WASHINGTON — If Congress can’t keep the lights on past Tuesday, the Pentagon’s got a survival list: guard the southern border, keep the war drums beating in the Middle East, and polish the Golden Dome missile shield. Everything else can wait.
That’s the gist of a weekend 16-page planning memo spelling out which parts of the world matter most when Washington decides to shut itself down. Active-duty troops and reservists will still show up Wednesday, but without paychecks until at least Oct. 15. Roughly half of the Pentagon’s civilian staff — 334,904 people — will be told to stay home.
The brass say missions “necessary for the safety of human life and the protection of property” will keep humming. Translation: the border deployments stay, Middle East ops stay, missile defense stays. Shipbuilding, depot work, and critical munitions also made the cut.
What doesn’t make the cut? Pay for the troops. Unless Congress can hammer out a deal, soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines — even Coasties — will be working for free. Lawmakers floated a bill this month to guarantee their pay, but it’s sitting idle while the parties fight over health care subsidies and Republican cuts to medical programs.
The Pentagon’s current headcount shows 741,477 civilians utdown plans. Of those, 406,573 get to keep working. The rest get furloughs, the modern government’s version of “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Shutdown brinkmanship is nothing new in Washington, but the priorities tell the story. Protecting property ranks higher than paying the people doing the protecting. And while the government stalls out, the military machine grinds on — border posts manned, missiles on alert, ships in the yard — proof that even when the paychecks stop, the commitments don’t.