The government shutdown isn’t over; it’s only been postponed. The petulant children in Congress kicked the can down the road.
At first, it was just silly—cannon fodder for “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” I thought. Then a week went by and I said to myself, “Surely, this won’t continue.”
But it did. On the second week of the shutdown, I became terrified at what another two more weeks would have meant for me.
Like many others who were affected by the shutdown, I’m an honorably discharged veteran. I’m also a student at the University of Georgia, and the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is what I rely on to pay my bills and go to school. It is my primary source of income.
Prior to Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown, the Department of Veterans Affairs said my payments would not be affected by a potential lapse in appropriations. I stayed calm until the VA said on Oct. 7 that payments would continue through the end of the month, but that a prolonged shutdown would mean suspended payments when funding was exhausted. An email update from the UGA veterans’ representative made this extraordinarily clear—in bold print: “This means that, until the government shutdown is resolved, the monthly stipend that you normally expect may not be paid on November 1.”
Panic.
I turned to the official Post-9/11 GI Bill Facebook page, which had posted an update saying that it would be inactive during the shutdown. There were many comments by other student veterans complaining that they were still waiting for last month’s paycheck.
The UGA veterans’ representative encouraged us to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and look into taking out federal student loans to alleviate any potential gap in income. I thought this would be useless, since federal student loans were probably affected too, but according to the email, that service was “operational through the shutdown.”
So, the money the government owes me I can’t get, but I can get money from the government if I go into debt to them? Really?
Yes, really.
There was a slight delay in my own payment earlier this month, which had me on the phone explaining to Georgia Power why I needed a few extra days to pay my bill. The late fee, plus a $135 deposit they were trying to add on, was only going to exacerbate my plight, so I explained the situation and asked them if they could waive it given the mitigating circumstances. Their customer service made me feel guilty for asking. “If we waived your late fee, we’d have to do that for everyone,” the representative said.
And since I didn’t know if it was going to be a “prolonged shutdown” or not, I also gave a heads up to my landlord that I might not be able to pay my rent Nov. 1. Fortunately, she was sympathetic to the situation. It’s a good thing, too, because—depending on Washington—I might have to do it again at the beginning of next semester. The agreement that reopened the government expires in January.
Before the shutdown ended, my eyes were glued to the live CNN coverage at home, and when I wasn’t at home, I rapidly drained the life out of my phone battery each day by repetitively searching the web for “shutdown” every five minutes, hoping for good news.
Two days before the end of the shutdown, The Military Coalition, 33 organizations that support veterans and military personnel, rallied at the National World War II Memorial demanding that Congress do something. It’s enough that political inaction affected my education benefits, but risking other veterans’ benefits is inexcusable. I watched live on CNN and heard that they were tired of being the “pawns in a political game.”
Even when a deal to end the shutdown was reached, Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives—including Georgia’s Paul Broun, Doug Collins, Phil Gingrey, Tom Graves, Jack Kingston, Tom Price, Austin Scott, Lynn Westmoreland and Rob Woodall— still voted “no.” It shouldn’t be about Republican or Democrat. It’s not about Obamacare. It’s about keeping the country running and doing what’s right.
If you think a government shutdown doesn’t affect you, it does. I did my best not to spend any money for those 16 days, to conserve what little I had, and I’m sure that other veterans did the same. While I never spend much money to begin with, I imagine that if you multiply my spending by the number of other student veterans at UGA and veterans in Athens who rely on other forms of benefits, the local economic impact is significant.
I hope that one day the puerile politicians will stop kicking the can down the road, pick it up and solve the problem.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
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How the Government Shutdown Hurt One UGA Student and Veteran
The government shutdown isn’t over; it’s only been postponed. The petulant children in Congress kicked the can down the road.
At first, it was just silly—cannon fodder for “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” I thought. Then a week went by and I said to myself, “Surely, this won’t continue.”
But it did. On the second week of the shutdown, I became terrified at what another two more weeks would have meant for me.
Like many others who were affected by the shutdown, I’m an honorably discharged veteran. I’m also a student at the University of Georgia, and the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill is what I rely on to pay my bills and go to school. It is my primary source of income.
Prior to Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown, the Department of Veterans Affairs said my payments would not be affected by a potential lapse in appropriations. I stayed calm until the VA said on Oct. 7 that payments would continue through the end of the month, but that a prolonged shutdown would mean suspended payments when funding was exhausted. An email update from the UGA veterans’ representative made this extraordinarily clear—in bold print: “This means that, until the government shutdown is resolved, the monthly stipend that you normally expect may not be paid on November 1.”
Panic.
I turned to the official Post-9/11 GI Bill Facebook page, which had posted an update saying that it would be inactive during the shutdown. There were many comments by other student veterans complaining that they were still waiting for last month’s paycheck.
The UGA veterans’ representative encouraged us to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and look into taking out federal student loans to alleviate any potential gap in income. I thought this would be useless, since federal student loans were probably affected too, but according to the email, that service was “operational through the shutdown.”
So, the money the government owes me I can’t get, but I can get money from the government if I go into debt to them? Really?
Yes, really.
There was a slight delay in my own payment earlier this month, which had me on the phone explaining to Georgia Power why I needed a few extra days to pay my bill. The late fee, plus a $135 deposit they were trying to add on, was only going to exacerbate my plight, so I explained the situation and asked them if they could waive it given the mitigating circumstances. Their customer service made me feel guilty for asking. “If we waived your late fee, we’d have to do that for everyone,” the representative said.
And since I didn’t know if it was going to be a “prolonged shutdown” or not, I also gave a heads up to my landlord that I might not be able to pay my rent Nov. 1. Fortunately, she was sympathetic to the situation. It’s a good thing, too, because—depending on Washington—I might have to do it again at the beginning of next semester. The agreement that reopened the government expires in January.
Before the shutdown ended, my eyes were glued to the live CNN coverage at home, and when I wasn’t at home, I rapidly drained the life out of my phone battery each day by repetitively searching the web for “shutdown” every five minutes, hoping for good news.
Two days before the end of the shutdown, The Military Coalition, 33 organizations that support veterans and military personnel, rallied at the National World War II Memorial demanding that Congress do something. It’s enough that political inaction affected my education benefits, but risking other veterans’ benefits is inexcusable. I watched live on CNN and heard that they were tired of being the “pawns in a political game.”
Even when a deal to end the shutdown was reached, Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives—including Georgia’s Paul Broun, Doug Collins, Phil Gingrey, Tom Graves, Jack Kingston, Tom Price, Austin Scott, Lynn Westmoreland and Rob Woodall— still voted “no.” It shouldn’t be about Republican or Democrat. It’s not about Obamacare. It’s about keeping the country running and doing what’s right.
If you think a government shutdown doesn’t affect you, it does. I did my best not to spend any money for those 16 days, to conserve what little I had, and I’m sure that other veterans did the same. While I never spend much money to begin with, I imagine that if you multiply my spending by the number of other student veterans at UGA and veterans in Athens who rely on other forms of benefits, the local economic impact is significant.
I hope that one day the puerile politicians will stop kicking the can down the road, pick it up and solve the problem.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
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