Dear Conservative,
We owe our military men and women everything. Our freedom is not free; it was paid for with the blood, sweat, and tears of all those who sacrificed to defend the Constitution and our way of life. They deserve to be honored and rewarded for their selflessness.
Unfortunately, they have received no such recognition under the Obama administration. In just five short years, the number of military families forced to rely on food stamps has skyrocketed. Instead of rewarding servicemen and women with a living wage in recognition of their sacrifice, Barack Obama and Congress have repeatedly slashed military benefits and pay.
While it is impossible to know how many individual servicemen and women are currently on food stamps, a good indicator is measuring how many food stamp dollars are redeemed at military grocery stores (known as commissaries).
These commissaries are run by the Federal government and provide military personnel and their families with affordable groceries. Military commissaries typically charge approximately 5% above their cost, which can save military families an estimated $4,500/year on groceries.
Like most other grocery stores, military commissaries also accept food stamps and EBT cards. Everyone knows that dependency on government has skyrocketed under Obama’s tenure. An estimated 47 Million Americans (roughly 15% of the U.S. population) are living on food stamps. Thanks to Obama’s policies, food stamp use has skyrocketed in the military as well!
Military food stamp redemption under George W. Bush remained relatively static, fluctuating around $25 Million during his second term in office. In 2008, $31.1 Million worth of food stamps were redeemed at military commissaries. By the end of fiscal year 2009, the first year of Obama’s Presidency, that number had grown to $52.9 Million worth of food stamps being spent on military bases. That is a 70% increase in food stamp redemption in just one year alone! However, it gets much worse than that…
In 2013, a whopping $103.6 Million worth of food stamps was spent at military grocery stores. Under Obama’s “leadership” our military’s reliance on food stamps has nearly doubled! More military families are relying on food stamps and government assistance than ever before.
How did something like this happen? How we, as a country, go from revering the military to turning our backs on our servicemen and women like this?
While Obama has been traveling around the country supporting a minimum wage hike for fast-food workers and announcing a pay-raise for Federal contract workers, he hasn’t made one mention of the fact that under his leadership, poverty in the military is at a record high.
For a newly enlisted soldier with a spouse and child, base pay (not including food and housing assistance) can hover around $20,000/year. To put it in perspective, that is only a few hundred dollars above the Federal poverty line for three-person households…
This is only compounded by high civilian unemployment numbers. The Military Officers Association of America finds that in 2012, the unemployment rate among military spouses (ages 18-24) was 30% and more than 4-times the national average. It’s been five years since Obama introduced his “stimulus” program and promised to cut the unemployment rate nationwide. Record-high military spouse unemployment is just more proof that President Obama’s economic policies do not work.
This is unacceptable! How can President Obama and this Congress enjoy comfortable six-figure salaries knowing that many of the soldiers protecting them can’t even afford to feed their families?
This is not the America I grew up in and, quite frankly, I am ashamed that we allowed this to happen!
Our military men and women are on-call 24/7, fighting to preserve our freedom and our way of life. Many will pay the ultimate sacrifice in defense of this nation, and how are these heroes repaid? They are given the privilege of relying on food stamps and government assistance to provide for their families…
While Americans are fighting and dying for this country on the front lines, Barack Hussein Obama and his allies are living in Washington as kings. American taxpayers pick up the tab for the President’s expensive state dinners and his family’s lavish vacation schedule, but we are supposed to believe the government can’t afford to pay enlisted soldiers a living wage?
The President should be ashamed… Congress should be ashamed….We all should be ashamed!
At every turn, this administration has sought to devalue military service, either by gutting the officer-corps, cutting veterans’ benefits, or forcing military families onto the government dole. What’s even worse is the fact that these cuts have received bipartisan support in Congress!
How much is defending the Constitution worth? How much do our military men and women deserve for their service and sacrifice?
I’ll tell you what they don’t deserve: Anyone who serves their country in the military does not deserve to live in poverty, nor should they be forced to accept government assistance to provide for their families!
The country’s servicemen and women fight to protect you. Everything that you enjoy on a daily basis was bought and paid for with the blood, sweat, and tears of those serving now and the countless others who served before.
I refuse to sit back and allow President Obama, or anyone for that matter, force our soldiers onto the government dole! Military families shouldn’t have to rely on food stamps and charity to survive!
We owe our military men and women everything! When they received the call, they dropped everything to defend us and to defend this country.
Well, now I am asking YOU to answer the call and defend our soldiers from a Congress and President that have forced them onto the government dole!
For all that they have given, all that they have sacrificed for us, the least that we can do is to stand up and tell Congress that this is absolutely unacceptable!
Tell Congress and President Obama that they should be ashamed of themselves!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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