Good day all. As we continue with the Schumer Shutdown with no end in sight, federal bureaucrats are being laid off, and critical personnel are working without pay. One very critical group is the military. There have already been attempts by the Republicans to pass an emergency pay measure, but, as usual, The Democrats blocked it in the Senate.
This has caused someone to step up and put his, or her, money where their mouth is. For years we have people claiming they support the troops,. Now we have someone who is actually writing the check. Here are the details from Fox News:
The Department of War received an anonymous donation of $130 million Thursday to go toward paying U.S. troops during the government shutdown — but Congress may need to get involved for it to actually get in the hands of service members due to legal limitations.
I don’t know what the law is regarding citizen donations to pay the military. Frankly, I think it’s a great idea. People say they support the troops and this is one way they can show it. As to why Congress should get involved? I honestly don’t know. I would think the treasury, which would receive the funds, would simply transfer it to the fund that is used for pay and allowances for the military and they would disburse the money through their usual system.
On the other hand, if Congress does need to pass a law to allow this sort of thing to happen, it will be amusing to watch the Democrats move to block it. You would think they would be smart enough to support this, but then they wouldn’t be Democrats now would they? They truly would be stupid enough to filibuster this. They probably think it would make the troops mad at the Republicans and President Trump.
“On October 23, 2025, the Department of War accepted an anonymous donation of $130 million under its general gift acceptance authority,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday. “The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits. We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
While the government may accept general donations that go toward general funds available to the government, Congress must appropriate that money to go toward federal employees’ salaries, according to Romina Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.
“The department is welcome to acknowledge this donor’s intent but that does not change the legal restrictions on Congress needing to appropriate funds to pay military salaries,” Boccia said in a Friday email to Fox News Digital.
Boccia said that the military is only permitted to accept private donations to support institutions like military schools, libraries, and museums, or to support service members or civilian employees who are wounded or killed in the line of duty. Altering current restrictions would also require congressional intervention, she said.
Well that sucks.
“The only way to get around this restriction is if Congress decided to recategorize troop pay as mandatory or direct spending,” Boccia said.
As far as I’m concerned, paying the troops should be mandatory. In any case, I think that Congress should set it up so that citizens can send money to things like paying for the military directly. Congress could set up a separate fund and that money would be used first with any shortfalls covered by the normal system. If the Democrats want to be pissy about it, the donations could be declared as not a charitable contribution that can be written off your taxes.
Whether or not the money actually makes it to the soldiers bank accounts, I do think it has done one thing for them. It’s shown that people do care and are willing to help out in a way that matters. That will definitely help their morale. Now if the Democrats, as I expect them to, block this, it will be yet another nail in their political coffin.
I think that Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune should put together a bill and shove it right down the throats of the Democrats. I would love to see how UpChuck Schumer tries to spin this as a bad idea.
***UPDATE***
There are reports that the patriotic benefactor has been identified despite wishing to remain anonymous. His name was not released by President Trump. While I have the name, I will honor the benefactor’s desire to remain patriotically anonymous and not name him, until he comes forward personally.
Thatisall
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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~The Angry Webmaster~
His name’s already out there, but I applaud and respect your intent.