The FAA, like most federal agencies can function just well on a 10% decrease in personnel. That's what the sequester does. I worked with the FAA for over 40 years and have seen salaries go from $14,000 a year to over $200,000 (in the busy facilities) and time on position (working airplanes) drop to below 4 hours a day. That's about $200 an hour. So can a controller work an extra 24 minutes a day instead of watching TV, you bet thay can. The sequester may prove that we can actually do more with less, which flies in the face of a lot of politicians.
The giant farmers like Con Agra ,and food marketeers like Walmart, Kroger and Senator Grassley are laughing all the way to the bank as we quibble about some unemployed or working poor getting a few hundred dollars a month of food stamps.