The Hollywood Liberal

Mobile dental clinic brings care to poor children in Prince George’s County
At last, dentist Belinda Carver-Taylor was sitting in the new mobile dental clinic with a child before her. She had hoped for this day so long that now she could only shake her head.

The Fix: Indiana GOP abandons Lugar, backs his primary challenger
Indiana State TreasurerRichard Mourdock will launch his primary challenge to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) on Tuesday with the support of a majority of both the state’s 92 Republican county chairmen and its state party executive committee, he told the Fix in a recent interview.

For Wisconsin unions, a telling concession
Wisconsin public-sector union leaders have offered Governor Scott Walker and the Republican-majority state legislature a deal. The unions will accept all of the fiscal aspects of Walker’s bill: Henceforth members will pay 5.8 percent of their salary toward their pensions and 12.6 percent of their…

Right Turn: If only the left had listened to the Tea Partyers
After months of scorning, dismissing and vilifying the Tea Partyers, E. J. Dionne concedes:

As Obama Goes in VA, So Goes the Senate Seat

Uncle Sam: Jacking Up Your Airfare
Becky Quick, Fortune
Which item do you think has the most federal taxes and fees attached to it: (1) a can of Budweiser, (2) a carton of Marlboro Reds, (3) a Smith & Wesson Centennial revolver, or (4) a roundtrip airline ticket from Chicago to St. Louis?If you guessed the beer, cigarettes, or gun, you'd be wrong. Federal taxes and fees tally up to about 5% for the beer, 18.2% for the cigarettes, and 10% for the revolver.

Is Obama Serious About Deficit Reduction?
Fred Hiatt, Washington Post
Mocked for the timidity of his proposed 2012 budget, President Obama appeared before reporters last week to insist that he is open to serious deficit reduction beyond what's laid out in his plan. People in Washington are so impatient, he complained. Why would anyone think that his 2,403-page fiscal prescription, released the day before, was his last word on the subject?The co-chairmen of his fiscal commission, whose bipartisan success Obama had ignored in his proposal, welcomed the rhetorical opening.

Who Rules America? The AARP
Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
WASHINGTON — The great question haunting Washington's budget debate is whether our elected politicians will take back government from the AARP, the 40 million-member organization that represents retirees and near-retirees. For all the partisan bluster surrounding last week's release of President Obama's proposed 2012 budget, it reflects a long-standing bipartisan consensus not to threaten seniors. Programs for the elderly, mainly Social Security and Medicare, are left untouched. With an aging population, putting so much spending off-limits inevitably means raising taxes,…