When we asked our Facebook fans last week what topics they think we should be talking about here on SpouseBuzz, a whole hill of people responding “budget cuts.” And why wouldn’t they? When members of Congress start blathering on about “sequestration” and “defense cuts” and “the fiscal cliff,” most Americans have a hard time figuring out what that stuff means to them.
But not military families.
Military families know that the federal budget is our life blood – and not just because it is our paycheck. It’s the programs our children attend. It’s our ability to shop at the commissary. It’s the body armor our spouses wear, the weapons they use and the vehicles they drive.
The federal budget is everything.
So it makes sense that we’re worried about it. It makes sense that we know that this is going to make a difference in our day to day lives.
It would also make sense if, like the people in this school, programs managers on bases and posts around the country are already starting to scale back. I’m wondering (and even hoping a little – because that’s how small-scale it was) if the particular lameness of a “Winter Wonderland” here on Fort Campbell, in place of the normal extravagance, this past weekend isn’t to blame on belt tightening.
And yet getting program managers to pony up to the fact that they are cutting at all is really hard.
And so I need you.
You are our eyes and ears on the ground. You see what is being cut, what is no longer available. You know what programs you can’t use, who scaled back their hours, who isn’t open anymore and where you can no longer take your kids. Take our poll below and weigh in …
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And then please, pretty please, tell us in the comments: what have you seen? We’ll follow-up with your base or post, and possibly include them in a story we’re doing on how the budget cuts impact you.
Give us a hand? Thanks.
