BUDGETING: Air Force might ‘have to stop flying’ for six weeks.

Air Force budgets don’t have the money to pay for any U.S. pilots to fly in the last six weeks of the fiscal year, a top general warned Congress.

“So, the last month and a half, the entire Air Force would have to stop flying,” Lt. Gen. Jerry Harris told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Wednesday. “But because we can’t do that, it would start affecting units almost immediately, forcing their grounding, and that turns around our readiness program.”

That message is designed to jolt lawmakers ahead of a contentious fight over government spending, which is set to run out at the end of April. If Congress can’t agree on new spending plans, they will have to avert a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution that extends current spending levels. That might appeal to Democrats insofar as it would help stymy President Trump’s spending priorities, but it would put the military in a jam.

President Trump and the GOP leadership ought to try shaming the obstructionist Democrats into action.