GOP Aim: Cut $4 Trillion  —  Budget Plan Would Transform Medicare, Reset Budget Debate; Democrats Balk  —  Republicans will present this week a 2012 budget proposal that would cut more than $4 trillion from federal spending projected over the next decade and transform the Medicare health program …

Obama launches reelection campaign with e-mail, web video  —  The president pledges to focus on his job, but will pick up the tempo of campaigning this month with several fundraisers.  The campaign is hoping to raise a record $1 billion.  —  President Obama speaking in March (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images))

Clinton: Shutdown would hurt GOP but might not be ‘traumatic’ for economy  —  A government shutdown might not have a “traumatic” effect on the economy, former President Bill Clinton said Monday.  —  Clinton, who faced a shutdown during his 1995 budget negotiations with congressional Republicans …

A Tea Party Star Stirs Iowans, and She Isn't Palin  —  WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Sarah Palin, the reigning heroine of many social conservatives, has given few signals that she will make a presidential bid.  Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 on the strength of his appeal …

KSM to be tried by military commission at Gitmo; Holder set to make announcement today  —  Attorney General Eric Holder today will announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be tried in a military commission, CBS News has learned.

John Phillips: Why Hillary Clinton must run in 2012  —  If Hillary Clinton's primary voters and President Obama had their relationship status listed on their Facebook pages, it would change from “Married” to “It's complicated.”  —  To be fair, Hillary voters never fell in love with Obama, they just fell in line.

MONEY TALKS  —  Eight of the current Supreme Court Justices are known for their zeal in questioning lawyers.  That tendency was on display last week during the oral argument over the constitutionality of an Arizona law known as the Citizens Clean Elections Act, a law that attempts …

It Doesn't Get Any Clearer Than That: “Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war”  —  Here's what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said today about Florida pastor Terry Jones' burning of a Koran, which has been used an excuse by Afghanis to murder 22 people, including seven United Nations workers:

Now Libya steps on President Obama's message  —  President Barack Obama's decision to intervene in Libya has presented him with a whole new set of political problems with members of both parties.  But its most worrisome effect for the White House is the way it's undermining his efforts …

Bachmann hires former top Huckabee staffer  —  From Mark Zdechlik:  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann's political action committee has hired Wes Enos, the Iowa political director for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee when he ran for president in 2008.  —  Bachmann chief of staff Andy Parrish confirmed Enos …

The Case For Freshman Ineligibility  —  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took the opportunity of “March Madness” to note the scandalously poor academic performance of the unpaid professional basketball players who NCAA schools pretend are student athletes.

Jon Huntsman, the rock ‘n’ roll years  —  Jonny Huntsman didn't quite make it through his senior year of high school, and the cause was pretty plain to his classmates.  One recalled the long-haired, diffident Salt Lake City high schooler sitting next to him in history class “hitting his desk as if it were a piano.”

Diminished Individualism Watch  —  A few weeks back I commented on a George Will column in which he said that … So I think that it is my civic duty to report that yesterday, as I got off Amtrak 161 from Trenton to Washington — having spent 2 1/2 hours being made more amenable to collectivism …

Obama's ‘Bloodbath’: Can We Believe the Hype?  —  Remember when a crusading president, acting on dubious intelligence, insufficient information and exaggerated fears, took the nation into a Middle Eastern war of choice?  That was George W. Bush in 2003, invading Iraq.  But it's also Barack Obama in 2011, attacking Libya.

41 Senate Dems oppose GOP Planned Parenthood cuts  —  A group of 41 Senate Democrats say they oppose a House-passed measure that cuts federal funding for family planning programs, including Planned Parenthood.  —  The proposal passed as an amendment to the House GOP's government funding plan …