'We take care of each other': Military families already prepping for another government shutdown
More than 80 percent of middle-class military families expect another federal shutdown in January, according to a survey released Monday to NBC News, and some of those troops — financially depleted from the previous shutdown — are tapping food-sharing programs to help feed their children.
“They are fatigued. They have been in harm’s way for a long time. And their spouses and families have had to carry the burden enormously,” said Scott Spiker, chief operating officer of First Command Financial Services, Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas, whose company has polled the military-family community since 2008.
“The sense is: If the government is not going to take care of me, I’d better figure out how I’m going to take care of myself,” Spiker said. “When that uncertainly keeps bouncing through, when it’s refreshed, your agony is brought to a deep level quickly. It's not just an irritation.”
The group's latest survey found that 81 percent of “middle-class military families” — which includes senior, non-commissioned officers plus any troops whose pay grade gives them a household income of at least $50,000 — are “not confident” Congress will avert a January shutdown. (The company’s index includes 530 respondents aged 25 to 70 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percent).
Collectively, the military community is “nervous” about further wage disruptions, as occurred during the October shutdown, Spiker said. That anxiety is fueling “a variety of frugal behaviors": the sharing and stockpiling of food, the slashing of home spending, and cuts in both 2013 holiday travel and gift giving.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/18/21521930-we-take-care-of-each-other-military-families-already-prepping-for-another-government-shutdown
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