Hope dimming for a broad debt-limit deal, Congress and the White House scrambled Wednesday to salvage deficit-reduction talks while top congressional Republicans said the nation cannot afford to default on its obligations — for economic reasons and their party's own good.

In office just six months, Gov. Rick Scott has kept his campaign promises and then some: cutting corporate taxes, reducing the size of government, drug testing welfare recipients, making government workers pay into their pensions, and privatizing Medicaid.

Just like it's not a career kids dream about, neither is it the first consideration for recent graduates or those contemplating new jobs. And from the look of it, it's not even a career brokers dream about. In fact, for some brokers, the field has turned into somewhat of a...