{"id":37087,"date":"2018-01-22T21:50:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T21:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/22\/in-budget-brinkmanship-death-gratuities-should-be-essential\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:21:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:21:34","slug":"in-budget-brinkmanship-death-gratuities-should-be-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2018\/01\/22\/in-budget-brinkmanship-death-gratuities-should-be-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"In budget brinkmanship, death gratuities should be \u2018essential\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the shutdown showdown progressed, the term \u201cpolitical football\u201d got thrown around to the point of clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some lawmakers said immigration programs were being used <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenJeffMerkley\/status\/954175671667970048\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">as a political football<\/a>. Some thought child health care <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenateMajLdr\/status\/954037945870180357\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">became a political football<\/a>. House Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii and an <a href=\"http:\/\/caucus.militarytimes.com\/speaker\/tulsi-gabbard\/#.WmZE-q7tzIU\" data-original-title=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"selected-link\" aria-describedby=\"popover212979\">Army National Guard major<\/a>, scolded fellow lawmakers for \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TulsiPress\/status\/954899199165857792\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">playing political football with issues of humanity<\/a>,\u201d which covers \u2026 well, pretty much everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s impossible to carve out exceptions for every \u201cpolitical football.\u201d If lawmakers were able to take everyone\u2019s concerns and balance them against the needs of the nation, then fund them commensurate to their importance, they\u2019d be creating what\u2019s known as a \u201cbudget.\u201d That\u2019s crazy talk, and you can\u2019t spell \u201ccrazy\u201d without \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2017\/09\/12\/mattis-outlines-impacts-of-continuing-resolution-army-worst-hit\/\" data-original-title=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"selected-link\" aria-describedby=\"popover133418\">CR<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there\u2019s a fix that needs made: Lawmakers should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/pay-benefits\/2018\/01\/22\/fisher-house-ceo-government-shutdowns-shouldnt-bring-more-burdens-to-families-of-the-fallen\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">follow the advice of Ken Fisher<\/a>, chairman and CEO of the Fisher House Foundation, and make it clear that in any future federal shutdown, the military\u2019s $100,000 death gratuity will be paid out in accordance with the wishes of the fallen service member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fisher\u2019s foundation stepped up in 2013 to pay the benefit as the government went dark. It offered to do so again this time around. It\u2019ll likely offer again, if necessary, next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It shouldn\u2019t be necessary. Ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kudos to the foundation for trying to make things right, but if lawmakers can\u2019t get out of their own way in the ongoing battle of budget brinkmanship, they can at least pass a bill that would make paying the gratuity an essential government function \u2014 maybe even more essential than other services that continue during the shutdown, such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2013\/10\/01\/congress-gets-paid-during-a-shutdown-while-staffers-dont-heres-why\/\" title=\"\" class=\"selected-link\">processing of lawmakers\u2019 paychecks<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers should make it clear that in any future federal shutdown, the military\u2019s $100,000 death gratuity will be paid out in accordance with the wishes of the fallen service member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":77,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[77,101,12,25,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[396],"class_list":["post-37087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"G3NBDS4TZBH4RAX7ZUV4SIBAT4","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2018\/01\/22\/in-budget-brinkmanship-death-gratuities-should-be-essential\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In budget brinkmanship, death gratuities should be \u2018essential\u2019 - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawmakers should make it clear that in any future federal shutdown, the military\u2019s $100,000 death gratuity will be paid out in accordance with the wishes of the fallen service member.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2018\/01\/22\/in-budget-brinkmanship-death-gratuities-should-be-essential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In budget brinkmanship, death gratuities should 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