A spouter from Middle Township says "There are approximately 8,500 federal employees in our congressional district. Lose them and our business community sees in excess of $1.5 billion disappear from our local coffers". That's 8,500 people getting paid an average of $176,470 each. Working for the government pays that well? That's a lot of money to those of us who don't work for the government. Anyone making that much should have enough savings to last a few months while they find another job. It's going to be hard to find one that pays that well though.