in all of this, economic growth has to be our northstar. as many know, if we grow our economy just one percentage point more, we will not only reduce our deficit $5 billion over a decade but grow a million new jobs. what are the things we could agree on to grow the economy? first, replacing the harmful effects of the sequester. cbo estimates sequester it will cost 700 and 50 jobs this year and even more damage next year. second, invest in a skilled workforce. work in partnership with the private sector to deal with significant work or skill deficits. unfillede 600 thousand manufacturing jobs this past year. we need to work together to train workers. third, research and development, as several members said, is absolutely critical to our long- term competitiveness. r&d generates new ideas, products, and in some cases, moment in -- industries. finally, we have a crumbling infrastructure. as we all know, there are far too many highways, ports, tunnels, bridges, critical to our economic growth that are well below international standards. we have