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Unless you’ve been in a coma for the past four days or so, you already know that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) initiated an illegal scheme to target conservative groups. While many have come forward to condemn the unconstitutional activities, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) went a step too far.

Today, Pelosi too said the guilty must be punished, but then went on to blame the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision.

“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi . . . Blamed The Supreme Court For Opening The Door To Broader Political Activity.”  (Stephen Dinan, “Pelosi: IRS Problem Stems From Court Ruling,” The Washington Times, 5/13/13)

In a not-so-shocking development today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) admitted that it “inappropriately” targeted conservative groups for “additional review” during the “2012 election cycle.”

“The Internal Revenue Service Inappropriately Flagged Conservative Political Groups For Additional Reviews During The 2012 Election To See If They Were Violating Their Tax-Exempt Status, A Top IRS Official Said Friday.”  (Stephen Ohlemacher, “IRS Apologizes For Targeting Conservative Groups,” The Associated Press, 5/10/13)

So, the big news of the day wasn’t that Jodi Arias was deservedly found guilty of first-degree murder or the unfolding story of the horrific kidnappings in Ohio, but rather what transpired on Capitol Hill throughout the day.

While the establishment news was dominated at times by an enraptured bonbon audience enthralled with coverage of Arias and the evil-doer Ariel Castro; what the American public learned today is that the Obama Administration, the State Department, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice and others engaged in a deliberate campaign to deceive the American people about a terrorist attack on the 11th Anniversary of 9/11 in Benghazi, Libya. In other words: a cover up of the murder of four Americans in a foreign land who were there just doing their jobs serving their country.

A spontaneous protest? No. An anti-Muslim YouTube video? Nope.

President Barack Obama doesn't believe in a balanced budget. It's unbelievable, but it's true.

This week President Obama flat-out rejected the idea of balancing the budget in 10-years time.

President Obama: “My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we are going to be bringing in more revenue.”  (George Stephanopoulos, “President Obama Won’t Balance Budget ‘Just For The Sake Of Balance,’” ABC News, 3/12/13)

Even the budget the President plans to unveil in April won’t balance, at any point! When asked by George Stephanopoulos whether his budget would be “balanced at any point,” Obama replied “no.”

“It’s An Education Bombshell.” Yup, it sure is. Unbelievable news out of New York City where it is being reported that “80 percent of recent” New York City “high school graduates cannot read.” More:

“Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system.”  (“Officials: 80 Percent Of Recent NYC High School Graduates Cannot Read,” CBSNewYork, 3/7/13)

More tax silliness.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, coming off a Super Bowl win in which he also won the MVP award, just locked-in the largest contract ever awarded a professional football player. Flacco signed a six-year contract worth $120.6 million, or an average of $20.1 million per year.

You’d think that if you signed the largest contract ever and will earn the most of any player in the NFL, that you’d also bank the most cash. Well, unfortunately for Flacco, that’s just not true.

President Barack Obama keeps talking about folks paying their “fair share.” It’s nothing but a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Way back in July 2011 ThinkFY posted this piece about President Barack Obama’s call for the wealthy to pay their fair share during the debt limit stand-off with the House Republicans. It was an appropriate post tackling the whole issue about so-called grand compromises, tax hikes and entitlement reform. Worth a read if you have some spare time.

Now back to business. With the sequester in effect, President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats continue to call for tax hikes – on top of the $600 billion they already raised at the end of 2012 – it seems appropriate to revisit this false notion that the rich don’t pay their fair share.

Let’s consider some facts just published by The Associated Press that Democrats will find very inconvenient:

The across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration or the "sequester," are set to go into effect tonight at midnight. The cuts are $85 billion for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 (which ends in September) and $1.2 trillion overall during the course of the next 10 years.

No one likes these cuts. They were proposed by the Obama Administration and were allegedly designed to force compromise to avert them. Of course no one seems able to find a way forward, thus the cuts will happen.

Part of the reason there is no compromise is the Republican Party refuses to move on the President’s demand to raise more taxes without a complete overhaul of the tax code. Recall, Republicans already agreed to raise taxes by $600 billion to avert the so-called fiscal cliff at the end of 2012.

Priorities, priorities.

The unemployment rate ticked up in January to 7.9%. During the last quarter of 2012, the “U.S. economy shrank for the first time in more than three years.” In just a matter of days, the sequester will kick in, enforcing across-the-board spending cuts.

We’ve got serious problems in this country. Not only is the economy barely limping along, possibly headed towards a double-dip recession, but there are warning signs across the globe: from North Korea’s nuclear and missile launch tests, to Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons and atrocities in Syria that threaten to spill over into neighboring countries, danger lurks in many places.

Not surprisingly, the Financial Times is reporting that “The US was more reliant on the Middle East for its oil imports last year.”

Politicians, from President Barack Obama on down, talk a great deal about energy independence, but there’s only one man who stands in the way of easing our overreliance on oil from countries who are ruled by despots and don’t like us very much. His name is Barack Obama.

With the stroke of a pen, Obama could green-light the Keystone XL pipeline. But, he hasn’t. After punting on the decision in November 2011, he ultimately decided against it in January 2012.