Failure to Lead: Congressional Republicans and Military Pay

The government shut down was averted. Congressional Democrats, Republicans, and the White House struck and eleventh hour deal to prevent the government from shutting down. The New York Times reported that the budget deal that would fund the government for the next six months cut $38 billion from federal spending this year. Most of the debate however was not about budget numbers, but instead centered around political agendas. A collection of Republican policy riders that have nothing to do with government spending levels, the deficit, or the debt, and they ranged from defunding health care reform; to halting studies of the Missouri River; to prohibiting assistance for mohair farmers.

One of the most frequent targets of the riders was the environment. Prohibiting funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program; prohibiting funding for the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act; prohibiting funding for EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases; prohibiting funding for enforcing an order by the Secretary of the Interior calling for protecting public natural spaces; placing a moratorium, for the duration of the continuing resolution, on the payment of legal fees to citizens and groups who sue the government. Other targets of these policy riders included consumer protection, education, health care, housing, and the Recovery Act. This was a war about ideology.

The Republicans next target of this ideological war was the people that actual fight our wars. After the White House made clear that President Obama would veto the House’s spending bill, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) criticized the President for threatening to veto a bill to “ensure that our troops are paid.” Congressional Republicans and the professional right spent the week claiming that this bill was about funding the troops, except that what they neglected to mention was that they were the ones playing politics with the military. Congressman Bill Owens (D-NY) offered a motion to recommit that would ensure all military personnel received pay for the rest of the year, and only one Republican, Congressman Walter Jones (NC), voted with every Democrat to consider this amendment. However, Republicans had a even more glaring opportunity to ensure that military pay would not be affected by a government shutdown.

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who was the only Republican to vote to stop pay for Congress in event of a government shutdown, introduced HR 1297, the Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act, on March 31st. There are 106 Congressmen cosponsoring the bill who are mostly Republicans – it has no amendments, no riders, and no earmarks. The bill mandates that troop pay continue as it normally would, through the end of the year, even if the federal government faces a funding gap and shutdown. Since being introduced, and being referred to the House Committee on Armed Services, there has been no committee hearings, no committee votes, and in fact no action at all to bring it to the floor of the House for a vote. The Republican’s have a significant majority in the House and the bill would face almost no opposition, but yet such an important issue as founding the troops hasn’t made it’s way to the House floor for a vote. Why?

Because Republicans, like they often do, are using the military for political gain. This however should come as no surprise. Republicans cheerlead while sending our troops into needless wars, and then they do not support they care they need when they leave the military, and then they use the military as a bargaining chip during budget negotiations. All of this just makes it that much more obvious that no of this is about spending, and all about imposing a radical right wing social agenda. But, we have learned one thing from this bit of political theater. Unlike the brave men and women serving in the armed forces, Congressional Republicans do not know anything about leading.