Posted on 11/13/2025 6:58:21 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back. To make ends meet, the Social Security claims specialist drank only one coffee a day, skipped meals, cut down on groceries and deferred paying some household bills. She racked up spending on her credit card buying gas to get to work.
With the longest shutdown ever coming to a close, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and are asking themselves whether the battle was worth their sacrifices.
“It’s very frustrating to go through something like this,” said Sweet, who is a union steward of AFGE Local 3343 in New York. “It shakes the foundation of trust that we all place in our agencies and in the federal government to do the right thing.”
“Stress and hunger are great tactics for traumatizing people,” Sweet said.
For Sweet, the feelings of frustration are only compounded by a feeling that she was betrayed by the Democratic-aligned senators who broke with the party on the health care subsidies.
She said that she understands that many workers were desperate for a paycheck. But she thought standing firm on the issue of the health care subsidies was worth her sacrifice.
“There are other federal workers who understood what we were holding the line for and are extremely unhappy that line was crossed and that trust was breached,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
What sacrifice? They all got paid for not working!
What a crock, they voted for those democrats that kept them out of work.
Excuse me whilst I get out my tiny violin...
The AP is unmitigated trash. I’ll take the next 6 months off gladly as long as you eventually pay me
It was worse than Selma! They shall overcome!
Well, we know the answer to whether or not the WaPo “workers” efforts were worth their time. And, having worked with some gubmit employees, let’s just say that I was mostly underwhelmed.
They got paid for all their time off!
Poop heads!
Most gov’t “workers” need to go get a real job and actually add value to the Country and its Economy.
I’m a bit confused about putting gas on credit cards so she coukd get to work. Did some Fed Employees report for work with no pay? Highly doubt it.
The ones who voted for Democrats didn’t sacrifice enough!
Funny that these brilliant Fed workers have no emergency plans and live paycheck to paycheck.
“Federal Takers...”
Yup
I can’t stand it when nonvictims are lauded for being victims
The leeches are portrayed as selfless victims.
“Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back.” I sure am sorry for your loss Jessica, but the only thing I noticed about the shutdown was that the drought monitor wasn’t published.
Paid vacation and they knew it.
It’s sad that “Jessica” needs to rack up spending on her credit cards (at 18-24% interest) for gas just to get to work because she doesn’t have enough cash in her bank account. That’s the sad story here, that many young people don’t have even a couple hundred dollars in an emergency fund. Living paycheck to paycheck and dependent on the government for help in a crisis. What’s going to happen to these people as they get older?
They also got unemployment benefits to use while the govt was shut down.
Yes they did. All the air traffic that showed up for work.
ICE agents and a whole lot of others.
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