As The Wall Street Journal reports,

This week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began furloughing each of its air-traffic controllers for one day out of every 10 to achieve roughly $600 million in savings this fiscal year.  The White House dubiously claims that the furloughs are required by the sequester spending cuts enacted in 2011.

President Barack Obama’s hoped for result is

to force airline flight delays until enough travelers stuck on tarmacs browbeat enough Republicans to raise taxes again.

Once again, Obama is blowing smoke.  Leaving aside the fact that furloughing ATC Controllers is not the only way in which the FAA could have found the sequester-mandated pocket change savings (FAA Administer Michael Huerta’s “difficult choices” don’t include crossing his boss and making those savings elsewhere), the threatenedhoped forpredicted widespread delays don’t seem to be developing, as the FAA’s own Web site indicates, four days into the furlough program.