This guy is married and she is in the military too so they will both get the base pay. They have a truck or two and a rented house nice area are are publicly complaining that they will have financial trouble if he does not do this normal 'extra' work and get the normal 'extra' pay that they see as 'normal' pay. These are the same folks that will rant about other peoples sense of entitlement.
If this guy was some fresh off the boat 19 year old I would cut him a lot of slack but he is not. Still it says a lot about the financial literacy of some in the military.
I must have missed a point here. Do we expect military servicemembers and veterans to somehow be at least as financially literate as the rest of American society? Sure, the military would like all of their people to be financially responsible, but even that goal is elusive. Financial literacy is just a fantasy when you're working on your career and risking your safety while being supported by one of the nation's most complex compensation systems. Try finding a financial advisor who can suggest how a military veteran or retiree should allocate their assets or whether they need life insurance to augment their survivor's benefits. If even the financial industry can't articulate the issues of military compensation then I don't think we should expect the servicemembers themselves to be able to do so.
If the military was financially literate then everyone would be financially independent and nobody would be reading my writing...
Anyway the Gunny may be old enough to remember the drawdown days of the 1990s when many Reservists were required to drill (to qualify for a good year toward retirement) but were not paid because the Reserves ran short on funds. Yet at the same time the military was paying thousands of servicemembers to leave the service.
It's also worth keeping in mind that many other facets of military compensation have still been disrupted by this shutdown-- for example hazardous duty pay, re-enlistment bonuses, tuition reimbursements, and spouse career programs. My local commissary is closed, as are most of the military base benefits that save money for servicemembers. Material maintenance & training have suffered to the point where someone is likely to get hurt or even killed for lack of a few thousand bucks' worth of spare parts and operating hours. Sadly, though, I've seen more outrage expressed over the possible cancellation of the Navy-Air Force football game.
Of course it's still arguably better to be in the military than to be furloughed. Servicemembers are still better off than the federal employees and others who are going without pay. I'm only trying to make the point that the Gunny is thoroughly justified in feeling paranoid about Congressional claims of supporting the troops.
If Congress was trying to make it look like they were
really supporting the troops with their "exemption" bill, I think in 13 months they'll find out just how well that tactic worked.