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The complication arrived when the White House framed the program as a way to trim a bloated bureaucracy and save taxpayer money. Supporters cheered it as long-overdue efficiency, while unions and critics called it a velvet-gloved purge aimed at experienced civil servants who had always acted as a necessary check on political power. The debate quickly spilled from Washington offices into living rooms across America, dividing neighbors and families along lines of loyalty and pragmatism.
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