Furloughs for Department of Defense civilians begin Monday, a move that amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for hundreds of thousands of defense workers over the next three months and will disrupt operations at installations around the country, Pentagon officials warn.

That giant sucking sound you hear is the paychecks of around 650,000 civilian Defense Department workers:It was almost worse—the furloughs will total 11 days per worker, but originally the plan was for a whopping 22 days of furloughs. But a 20 percent pay cut over three months is going to be, for most workers, more than can be made up for by just not saving or by cutting the obvious luxuries. A 20 percent pay cut hurts. Which is what Republicans wanted, to protect corporations from more taxes by hurting working people.