"Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office scored President Obama’s ten-year budget plan. Their findings underscore a painful truth: The president is failing to engage in the kind of honest dialogue necessary to rally the country behind needed action. 

"His budget — widely criticized for growing our gross debt by $13 trillion, swelling our bloated bureaucracy, and ignoring our surging entitlements — is so filled with gimmicks and manipulations that the CBO found an additional $2.3 trillion in deficits beyond what the White House projected. 

"It is the most irresponsible spending plan put forward by a president in our time. It not only fails to change, but actually accelerates us along, our dangerous fiscal trajectory."

"During the debate over his health care law, President Obama repeatedly promised that 'if you like your plan, you can keep it,' but for millions of Americans that promise has already been broken. 

"In a shocking admission, Obama’s administration has granted more than 1,000 waivers to the health law to prevent 2.6 million workers from losing their coverage. Millions more weren’t lucky enough to get a waiver, and have already been forced to switch plans."

"A year ago this week, Congress passed nearly 2,700 pages of health legislation virtually no one had read in their entirety. Despite opposition from members of their own party and the majority of Americans, congressional Democrats passed a bill fattened with sweetheart deals that further distorted one sixth of our economy.  

"Now, a year later, Americans are still reeling from the consequences of that congressional action. Despite a multi-million-dollar effort to boost the popularity of the law, including ads paid for by taxpayers, a majority of the American people still reject the law, and for good reason. A mountain of nonpartisan evidence shows the overhaul continues to wreak havoc on the pocketbooks and health of millions of Americans. ...

"The sum of evidence is clear. The controversial law takes health-care reform in the completely wrong direction toward higher costs, higher taxes, higher spending, and higher deficits. Real reform begins with repealing this monstrosity and putting federal spending on health care on a sustainable path. For the health of American patients and our economy, Congress must repeal this law and replace it with commonsense reforms that empower consumers with more choices, increased transparency, and lower costs."

"When the Federal Reserve cites statistics to claim that there is not much evidence of inflation, we need to keep in mind that the statistics they rely on exclude food and energy prices. The cost of living is no sweat if you can do without electricity and food."

"Democrats and labor leaders chortling over their supposed popularity in the Wisconsin rift between GOP Gov. Scott Walker and public unions might want to consider a Florida recall vote last week.

"Miami-Dade voters turned out in huge numbers to oust Mayor Carlos Alvarez in a vote that saw a staggering 88 percent of ballots cast against him.

"The issues: soaring property taxes and increased public-sector union benefits.

"Alvarez is a Republican -- but didn't govern like one: He raised property taxes for two-thirds of county homeowners by a whopping 13 percent. He rewarded his political base -- public-employee unions, who pushed for tax hikes rather than spending cuts -- by raising their members' pay and unfreezing some benefits."

"There's too much money chasing too few goods. That's why global prices for key consumer and industrial goods, from oil to wheat, are now at or nearing record highs.

"But at some point the charade must stop. When it does, it won't be pretty. The reason interest rates are so low today — the 10-year Treasury remains below 3.5% — is the Fed's debt-buying binge. When it stops, as it likely will in June, interest rates will surge.

"There's no easy way out. It starts with spending cuts and ends with the Fed turning off its money presses. If it doesn't, and inflation takes hold, welcome back the '70s."

"Fifty-four House Republicans bucked their leadership Tuesday, voting against a farce -- the farce of passing 'continuing resolutions' to fund the government in stages in the hopes of forcing the Democrats into significant cuts in so-called discretionary spending.

"The measure passed anyway, with support from 85 Democrats -- averting the meaningless fiction of a 'government shutdown' for another three weeks.

"But at least the attempt was made -- no thanks to Speaker John Boehner, who has been at least temporarily abandoned by his conservative and libertarian Tea Party allies and must now rely on Democrats to keep the shell game going, while avoiding the much more serious issues at hand.

"As in: We're broke."

"Thanks to the irrepressible Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who is emerging as the most energetic and principled conservative leader of the 112th Congress, the Congressional Research Service published a report on Feb. 10 detailing how the Obama administration is planning to spend $105.5 billion that was put on an appropriations autopilot in the health care legislation the Democrat-majority Congress enacted last year. 

"Unless the Republican-controlled House in this Congress can force President Obama to sign new legislation forbidding dispersal of this $105.5 billion, the administration will spend it to lay the basic foundations for a socialistic health care system in the United States."

"If George Bush reacted this way in an international catastrophe -- wholly irrelevant radio addresses, golf outings for the 61st time ... the left-wing media would require medically-induced sedation to keep them in check."

"In the Illinois legislature, state senator Barack Obama voted 'present' 129 times. Today, he seems to be voting present on two major issues — Libya and the budget...

"Voting 'present' may be a responsible move for a legislator genuinely undecided about which way to go. But an executive voting 'present' is choosing a course with consequences, whether he likes it or not. 

"'The buck stops here,' said the sign on the desk of the 33rd president, Harry Truman, who was quick to make decisions -- sometimes too quick. The 44th president’s tendency seems to be something like the opposite.