TIM BLAIR enjoys American excess.

OBAMACARE DELAYS: An “outrageous abuse of executive power.” What Obama is doing in purporting to unilaterally suspend laws is unconstitutional and outrageous, but it certainly opens up great possibilities for a small-government president in the future. Though presumably in that case the press will act as if such a thing had never been done before.

TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 305.

OKAY, CPAC’S OVER. NOW FOR AN INSTAPUNDIT STRAW POLL! Just as meaningful, and probably more broad-based. . . . I’ve included everyone who was on the CPAC poll for comparison purposes, many of whom aren’t real prospects. But if there’s someone I’ve left out, mention ’em in the comments!

MICHAEL BARONE: Replace The Gas Tax With Transponders.

I say, don’t track me, bro.

JOHN FUND: Counter Putin with Natural-Gas Exports: Obama should ignore the green lobby and expedite exports to Europe.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Standardized Testing: I opted my kids out, the schools freaked out. Now I know why.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: If a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, are we insecure? Or unfree?

IOWAHAWK: “How many friends and/or business associates do you have in federal prison? Compare your answer to the president of the United States.”

PETER WOOD: The SAT Upgrade Is A Big Mistake. “The new changes, like others that have been instituted since the mid 1990s, are driven by politics. David Coleman, head of the College Board, is also the chief architect of the Common Core K-12 State Standards, which are now mired in controversy across the country. Coleman’s initiative in revising the SAT should be seen first of all as a rescue mission. As the Common Core flounders, he is throwing it an SAT life preserver.”

ROGER SIMON: Why Rand Paul Is Winning.

#YAWN: Roll Call: Climate Change All-Night Session Set for Monday. “Senate Democrats are about to burn the midnight oil to make their case on climate change. The previously rumored all-night session on the effects of climate change will take place Monday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse confirmed.” I wish we could get a cameo from Nancy “where’s my Gulfstream?” Pelosi.

Meanwhile, the demise of the “green Capitol initiative” doesn’t bode well for anything these folks push.

DAVE CAMP TO OBAMA: Let’s Talk About Tax Reform. Camp’s proposal is okay, but too timid — especially as an opening bid.

IRS SCANDAL UPDATE: Slow Lerner.

WHILE THE IRS CRACKS DOWN ON THE TEA PARTY FOR “ANTI-OBAMA RHETORIC,” WE GET THIS: ‘Game the system’? Nonprofits, including Farrakhan-tied group, enjoy windfall from farm subsidies.

HOPEY-CHANGEY: “If you look at the Census Bureau’s data on median household income (adjusted for inflation), you’ll see that the median American is earning less during the Obama years. And that’s true whether you use 2008 or 2009 as the base year.”

SALENA ZITO: Original tea partyers returning to GOP fold.

Related: Ben Carson urges conservatives to unify behind GOP in November. I’ll note, though, that sore-loser mainstream Republicans — like Richard Lugar and Mike Castle — were happy to help Democrats take seats.

WHEN OBAMA STARTS HIS “THE PEOPLE VS. THE POWERFUL” SCHTICK AGAIN, REMEMBER THIS: NASA Admits To Selling Discount Fuel For Google Execs’ Private Jets. “NASA sold to H2-11 discounted jet fuel that was then used to fly a private 757, a 767 and 5 other luxury aircraft all over the world. H2-11’s principle owners are the same as Google’s: Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.”

Hint: It’s not “the people” who own private 757s and 767s.

THE HILL: Obama To Democrats: It’s Time To Worry.

GEORGE WILL: The IRS’s behavior taxes credulity.

The most intrusive and potentially most punitive federal agency has been politicized; the IRS has become an appendage of Barack Obama’s party. Furthermore, congruent with exhortations from some congressional Democrats, it is intensifying its efforts to suffocate groups critical of progressives, by delaying what once was the swift, routine granting of tax-exempt status.

So, the IRS, far from repenting of its abusive behavior, is trying to codify the abuses. It hopes to nullify with new rules the existing legal right of 501(c)(4) groups, many of which are conservative, to participate in politics. The proposed rules have drawn more than 140,000 comments, most of them complaints, some from liberals wary of IRS attempts to broadly define “candidate-related political activity” and to narrow the permissible amount of this.

Lerner is, so far, the face of this use of government to punish political adversaries. She knows what her IRS unit did and how it intersects with the law, and for a second time she has exercised her constitutional right to remain silent rather than risk self-incrimination. The public has a right to make reasonable inferences from her behavior.

And from Obama’s. After calling the IRS behavior “outrageous,” he now says there is not a “smidgen” of evidence of anything to be outraged about. He knows this even though the supposed investigation of the IRS behavior has not been completed, or perhaps even begun. The person he chose to investigate his administration is an administration employee and a generous donor to his campaigns. . . .

Speaking of questions: Can anyone identify a Democratic Senate candidate whose tax records were leaked, as Christine O’Donnell’s were when she was the Republican candidate in Delaware in 2010? Is it a coincidence that in January 2011, after Catherine Engelbrecht requested tax-exempt status for two conservative groups she founded in Texas — King Street Patriots and True the Vote — the Engelbrecht family business was notified of its first IRS audit? Does James Comey wonder why (this was before he became FBI director), five months after Engelbrecht’s tax-exemption request, FBI agents appeared seeking information about attendees at the King Street Patriots meetings? Were five subsequent FBI contacts “checking in” for “updates” on the group’s activities really necessary? Why did the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show a sudden intrusive interest in the Engelbrechts’ business, which has nothing to do with alcohol or tobacco or firearms or explosives?

The whole thing stinks to high heaven. And so does the press’s unwillingness to investigate.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to entice you into debt slavery.’