An Open Letter to Our Country's "Leaders"

Dear Sir or Madam,
  As the wife of an active duty soldier in the Army, and as a woman who has been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to personally meet a handful of our nation's politicians, I am appalled. Not because our pay may temporarily be halted; we will receive back pay and money that comes late is certainly better than money that never comes at all.

  I do not doubt that your job is difficult. I believe my husband's is much harder.

  Both my family and yours are paid from the same "account" for the same category of employment: service to our country. Explain some things to me then:

  We receive BAH to pay for a home. Your home is paid for by tax payers. So are your travel expenses and any homes in D.C. The logic, I assume, is that this job requires displacement and subsequently that displacement should be covered by the job. My husband is literally putting his very life on the line for this country and because he chose to do that, just as you chose to run for office, we have been displaced from every single member of our extended family. My closest relative is currently 5 hours away from us. His closest is much, much farther. And yet we have never seen a single allotment for that displacement. If we aren't being given that privilege, despite my husband risking his beating heart, why are Americans paying out of pocket for you to have that privilege? Please don't misunderstand, I don't think that we should be given an allotment simply because it the government places us somewhere that requires us to spend money on travel expenses. We knew that would be a part of our lives when my husband chose this career. You knew travel would be a part of your life as well, and yet you expect someone else to pay for it.

  Perhaps we should amend our laws to state that Congressional representatives must cover a large percentage of their own travel expenses, just as our military must cover all of them. The money tax payers were giving to your plane flights, limousines, gasoline, car payments, taxis, wining and dining, that could all be applied to our national debt and budget crisis. If you cannot afford those travel expenses without being subsidized, perhaps this isn't the job for you.

  Let me also ask about some of our Congress men and women's numerous homes. I again assume the reason for these is to ease the transition for families and to allow them the chance to be with you as much as possible with all of your traveling, to offer you some comfort while you're away from home.

  Three words: Twelve month deployment. I don't recall my husband or myself getting a second home in a war zone while my husband was deployed for 14 months. I also don't recall his "home" over seas having a single amenity that you've grown accustomed to. No running water at times, no internet, no electricity, no kitchen, no living room, no comfy bed, no air conditioning. The horror of having to stay in a place whose thermostat could not be adjusted to a comfortable 72 degrees.

  Again, I am not petitioning for a home in the hills of Afghanistan. Instead of a house in D.C., why not make a barracks of sorts that you may all stay in while attending to business in the Capitol? The government will give you a bed, a small kitchen, a bathroom, a closet and a desk. The rest is up to you. If you need help trying to arrange such a meager home, ask for help from a single soldier who's been living in the barracks since the beginning of his or her career in the military. They are shockingly resourceful.

  If you truly entered this career because you cared about this country, you would be willing to make sacrifices. Our troops make them every day on a much larger and horribly painful scale than you can imagine. You may argue that no Congressman could afford what's required of the lifestyle without subsidy. Perhaps what you should say is "no Congressman could afford this lifestyle for more than a few years without careful and deliberate planning and saving before they began their run for office".

  And that is my point. Once this budget crisis gets sorted out, perhaps the next line of business should be a re-writing of the laws applied to our Senators, Representatives, Governors, Cabinet members, etc. Perhaps we should limit your terms and force your positions to be ones of public service instead of careers. Perhaps your travel expenses should be only partly aided by tax money. Let's be generous and suggest 30%. Remember, that's still more than you're giving to your fighting troops to see their families. Perhaps you should keep one residence like we are forced to and live in barracks in Washington, D.C. when you're forced to stay there for great lengths of time. Perhaps your families could learn to live without seeing you for 12 months. Perhaps you should be alloted a salary that is equivalent to the average income of your represented area instead of the outrageous amounts you are paid now.

  And perhaps, if you were willing to take cuts like these, we could work our way out of financial meltdown. Explain to me how it is possible that the hundreds of people who are supposedly making our country run are maintaining multiple residences, flying on private planes, purchasing air time for campaign ads, going on vacations, and being allowed to slack on their jobs for 6 months with pay, while conversely millions of the patriots you're supposed to be working for cannot even afford one home, or one car, their grocery bills or gasoline? If you are working for us, then why are your "employers" the ones with no money, no homes, no jobs, raised taxes, salary cuts, and no health insurance?

  If we are all expected to make sacrifices to right this country's path, perhaps you should all be legally bound to do the same.

Regards,
A Mere Army Wife