a first step toward keeping the government running was shattered by a core group of Republican colleagues who refused to vote with the increasingly endangered speaker.

A test vote to advance the bill failed, 212-216, as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to stop it. It was the third time that McCarthy, R-Calif., has been stymied, and once again the House came to a sudden standstill.

…The Democrats oppose the military bill on many fronts, including the Republican provisions that would gut diversity programs at the Pentagon.

As passage appeared doomed, attention turned to the Republican holdouts to switch their votes.

Amazing how it’s always “Republican hardliners,” “MAGA zealots” or some riff of the same in media reports responsible for dooming troop support measures even as they approvingly quote AOC prissily mouthing “NO” as Democrats reflexively torpedo the same en masse.

The exception for Democratic support is crystal clear and it’s never paying service members promptly.

Ah, but sacrosanct Ukraine need have no such worries as some piddling LCpl with 2 toddlers and a car payment.

…But if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement and government appropriations lapse, DOD has decided to continue activities supporting Ukraine, DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood told POLITICO Thursday — just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders at the Pentagon.

“Operation Atlantic Resolve is an excepted activity under a government lapse in appropriations,” Sherwood said, referring to the named operation for DOD’s activities in response to the Russian invasion.

The Pentagon can magically pull a black bag out of a closet to keep sending cha-ching to Zelensky, and Biden can whip up his executive order magic wand to annoint Blinken special “money powers” in the interest of OUR “national security.”

… By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State:

(1) the authority under section 614(a)(1) of the FAA to determine whether it is important to the security interests of the United States to furnish approximately $128 million in assistance to Ukraine without regard to any provision of law within the purview of section 614(a)(1) of the FAA; and

BREAKING: With opposition in Congress, Biden issues memorandum granting new powers to the Secretary of State to provide $128 million in assistance to Ukraine without regard to any provision of law within the purview of section 614(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.… pic.twitter.com/qbBV3MM8Zs

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 21, 2023

It’s all an unfettered, unaccountable grift on the backs of the American taxpayer and now?

Quite possibly on the backs of the folks who give the most and still get shuffled to the end of line.

They make me sick.