Spending Cuts, Sequester | featured news

President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers. The furloughs stemmed from the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that started taking effect in March. Millions of air travelers were affected recently by delayed flights across the country because of the furloughs.

"It's in areas like health care, education and job training," Packer said. "Programs are closing or are being cut, layoffs are happening. It's not just waiting in line a bit longer at the airport."

With many air traffic controllers on unpaid leave, lawmakers criticized the agency for how it was handling the automatic budget cuts required by sequestration.

It was a tough start to the week for many air travelers as federal budget cuts led to cascading delays along the East Coast Monday morning. Some flights out of New York and Washington were delayed by more than two hours as the Federal Aviation Administration kept planes on the ground. The federal agency has said furloughs of air traffic controllers could lead to delays if there weren't enough people to monitor busy air corridors.

US Airways is blaming a dip in revenue on federal budget cuts, Reuters reports. The carrier says it thinks the cuts have reduced demand for last-minute tickets, which typically go for the highest fares.

U.S. employers ramped up hiring in February, adding 236,000 jobs and pushing the unemployment rate down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January. Stronger hiring shows businesses are confident about the economy, despite higher taxes and government spending cuts.

President Obama will have a bipartisan lunch on Thursday with Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, and the panel’s senior Democrat, Representative Chris Van Hollen.

A private survey shows U.S. businesses added a solid number of jobs in February, indicating higher taxes and looming government spending cuts have yet to slow hiring.

After their fifth budget battle in the past two years and after the sequester cuts went into effect on Friday, both sides seemed to wave the white flag and declare a political truce -- for now. President Obama, during his press conference on Friday, suggested little appetite for a showdown over government operations, which will expire later this month. “If the bill that arrives on my desk is reflective of the commitments that we’ve previously made, then obviously I would sign it because I want to make sure that we keep on doing what we need to do for the American people.”

As automated federal spending cuts take effect, projected red ink for the next decade has been reduced by about $4 trillion. But this wasn't how Democrats or Republicans wanted to do it.