Students are beginning to question what the government shutdown means and how it will affect them, but the real crisis is the toll that it’s taking on the nation’s veterans.
As of now, the government shutdown has not had an effect on the benefits that our veterans receive, but if Congress cannot put their heads together to come up with a budget for the next fiscal year, the shutdown can begin to take a toll on veterans all around.
“I know that it could maybe affect the way that we get paid because we get paid through the government like our GI bill and post 9/11 (GI bill),” international business major Raul De Leon.
De Leon is not afraid that his or anyone’s benefits would be withdrawn from them, but rather he’s more worried about the fact that the Veterans Affairs’ office could be closed, which would affect the hospital’s employees as well as the doctors and nurses that work for the hospital.
“Mostly, I think the people are the ones who are going to suffer,” De Leon said.
De Leon wasn’t the only one who felt strongly about the shutdown.
Jimmey Wilkins, a machine tool technology major, who also served the country in the army during the last draft of 1971, felt that the members of Congress need to stay in a room together until they could reach an agreement on the budget.
“A lot of people are paid by the government and they eventually will get paid. The issue is just when and how. They (Congress) go all year long and spend money recklessly in their budget. I just don’t understand how they cannot come up with a compromise,” Wilkins said.
Aside from worrying about their own benefits, veterans are worried about how this shutdown is going to affect the welfare of the nation and the people who live here.
“I don’t want to say bad things about our government, but if congressmen can vote themselves a pay raise and still not service the people like they should, there should be some changes in our government,” Cerritos College’s Student Trustee Lance Makinano said.
“Obamacare is a main issue, but…many college students here went to the health care/Obamacare seminar that we held on campus and many of them are happy that for the first time in their life. They will actually have health insurance.
“The government needs to know that people pay their taxes. People also work so that the big scope of things can be paid. So you have to ask yourself at the end of the day, ‘Why does it affect small people like us?’,” Makinano said.
The shutdown went into effect on Tuesday and there still has not been a resolution to this problem.
