Proposed Defense Cuts Will be Felt Here In Minnesota, Causing Jobs To Be Lost

Many of you may have heard talk about the proposed defense cuts by the White House and not thought about it much. I used to be one of those people until recently, when these cuts hit home.

My husband is a part of the 934th Airlift Wing located next to the Minneapolis airport. As his full-time job, he works out there on base. He is enlisted in the military but he is "stationed" here. He has been doing this for three years now. We own a house in Stillwater; have a two-year-old daughter and a son due in June. Everything was going great, until my husband received word that his unit was losing its mission due to budget cuts.

Currently, the Air Force has not released any more information on what the new mission will be or what the personnel changes will be exactly.

Although, it has been determined that we will have to uproot from our home state to some strange state for my husband to continue his military career. Luckily for us, we can rent our home out to family and not have to worry about selling it in this down market. Other people are not so lucky. They will have to figure out what to do with their home as well as have to find a new home in a different state.

Kare 11 and the Star Tribune did a brief story on this topic but no more attention has been drawn to it. This makes me very upset.

Local politicians like Sen. Al Franken have fought to keep planes for the Minnesota National Guard in recent years but he has remained silent on the 934th issue.

I feel that our politicians are more concerned with pleasing their political party than doing what is right for their constituents.

I don't think politicians or Americans understand the consequences with these budget cuts, jobs will be condensed, lost for some, due to forcing early retirement or moved out of state. The biggest presidential debate issue is the economy, saving and creating jobs, but the government itself is eliminating jobs.

Our local politicians are battling it out at the state capital on how to create and keep jobs in Minnesota, but, no one is acknowledging that these military jobs will be moving out Minnesota, causing the state to lose revenue and jobs.

Minnesota Republicans are too busy proposing marriage amendments and other non-essential laws to make an effort to save these local jobs at the airlift wing.

Minnesota Democrats are too busy trying to stop the Republicans at the capital to make an effort either.

This political turmoil is eating our state and our country. In writing this blog, I wanted to bring attention to this issue and I wanted to ask readers for support since our politicians are lacking support. If you are a Facebook user, you can join the Save the 934th Airlift Wing group for news updates and ways you can show your support. I also encourage you to write our state and federal representatives to tell them how these budget cuts will affect their state.

To learn more about the proposed cuts and the effect it will have on the 934th Airlift wing, click here.