That’s exactly what I said. If they work, they should be paid.
But again, while you may or may not be technically correct about the use of the word “furlough,” I bet you couldn’t find 1% of the people who are using the word that way. When they say “furloughed,” they are referring to those “non-essential” personnel who are not at work.
You may want to tone down a bit here. I am a vet who now works as a civilian in the DoD. I do logistics support for a weapons system. Since military maintain and contractors do engineering, I was non essential. I have supplies and parts in place at the deployed locations, for now. At some point, I may be recalled from furlough.
We want to work, we are conservatives, liberals, libertarians, and even low info folks, but we all work hard to make sure our warriors have the best gear they need.