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Federal workers endure financial strain and fear layoffs as the government shutdown drags on
The Associated Press ^ | October 15, 2025 | BY FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN AND SAFIYAH RIDDLE

Posted on 10/15/2025 4:31:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — With every passing day of the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay face mounting financial strain. And now they are confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs.

“Luckily I was able to pay rent this month,” said Peter Farruggia, a furloughed federal worker. “But for sure I am going to have bills that are going to go unpaid this month, and I really don’t have many options.”

Farruggia is the head of the American Federation of Government Employees local representing employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that faced a wave of layoffs over the weekend.

Jessica Sweet, an Albany, New York, Social Security claims specialist who is a union steward of AFGE Local 3343 in New York, said, “I, myself, have a backup plan” in case she is fired during the shutdown, “but I know most people don’t.”

“The one thing this administration has taught me is that nothing is ever for certain, even if it’s codified into law,” she said.

“This isn’t about one party or the other. It’s about real people,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

“The correction officer worrying about his next paycheck. The TSA officer who still shows up to work because he or she loves their country, even though they’re not getting paid. No American should ever have to choose between serving their country and feeding their family,” Kelley said.

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: budget; federal; media; unions
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1 posted on 10/15/2025 4:31:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Another “Government Union” stooge, worried about his grifting interruption......


2 posted on 10/15/2025 4:33:02 AM PDT by traditional2 ("Is it them, again, Yogi?")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

3 posted on 10/15/2025 4:34:12 AM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Just pretend you were a worker on the XL Pipeline and dream of England.

EC


4 posted on 10/15/2025 4:35:37 AM PDT by Ex-Con777 (Leftists quote the Constitution like an atheist quotes the Bible)
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To: traditional2

I guess, they cannot find any real, poor, homeless, government worker.
So Union stooges have to step in!


5 posted on 10/15/2025 4:36:02 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Four AP losers to write this tripe.


6 posted on 10/15/2025 4:37:48 AM PDT by DAC21
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Have they missed a paycheck, yet?


7 posted on 10/15/2025 4:38:29 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

They can call their precious Cuck Schumer and tell him to end it today. The bill that will end The Schumer Shutdown is in the Senate.


8 posted on 10/15/2025 4:39:54 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN AND SAFIYAH RIDDLE

Hmmmm…


9 posted on 10/15/2025 4:40:54 AM PDT by Ken Regis (I concur )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Let’s talk about the financial strain on the American taxpayer to keep these lazy pukes in their cushy government jobs.


10 posted on 10/15/2025 4:41:30 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The first three people they quoted were union representatives!

Gosh - I wonder what they are going to say?

11 posted on 10/15/2025 4:41:38 AM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

boo freekin’ who....


12 posted on 10/15/2025 4:41:49 AM PDT by wny
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To: traditional2
"No American should ever have to choose between serving their country and feeding their family,”

Serving their country? Right. They chose gubmint work for the pay and the slim likelyhood that thy could be fired for being a slacker.

13 posted on 10/15/2025 4:42:16 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Perfection is impossible. But if you pursue perfection...you may achieve excellence.)
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To: DAC21

Fatima and Saphia?!


14 posted on 10/15/2025 4:47:22 AM PDT by albie
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To: albie

Oh gosh. My bad SAFIYAH


15 posted on 10/15/2025 4:47:54 AM PDT by albie
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Your periodic reminder that, ANYONE receiving a paycheck from government (anyone, dog catcher to President and everyone in between) pays NO taxes. Pays NOTHING towards health insurance and other benefits, vacation, retirement, disability, etc.

If you are being paid BY taxes, how can you PAY taxes?

It’s all the same pool of ill-gotten government gains and taxation is enslavement - if someone can lay claim to the sweat of your brow, the harvest you reap and do it under the threat of arrest, imprisonment, confiscation, you are enslaved. It is NOT a matter of degree (like being just a little bit pregnant, or a little bit enslaved) but of kind.

If you don’t get it, think more.

This shutdown is SAVING taxpayers money, every government employee who leaves - voluntarily or no - is like one less mouth to feed in a nest of Robin hatchlings that was taken over by Cuckoo chicks. The Dad has returned and is booting out the overeaters.

“That government which governs least, governs best,” Henry David Thoreau

[NB: this comment, and my comments like it, always seem to pi$$ the same someones off and they seem to love writing meaningless, vapid, progressive-economic based drivel to me in private messaging. To you I say “ker-BLOCK”. ]


16 posted on 10/15/2025 4:48:40 AM PDT by normbal (normbal. Non-native Tennessean.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Most FR people know this, but notice the programming in the title with use of FEAR.

America is a CHRISTIAN NATION. We do not fear, but are people of FAITH. It’s also an emotionally-laden word with an anti-Trump bias to manipulate and control ignorant readers. A neutral word would be “anticipate.”

We are at WAR. The corporate media is an ENEMY. A weapon is TRUTH. We will WIN!

17 posted on 10/15/2025 4:50:46 AM PDT by The Truth Will Make You Free ( )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“No American should ever have to choose between serving their country and feeding their family”

Many of our founding fathers and other patriots have, but not in the vein of going to work, they formed a country and were labeled traitors and hunted.


18 posted on 10/15/2025 4:56:22 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

First, you had your opportunity to voluntarily resign with a great severance package and chose not to.

Second, government employees in general earn 20-40% more than a similar private sector employee does. If you don’t have enough saved up to live for a couple weeks that rapidly become a personal problem.

Third, you’ll eventually get paid. Unless you lose your job permanently, then there will be a severance package commensurate with time on the job and bloated income, plus you’ll be eligible for unemployment.

I’ve been there. (without the huge government employee safety net) You scramble for income any way you can. When I was unemployed, the gig economy wasn’t really a thing, yet that’s what I did.

Bruce Williams was a financial advice talk radio host. He was fond of saying that if he had to start over, he’d get a beat up old pickup truck and go to work.

Hauling scrap, trash to the dump, building materials to homes and jobsites, work with contractors to be their gopher, loads of topsoil and mulch. He said he’d be earning $100,000 a year very quickly. I believed him.

My last layoff was 16 years ago. I got a decent Go-Away package and we knew how to live frugally, so it was very financially manageable. The after effects were tough. We were in a depressed area during the recession (Michigan) so I didn’t even look for jobs in Michigan. We had to move several stats away and sell the house at way below what we paid for it but that’s life.


19 posted on 10/15/2025 5:02:17 AM PDT by cyclotic (Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I am just fine with breaking the government employee Union. The sooner the better.


20 posted on 10/15/2025 5:06:31 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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