It's painful to see people doing real work get canned. It sounds like the unsustainable national debt has forced a cut across the board. Each department will find some organization to cut. The least politically connected groups will be cut.
The cuts are painful, but we simply don't have the money. In fact we are way deep in the hole.
Weird that we have the money to supply deep tax cuts for rich assholes, but not enough money to supply agencies doing things like making passport renewal easy or making tax filing free.
Almost makes you wonder if there's an agenda here. Good thing I don't think too hard about these things.
Then they need to gain enough political capital to stay on. In most re-org, downsizing, or budget cut, it's all a political game. If you don't want rich assholes to get the tax cut, get involved politically.
The cuts are painful, but we simply don't have the money. In fact we are way deep in the hole.