My spouse is a federal employee. He has put in seventeen years of loyal, dedicated service, often going above and beyond (he was, for example, the only staff person who went into the office during the pandemic, and thus had to carry out all kinds of duties besides his, not to mention working through two shutdowns while his salary was help hostage). He's at the top of his pay grade, which means they could fire him and hire two newbies. I'm not saying this will happen. We're not assuming it will happen. We're just not ruling it out, either, and we've had several conversations about what it would mean to our family.

There are moments when I'm so angry, I can barely see.