Our resident expert, sky pilot, would disagree.
Ah, my bad - you did. Sorry.
The Sequestration cuts are across the board to every discretionary program, and do allow for the sane approach that you are talking about. That is why you hear talk in the news with buzzwords like "re-programming" and "flexibility" for certain agencies.
There are laws to be followed, and the law is an a$$. Congress wrote the law.
As far as the FAA goes, they are running into the same problem the DoD has - there are certain "colors" of money that can be cut, and others that cannot be touched within fiscal year budgets. I know this sounds like a bureaucratic answer, but it is not. This is budget reality.
FAA Flight Delays Become Fodder For Sequester Politics
Sam Stein has this entirely correct when he wrote:
"The reasoning behind the FAA's decision to apply a one-day-every-two-weeks furlough to all 47,000 employees -- including 15,000 flight controllers -- is also not as simple or political as Republicans argue. The FAA has to cut $637 million from its budget before the end of September, with every account sliced by the same percent. The FAA's operations account, from which 71 percent of all payments goes to salary, can't avoid the chopping block......But the fat isn't all that easy to skim, as LaHood noted in a statement. According to the Transportation secretary, the FAA had already shifted funds within accounts to avoid furloughs while still protecting air travel safety. The agency had cut contracts, stopped funding for low traffic towers and reduced the amount of traveling among its officials. Even then, LaHood added, "the FAA still needs to furlough its 47,000 employees to achieve these congressionally required cuts. Only Congress can stop these delays from continuing.”
I'll let you in on a political secret: the GOP members who are publicly throwing a hissy fit about the real effects of Sequestration were the same one wringing their hands in private about how bad they would be, because they knew it and they told heads of agencies (including the DoD) that it would be a train wreck.
Both parties have failed, time and time again, to properly address the two toxic issues in national politics that are breaking the back of this nation: entitlements and taxes.
They still cannot properly address them. Defense, the FAA, research, cancer patients requiring certain drugs, meals on wheels for seniors - all of that got thrown in front of the bus and the hostage was shot twice in the knees by our hostage negotiating teams.