The Army’s Installation Management Agency is $530 million short of what it needs through Oct. 1 to fund the garrisons at the 117 installations it oversees in the United States, Europe and Asia...Garrisons are basically the city halls of Army installations, providing services such as garbage removal, shuttle buses, mail delivery and firefighting.
The crunch is forcing garrisons to drastically curtail services except those essential to the war on terrorism and the health and safety of soldiers and their families.
Fort Knox in Kentucky closed one of its eight dining halls for a month and laid off 133 contract workers. Fort Bragg in North Carolina can’t afford to buy pens, paper or other office supplies until the new fiscal year starts in October.
And Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio hasn’t been able to pay its $1.4-million monthly utility bill since March, prompting the energy company’s automated computer system to mail out 1,300 disconnection notices for many of the post’s administrative buildings.
But whatever, right? I mean, those folks just need to suck it up. The money has to come from somewhere. You don't see public school kids getting up in arms or writing letters to their Congressmen. (Wait, public school kids know they have Congressmen? Wait, public school kids can read? Quick, let's cut their funding some more!) What happened to that military discipline? The Prez isn't your momma, he's the smart, forward thinking, vaguely shifty uncle who's convinced the entire family to give him their life savings so that he can run his latest crazy get-rich-quick scheme. You know, like starting his own albino chipmunk farm.
And besides, Bush has created tons of new jobs. If you get fired from Ft. Bragg, you can just go work at McDonald's.
(Christ, and this from somebody who wouldn't mind seeing a smaller military.)
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