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Mr. Menendez said he believed the Gulf spill was devastating enough to spur Congress into action. But one notable omission in his bill shows the vast economic reach of the industry. While the legislation would cut many incentives over the next decade, it would not touch the tax breaks for oil refineries, many of which have operations and employees in his home state, New Jersey.

So it is curious that the FCC's newly released National Broadband Plan faults the market for failing to "bring the power and promise of broadband to us all" -- in reality, some 7 million households unable to get broadband because it is not offered in their areas. Such an assessment -- and the call for government intervention to subsidize service for rural or poor communities -- is premature, at best. (Disclosure: The Washington Post Co. has interests in broadcast and cable television and businesses that depend on the Internet, all of which could be affected by FCC action.)

If Mr. Obama’s proposed budget is implemented, NASA a few years from now would be fundamentally different from NASA today. The space agency would no longer operate its own spacecraft, but essentially buy tickets for its astronauts on commercially launched rockets. It would end its program to return to the moon and would pursue future missions to deep space by drawing more cooperation and financing from other nations.

Big timber gets logging roads built by the Feds; rich ranchers graze their cattle on public lands for free; millionaire farmers are paid not to grow a crop; and defense contractors are given no-bid, cost-plus contracts -- this and more is just business as usual.

The RMV has an awesome system in which they quickly triage everyone’s requests.

At the post office, they increase staff during busy times and extend hours. They are unfailingly gracious, especially during crunch times. I’m 46, and I’ve never had a letter go missing. Not once.

Letter carriers make house calls. My letter carrier stops and gives my dog a cookie every time he sees him on the street. Every time.

I would love to have a healthcare system that provides this kind of service.

I just wanted to let the RMV, the post office, and Mr. Boehner know that.

Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is leaning toward creating a widely available Medicare-style public insurance option. But Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman, strongly favors a bipartisan solution - and Republicans consider Kennedy's public plan an intolerable threat to the private insurance industry.

The critical language was contained in a single, somewhat inscrutable sentence, and the only public explanation was offered during a final debate that began with a reminder that senators had airplanes to catch. Yet, in removing a long-standing prohibition on loans that supported financial speculation, the provision effectively allowed the Fed for the first time to lend money to Wall Street during a crisis.

According to a Rasmussen poll released last week, 37 percent of Americans under age 30 prefer capitalism, 33 percent prefer socialism and 30 percent are undecided. Among all Americans, 53 percent prefer capitalism, 20 percent prefer socialism and 27 percent are undecided.

When the high costs of the administration’s plan become apparent, confidence will be eroded further. At that point the task of recreating a vibrant financial sector, and resuscitating the economy, will be even harder.

It took a massive global financial crisis, a failed military adventure and a popular repudiation of the Republican Party to make my national television debut possible. After 15 years of socialist political organizing -- everything from licking envelopes and handing out leaflets to the more romantic task of speaking at street demonstrations -- I found myself in the midtown Manhattan studio of the Fox Business Network on a cold February evening. Who ever thought that being the editor of the Socialist magazine, circulation 3,000, would launch me on a cable news career?