Boehner rebukes Obama offshore drilling plan  —  President Barack Obama's plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday.  —  House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president's plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.

Drill, Baby, Drill  —  Welcome to the coastal drilling era: … I don't understand this at all.  Increased coastal drilling would be a small price to pay in exchange for actual congressional votes for an overall energy package that shifts us to a low-carbon economy over time.

ALL PART OF THE PLAN.... We talked earlier about the Obama administration's apparent intention to allow new oil and natural gas drilling along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the north coast of Alaska.  Given that this move could be used as a bargaining chip …

Of pipelines and pipedreams: Obama's drilling deception  —  He was against it:  —  Before he was for it: … If this were a sincere change of heart and an honest, stand-alone effort to wean America off foreign oil, it would be worth heralding.  —  But as always with this administration …

Mankiw's Tortured Tax Logic  —  The normal way to do cross-country comparisons of tax burdens is to look at taxes as a percent of GDP, or else to maybe look at public spending as a percent of GDP since the volume of spending determines the ultimate level of taxation that will be necessary.