Sucks to hear good people like yourself are being punished by the greed of the fat cats in Washington. I assume you stay in your position because you like the work you do and feel it makes a difference. Even if you don't want go private sector, as you put it. You could always work at a non-profit. I work for a non-profit, I came over from a for profit company and was worried I would have to make sacrifices with fewer pay increases. But after being with the company for just under 10 months now they were so happy with me and how I do my job that they gave me a 13% pay increase.
I was really under-appreciated in my last position. I was stuck in one of those jobs that I was too good at and they didn't want to move me from that position so they never promoted me. Bottom line is, even if you really like your job, if you feel like you aren't appreciated (financially or however) then there are always other jobs out there that can be as fulfilling or just flat out pays more if that's what you're looking for.
Either way, it sucks about bad things happening to good people. I hope everything works out for ya!
