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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — A half a world away from the Capitol Hill deadlock, the economy and debt crisis are weighing heavily on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

And the top question on their minds Saturday even as bombings rocked the city around them, was one the top U.S. military officer couldn't answer.

Will we get paid?

"I honestly can't answer that question," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told troops at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan, as several expressed anxiety over budget wrangling in Washington.

Mullen also told them they would continue to go to work each day.

But he offered a bit more optimism than defense officials have acknowledged when those questions have come up in recent weeks. He said he believed that troops would be paid eventually, regardless of what happens.

"I have confidence that at some point in time, whatever compensation you are owed, you will be given," said Mullen, who is making his 15th trip to Afghanistan, just two months before he retires. But, he noted, "There are plenty of you living paycheck to paycheck so if paychecks were stopped it would have a devastating impact very quickly."

"I'd like to give you a better answer than that right now, I just honestly don't know," he said...

Asked whether Congress members would cut their own benefits if they acted to cut military pay, Mullen triggered chuckles when he recommended the troops e-mail their representatives with that query.

"They're the ones that can answer that particular question," he said at a town hall-style gathering of soldiers in Kandahar.

While a group of congressmen pushed forward a bill this week to ensure that the active military servicemen still get paid in the case of default, there's no firm plan yet.

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We should transport every member of Congress to the middle of Afghanistan, put a gun in one hand, a bottle of water in the other and tell them they can leave once they get this figured out. I bet they would come up with a solution fairly quickly.

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Take away the gun and the bottle of water - they won't need them.

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Charles Krauthammer Scolds Margaret Carlson for Saying Tea Party 'Strapped Explosives to the Capitol'

...MARGARET CARLSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS: I have to downgrade Charles here. You initially said why don’t Republicans, you know, take the victory. And it’s because there’s a nihilist caucus which is, “Listen, we want to burn the place down." I mean, they’re not, they’ve strapped explosives to the Capitol and they think they are immune from it. The Tea Party caucus wants this crisis, and do we want to do this again six months from now? This whole two-step process is another thing which is they like the drama. They want to do it again.



CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I thought that post-Tucson we weren’t supposed to accuse our political opponents of being terrorists.

CARLSON: Nihilists.

KRAUTHMAMMER: Strapping a bomb is a terrorist. No, actually Charles, that rule was never intended for liberals.


Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/07/29/krauthammer-scolds-lib-columnist-claiming-tea-party-has-strapped-expl#ixzz1ThP5BvJ9

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Media, Democrats, and the President Have Been in Lockstep with the Tea Party as Terrorists Message


Throughout his tenure, there have been several facets in which President Obama has been demonstrably weak on leadership, with the debt debate coming to the forefront in recent months.  Now however, lost in that news cycle has been another failure of leadership for the President – his own request to tone down violent rhetoric in this country.  For it was mere months ago that Obama stood in front of a crowd in Tucson that had anxiously sought leadership amidst the chaos of the Gabrielle Giffords

shooting; a teachable moment that had The Guardian gushing about how the President had delivered “calm amid the toxic rhetoric.”

That moment of calm has long since dissipated.  Where once the President had denounced discourse that places “the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do”, we hear Republicans blamed for holding the American people hostage to their economic policies.  Where once we were urged to talk “with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds”, we now hear Tea Party members being denounced as terrorists.


Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2011/07/30/media-democrats-and-president-have-been-lockstep-tea-party-terrorists-m#ixzz1ThQUXJ00

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

Zero chance they wont be paid. If anyone has first hand information from anyone currently deployed Id love to hear if the "fear" is real or hyped.

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ORIGINAL: TreasureKY

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

Zero chance they wont be paid. If anyone has first hand information from anyone currently deployed Id love to hear if the "fear" is real or hyped.

I wouldn't say there is "zero" chance they won't be paid.  That kinda makes it sound like the problems of when they'll be paid and how consistently don't exist.  Those things matters just as much.