When Your Job Becomes a Political Football in the Game of Federal Aid

It's bad enough when you face losing your job. It becomes even worse when saving your job gets caught up in the ever-acrimonious fight between Republicans and Democrats in Washington.

Lawmakers in Washington just passed a new round of federal aid that will go to state governments to save the jobs of teachers, firefighters, policemen and other civil service workers. That is great news for literally hundreds-of-thousands of civil servants, But, it led to a political fight in which one of the top Republicans, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), referred to the money to keep these workers employed as "a pay-off to union bosses and liberal special interests."