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“This is an unnecessary self-inflicted wound on the United States economy. Congress should come back to Washington to fix the problem,” said Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), whose district is home to several government contracting firms.

“The workers were stopping me — members of the United Auto Workers — were asking me, what’s going to happen with their jobs, and what are we doing about the sequester? And I was dumbfounded, because the House isn’t doing anything, we’re on vacation this week,” he said.

“Air-traffic controllers will be laid off. This again will have devastating affects on the economy,” she said. “Planes will be slowed down, fewer planes will be able to fly.”

Cutting $1 billion from the Transportation Department would affect dozens of programs, LaHood said. For instance, the vast majority of the FAA's nearly 47,000 employees will face furloughs, he said -- and the largest number of FAA employees are air traffic controllers.

With less than a week to go until a wide-ranging package of across-the-board budget cuts is set to kick in, President Obama today entreated the nation's governors to help him convince Congress to compromise on a deal to avert the so-called "sequestration," predicating his plea on the fact that as governors, "you know that compromise is essential to getting things done."

Roger J. Moncarz, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said that employment in health care occupations was expected to grow by 29 percent, with the addition of 3.5 million new jobs from 2010 to 2020. Federal officials expect 712,000 new jobs for registered nurses — more than for any other occupation in the country — and a total of 1.3 million new jobs for home health and personal care aides, he said.

Edward S. Salsberg, the director of the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis at the Health and Human Services Department, said 57 million people were living in areas with shortages of primary care practitioners.

Asked why leaders did not negotiate more vigorously to get a deal before sequestration deadline day, Obama said that his ability to negotiate is limited by Congress's unwillingness.

"I'm not a dictator," he said. "I'm the president. So ultimately if Mitch McConnell or John Boehner say 'I need to go to catch a plane,' I can't have Secret Service block the doorway, right?"

TPRJones wrote:Well, I didn't mean to imply that Republicans take responsibility for their mistakes. But at least they are aware what the word means.

...the shortage is not good ideas – it's minds capable of executing good ideas.
...
The problem is that bringing even one of his ideas to fruition takes years of effort. …and not just years of anyone's effort, but years of effort by one or more people with

high intelligence
high executive function
strong self discipline

The Republicans want to bring back small towns and white-painted churches, because when those things were ascendant all was right in the world.

The Democrats want to bring big cities and big industry, because when those things were ascendant all was right in the world.

And so the Republicans shovel money at farmers, endorse prayer in school, and tell us to worship our heroes fighting for manifest destiny, and the Democrats shovel money at unionized teachers, endorse government run mass transit, and tell us to worship dense urban living.