"Some of my best friends, to coin a phrase, are lifetime government employees. When they stop working, their pensions will put them among the highest-earning retirees in the country. On a personal level, I’m glad my friends’ retirement will be so comfortable. But as a taxpayer, I know that their good fortune, multiplied by hundreds of thousands of government workers like them, will only worsen a swelling political and fiscal crisis. 

"Around the country governments are facing a tidal wave of pension obligations that they haven’t figured out how to pay for. By some estimates, the states’ long-term unfunded pension liabilities add up to more than $4 trillion.  ... 

"For the average career government employee retiring today, pension benefits will equal 87 percent of their final salary. Those benefits are eating taxpayers alive, as the pension bomb ticks ever louder."

"Senior Justice Department officials including Attorney General Eric Holder and former FBI Director Robert Mueller used federal aircraft for hundreds of personal trips that were not properly reported, according to a watchdog report. 

"Congress’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Office determined that the flights cost taxpayers $7.8 million. But the General Services Administration, which oversees such trips, did not require documentation because of a GSA reporting exemption that covers intelligence agencies, even in cases of unclassified personal travel."

"The House Oversight Committee's investigation of the IRS is at an inflection point. The president's congressional supporters realize that the administration's version of the agency's targeting of conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status — such as blaming local officials in the Cincinnati office or claiming that liberal groups were victimized along with conservative groups — is nonsense. Instead of debating the substance, they have resorted to procedural antics and misleading rhetoric.  ... 

"A special prosecutor, uncompromised by partisan political winds, provides hope of uncovering what happened at the IRS. As Elijah Cummings, my Democratic colleague on the Oversight Committee, said on May 22, 2013 — the day of the committee's first IRS hearing — getting the truth and restoring trust must be paramount. 'This is more important than one election,' he explained. 'The revelations that have come forward so far provides us with a moment pregnant for transformation; not transformation for a moment, but for generations to come and generations yet unborn.' 

"I hope Mr. Cummings and fellow members of his party will join me in acknowledging the time has come for the appointment of an independent and unbiased special prosecutor."

"Thirty-six states will choose governors this November. These states are home to 79 percent of the total U.S. population. They face a range of challenges, from too few jobs to too little water, that are as varied as the candidates they’re voting for. Some of the candidates are long-time incumbents, others are new to politics. Some are quite liberal, others not so much. Some served as governor back in the 1970s, others were born in that decade. 

"But despite those differences, the candidates for governor in 2014 share something important in common: From Colorado to Florida, voters are likely to see them as Democrats and Republicans first, and as individual candidates a distant second. In recent years, gubernatorial elections have become increasingly nationalized, to the point where voting patterns in these races bear a striking resemblance to those in presidential races."

"The president may think that a March madness ad blitz during the NCAA basketball tournament may save ObamaCare. But if the past pattern holds, any further surge in enrollment will provide the scheme with a false sense of security. Until we get a full accounting not only of those who signed up on a website but completed the process by paying for the plan they chose, we’ll have no idea how many people truly are enrolled. Seen in that light, the president’s enrollment promises may well turn out to be no different from other pledges he has made about the ACA in the last few years: completely untrue."

"WASHINGTON — The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. 

"The administration cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. Most agencies also took longer to answer records requests, the analysis found. 

"The government’s own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that half way through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records despite its promises from Day 1 to become the most transparent administration in history.  ... 

"Sunday was the start of Sunshine Week, when news organizations promote open government and freedom of information."

"Scott Brown is expected to launch an exploratory committee to run for Senate in New Hampshire as soon as Friday, sources confirmed to POLITICO, another boost for Republicans pushing to expand the map of competitive races into purple states. 

"The former Massachusetts senator, who moved to the neighboring Granite State this winter, has told multiple people that he plans to challenge Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. 

"Brown, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, is scheduled to speak at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in Nashua at the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference."

"President Obama’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that the individual mandate is vital to making the whole law work, and they surely meant it. So the suspension of the mandate means the administration has quietly given up on making the thing work, at least for now. 

"All they’re looking to do is keep the shell in place while they make up as talking points about how it really is succeeding, and/or ways to change the subject. They won’t even ask Congress to fix it, because they’d have to admit they had no idea what they were doing in the first place. 

"Presumably, the plan (to the extent they have one beyond getting past the next election) is to keep the law on the books and let Hillary fix it, hopefully with the help of a Democratic Congress. ... 

"Bottom line: This mess is only going to grow worse for the next two years. Try not to get sick before 2017."

"Tuesday night's special election in Florida should be a serious scare for Democrats who worry that Obamacare will be a major burden for their party in 2014. Despite recruiting favored candidate Alex Sink, outspending Republicans, and utilizing turnout tools to help motivate reliable voters, Democrats still lost to Republican lobbyist David Jolly — and it wasn't particularly close. 

"The Republican tool: lots of advertisements hitting Sink over Obamacare, even though she wasn't even in Congress to vote for it. Sink's response was from the Democratic playbook: Call for fixes, but hit her opponent for supporting repeal. Sink won 46 percent of the vote, 2 points behind Jolly and 4 points below President Obama's 2012 total in the district. 

"Special elections don't necessarily predict the November elections, but this race in a bellwether Florida district that both parties aggressively contested comes as close as possible to a November test run for both parties."

"Some Democrats hope to minimize the importance of Obamacare as a political issue by focusing on other topics in this November's midterm elections. Some hope to win by promising to fix the flawed national health care plan they passed in 2010. And others hope to turn the issue on Republicans by appealing to voters who have been helped by the law. 

"The problem is, none of that will work. The importance of Obamacare as an issue in November 2014 cannot be controlled by either political party. It will be determined by just one thing, and that is the performance of Obamacare as a law in the months preceding the election. 

"The Obama administration obviously understands that. There is no other explanation than political expediency for its announcement last week that it is extending the 'keep your plan' fix until 2016 for Americans who have coverage that doesn't meet Obamacare's minimum standards."