John,
I was a Marine stationed at the Pentagon during the 2018-2019 shutdown. So with everything going on right now, I wanted to share with you the reality of what these shutdowns mean for our national security and how they impact our service members and military families. Will you please let me explain?
Before the government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019, a lot of us were already working 10+ hours a day and not seeing our families enough or sometimes at all. But then, just as the holidays were coming up, we had to cover for furloughed civilian employees.
Service members at military facilities across the country had to deal with the same thing. The Coast Guard couldn't even fund two paychecks. But this was more than just needlessly letting politics punish military families.
No matter what DC politicians tell you, the Pentagon and many facilities that are critical to our safety just can't function properly without civilian employees — there just aren't enough service members to cover for them.
That shutdown was a real threat to our national security.
Now, with an aggressive China and a warmongering Russia, politicians like Josh Hawley are once again deciding their personal politics are worth forcing another shutdown that hurts our national security and military families.
It's disturbing how familiar this feels — not just to what happened 5 years ago, but to what now feels like it's happening every few months.
We’ve had years of senators blocking or voting against key Pentagon nominations, putting another huge strain on members of our armed forces. This year, one senator has even been allowed to block hundreds hundreds of military promotions.
Last year, we had senators try to block healthcare coverage for our troops who were exposed to toxic burn pits. And now politicians are regularly playing games with our defense budgets.
It'd be just misguided (but still dangerous) if these politicians were genuinely trying to have a positive impact on policy — like preventing more overseas wars. Instead, it's clear each time these actions have more to do with elevating a "brand" or scoring political victories.
There's no clearer evidence of that than the fact that, particularly in the U.S. Senate, these politicians are hardly ever consistent about what goals drive their need to hold up supporting our troops. They never appear to accomplish any of those “goals” either.
Whether it be restricting abortion access, some phony culture war, or the ridiculous idea that we should still have troops in Afghanistan, it always ends up being clear what these efforts are truly for: Politicians getting ahead in the Washington game.
It's even more ridiculous to hear these same politicians — many having built their careers on spending trillions of dollars on pointless wars and handouts to corporate elites — claim "concern about spending" is the reason military families and our national security should suffer.
Politicians caring more about themselves than the people they’re meant to serve isn’t anything new. What’s new is how far they’re willing to go without even pretending to hide it.
I’m running for U.S. Senate because working Missourians deserve a leader who won’t let their personal politics, shady corporate mega-donors, or anything else get in the way of protecting and doing right by our people, our state, and our country — but I can’t do it without your help.
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Thanks for hearing me out,
Lucas
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Paid for by Lucas Kunce for Missouri
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