Matt Harrison is a three-year veteran of the U.S. Army Band. While his main instrument is percussion, he’s also a sound engineer for the Army rock band, jazz band and concert band. As of this writing, Matt has been dis-enrolled from his classes at the American Military University as a result of congressional Republicans' refusal to fund the federal government unless the Affordable Care Act is gutted. In this interview, Matt had a few choice words to say to his elected leaders.

CARL GIBSON: What troubles you most about congress’ ineffective leadership?

MATT HARRISON: There are hundreds of thousands serving in the military. A sizable portion of us joined to further our education. We were told we would have $4,500 available every year for tuition assistance. I’ve met hundreds of soldiers, have been here for three years, and that was a big reason why they [and I] joined.

18-year-olds will serve three or four years, do a minimal enlistment, get GI bill benefits and tuition assistance. All of a sudden, it’s all been taken away. There was a little bit of a scare in 2011, but now, it’s like, what will we have, and what will we not have anymore? That’s a serious question a lot of soldiers have been asking.

CG: So you depend personally on this tuition assistance for your education?

MH: I actually received a letter from my university today, saying unless the continuing resolution was not passed by at least today, then goarmyed.com, the website I use for tuition assistance, would have to automatically dis-enroll students unless people are willing to pay out of pocket for their classes. I have an upcoming move, and have to go to Fort Knox in a few months, so I have to save a couple of grand just to rent a moving truck and tow one of my vehicles, just to move to a new station. I don’t have the money available to pay for my classes out of pocket right now.

CG: So as someone who took the same oath Congress takes to defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic, what bothers you the most about this “shutdown” and how Congress is addressing it?

MH: The thing that really concerns me is that a lot of Congress’s decisions are based on what’s good for their own self-interest. I’ve watched CNN more this week than in my entire life just to see what’s going on. A word they throw out is “constituents,” as in the people who voted for them. They must think that everything that they believe, their voters also believe that. I think that’s completely false.

Now, a very sizable portion of the country is programmed into the mindset of voting along party lines because that’s the way they were raised and [they] think these parties still have the same ideals they had 30 years ago. But we’ve evolved economically and socially since then. Everybody needs to evolve their mindset, and Congress is no exception. They have to be at the forefront of thinking forward. Should we impose a limit on congressional terms? If there was only a set amount of time they could be in office, then they might actually be looking to make a difference instead of being there as long as they can and getting the most for themselves.

CG: We spoke earlier about how a gig you’d been rehearsing for suddenly got cancelled because of the shutdown. How did your bandmates react to that?

MH: It’s really demoralizing. A lot of the music that we’ve been playing for the last few months, we take popular rock and pop songs and put our own twist on them. Our rock band has always been part of the Fort Jackson mission, but as soldiers come to a new station, the personnel changes. The band right now is a very new unit. Everybody has only been here for about a year, except me, as the sound engineer.

We put a lot of effort into this one set list for a patriotic mission. But we can’t be in a public spotlight and be performing, because then the public will ask, “Well if they can come here and play, then why can’t the government fund everything else?” So the 30 or 40 hours we’ve put in time for this one mission, it’s all been called off. When will we get to put all that hard work to use?

CG: So are others in your unit losing their tuition assistance too? What are they saying about it?

MH: It’s actually funny you mention that, because earlier today, one of my supervisors, he’s working on his masters at the University of South Carolina, and he wasn’t even aware of the ramifications of the shutdown affecting tuition assistance. He’s in his mid-30s and doesn’t follow everything as closely as I do, and he had absolutely no idea this would have an effect on him. I told him today to check and make sure he won’t have to pay out of pocket for his classes.

He was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He’s taking graduate level classes, and could be paying $3,000 out of pocket for the classes he’s taking. And he’s got a wife, and three kids who are all in school. So for families, that’s really drastic. Me, I’ve just got a wife, and we’ll get along fine, but for families it makes a huge difference.

CG: This is something that’s affecting all service personnel. Why do you think there isn’t a huge uproar about this nationally?

MH: I think some of it is the fact that it’s a very small percentage of the national population that is directly affected. The DOD employees and armed forces, we don’t make up a very significant portion of the nation, I think it’s less than 1% of Americans who serve in the armed forces. It’s not going to get the same level of exposure as something that would affect a larger portion of people. There is still the active duty military working and getting paid, and that’s the only thing really getting put out there.

People just assume the military is fine, and the Pay Our Military Act that was passed ensures they get paid, but all these other programs have been taken away, or suspended or put on hold, and that’s the one thing that’s not getting advertised very well. We’re still getting our base pay, but not a lot of the benefits we were promised when we got enlisted have been taken away.

CG: If you had the opportunity to ask one question to John Boehner, Eric Cantor, people in charge of Congress, what would you say to them?

MH: The one thing that I would ask them is, is it really worth it to drastically affect the lives of your armed forces and your DOD personnel, just to see if it’s possible to get President Obama to forfeit some of the Affordable Care Act? It’s already gone through the entire process -- the House, the Senate, the president passed it, even the Supreme Court had hearings to see if it’s constitutional. It’s gone through the process, and it was deemed constitutional. This is a law. Not an opinion, a law. And there’s no reason to hold such a sizable portion of your nation hostage just because you disagree with it.

We haven’t seen this much of a rift in our government since the Civil War. It’s crazy to think that it’s come to this -- you’re taking away the livelihood of some of your citizens because you disagree with the law. Even if you disagree with the president’s ideals, he’s still the president. We’re not a dictatorship, but it’s still the law. Every branch of the government said so. You can’t have one minority group, in one branch of the government, hold the entire government hostage because you don’t like it. It’s just not fair.

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