Fired Federal Employees in Oklahoma Struggle to Pay Bills

Government workers in Oklahoma City who were fired in recent weeks are struggling to pay their bills, reports the Wall Street Journal:

The Oklahoma City metro area alone has roughly 30,000 federal workers who help inspect meat, staff prisons, fix military planes and train air-traffic controllers. They are among [the] 80% of the U.S. government’s 2.3 million nonpostal and nonuniformed employees who live beyond the Beltway, including many who are concentrated in certain regions by military bases and collections of federal offices…  

Chris Dowling lost his accounting job at the Internal Revenue Service in Oklahoma City as the Trump administration cut more than 7,000 IRS workers nationwide, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts. Landing the job last year helped the 32-year-old invest in property where he hoped to raise 40 cattle. Now he is contemplating how he will handle a $36,000 land payment due later this year.

“It was far and away the best balance of a fulfilling career that was challenging as hell, but was also going to be stable and could swing a family in middle America,” said Dowling, who has an 11-month-old child