GOP 'Cares' About Troops, But Only During Shutdowns, Apparently
The Hill highlighted Senator Thune's political maneuver to force a vote on paying troops amidst a government shutdown. This highly publicized gesture allows politicians to appear 'pro-military' without addressing the systemic issues that create shutdown crises in the first place, or the actual conditions for military families. It's an old trick: manufacture a crisis, then 'solve' a sliver of it
for political points. While Thune grandstands on troop pay, the same Congress routinely rubber-stamps massive defense budgets that funnel billions to contractors and foreign military aid, often to governments with dismal human rights records. For instance, the US has provided Israel with $216 billion in military aid since 1948 (Congressional Research Service) – a sum that dwarfs any potential
shutdown-related payroll hiccup. One might charitably call this 'selective outrage'; others, a carefully orchestrated distraction. How many schools or healthcare initiatives could that staggering sum have funded here at home?