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Brian Bush: Oklahoma’s political class still has a spending problem May 19, 2013 If I told you that government spending had increased every year since 2001 (in spite of two recessions) or that policymakers were continuing a decades-long trend of throwing money at programs without any sign those dollars were making an impact, or that government agencies were continually requesting even more... Read More

George Will: No recovery from the loss of trust May 19, 2013 WASHINGTON — Leaving aside the seriousness of lawlessness, and the corruption of our civic culture by the professionally pious, this past week has been amusing. There was the spectacle of advocates of an ever-larger regulatory government expressing shock about such government’s large capacity for misbehavior.... Read More

Michael Gerson: Government's heavy hand May 18, 2013 WASHINGTON — So, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has investigated the IRS investigation of conservative groups. And the FBI has launched a criminal investigation of the IRS. And the State Department's Office of Inspector General is investigating the Accountability Review Board that... Read More

Ruth Marcus: A trifecta with little payout May 18, 2013 WASHINGTON — Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It's a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph — not even the first page — of the account of the Obama administration in the history books. Let's tick... Read More

Charles Krauthammer: Redacted truth, subjunctive outrage May 17, 2013 WASHINGTON — Note to GOP re Benghazi: Stop calling it Watergate, Iran-contra, bigger than both, etc. First, it might well be, but we don't know. History will judge. Second, overhyping will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn't meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the... Read More

Charles Krauthammer: Obama’s subjunctive outrage May 17, 2013 WASHINGTON — Note to GOP re Benghazi: Stop calling it Watergate, Iran-contra, bigger than both, etc. First, it might well be, but we don’t know. History will judge. Second, overhyping will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn’t meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the... Read More

Temple economics professors: Private prisons make fiscal sense May 17, 2013 Like other state governments, Oklahoma's is grappling with serious budgetary pressures. Among the many issues state lawmakers face is a staggering $16 billion in unfunded public-sector retiree benefits. To address these challenges, elected leaders should consider a time-tested and proven solution:... Read More

Leonard Pitts Jr.: What was the IRS thinking? May 17, 2013 Well, this is a fine mess. After years of moaning about various “conspiracies” against them, conservative activists finally have a real (i.e., not manufactured by Fox or inflated by Limbaugh) piece of evidence to take before the court of public opinion. Meaning, of course, last week's revelation that the... Read More

Kathleen Parker: Not such strange bedfellows May 16, 2013 WASHINGTON — Breaking news: Conservative organizations suddenly have found common cause with one of their favorite objects of contempt — the benighted Mainstream Media. In a twist of irony, the two groups have coalesced around a common enemy: the U.S. government. Revelations the past few days that the... Read More

Washington Examiner: Trio of D.C. scandals aren't strangers to each other May 16, 2013 CONSERVATIVES and liberals have long debated the most effective way to ensure accountability in government. Conservatives, who usually view human nature as inherently flawed, automatically distrust those exercising official power. Liberals, for whom the perfectibility of man is an article of faith, argue that... Read More

George F. Will: Forgetting Watergate's lesson May 15, 2013 “He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to … cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.” — Article 2, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment... Read More

Ruth Marcus: The IRS's mirror-image scandal May 15, 2013 WASHINGTON — Sputtering adjectives — outrageous, appalling, intolerable — can scarcely do justice to the fiasco involving the Internal Revenue Service's reported targeting of conservative groups. But the current scandal obscures — and, ironically, threatens to prevent action on — another, equally... Read More

Fundamental freedoms eroding as Obamacare ages May 15, 2013 Obamacare marked its third birthday recently, but Americans are not celebrating the health care law outgrowing its “terrible twos.” Unlike a toddler's tantrums, Obamacare's anti-life mandates will not improve with age. Rather, under the guiding hand of the Obama administration and its allies in the abortion... Read More

Michael Gerson: The IRS needs an audit May 14, 2013 WASHINGTON — Suppose that the Environmental Protection Agency were to admit offhandedly that the fluoridation of water had only modest communist mind-control effects. Or the United Nations were to concede it has been running fleets of black helicopters over American cities, but only in the course of conducting... Read More