Under the headline, "Obamacare and the Constitution," the Wall Street Journal today took Washington to task for attempting to "legally" trample the states on health care. The constitutional challenges to ObamaCare have come quickly, and the media are portraying them mostly as hopeless gestures the political equivalent of Civil War re-enactors. Discussion over: You lost, deal with it," the Journal editorial stated.

A stunning loss for Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, and the leadership moments after the House passed the budget. HB 5701 which would have ended the Retiree Health Insurance Subsidy (HIS). The state contributes between $30 to $150 per month to retirees based on their years of service with the average retiree getting $105 a month. The bill made it through the Full Appropriations Council on Education & Economic Development on an 11-6 vote. But it went down to defeat on a 57-59 vote when it was in the House.

Innocent Floridians, take heed: Your lottery department has been going rogue. Luckily, we've got state Rep. Clay Ford to reel it back in. The Gulf Breeze Republican is pushing a measure that would tighten the department's ability to set its own rules. While other state departments have some rulemaking authority, the lottery's power is significantly broader, said Ford aide Ray Walker.

The Florida House held a marathon session to pass the budget on Thursday. Unlike the Senates $69.5 billion budget that passed unanimously on Wednesday, the House passed its $67.2 billion on a 74-44 vote on party lines. There was four hours of debate on the budget and a future Speaker of the House said he had heard it all before.

Looks like there could be a new conservative star in the House. While most Republicans were apologetic about the budget, saying they had to make hard choices and were forced to prioritize, freshman Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, proudly stressed his fiscal conservatism. In response to comments about the Senates budget and the governors budget being larger than the House proposal, Workman was not apologetic at all. He said that while it may be the smallest proposal, it was still too large.

Even before President Barack Obama lifted the ban on offshore drilling, Floridians appeared to be warming to the idea. A statewide survey conducted Feb. 5-17 reported that 60 percent of respondents support drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast as part of oil- and natural-gas exploration and development. That's up significantly from previous opinion polls. But the Nielson Co. survey conducted for Leadership Florida found only 18 percent approve of drilling three to 10 miles from the coast. Thirty-six percent are opposed to any drilling at all.

During the House budget debate, Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, violated one of the chief laws of human society. She offered plot spoilers for a movie on the House floor. Comparing the House budget to Shutter Island, Skidmore ruined the movie for anyone in the audience who had not seen it. The Martin Scorsese film has a number of plot twists and surprises and Skidmore talked about every single one of them in detail. She gave away the plot. She gave away which characters surprise the audience. She even gave away what the bad guys were up to.

Senate President Jeff Atwater was as good as his word Wednesday, leading the Republican-dominated Senate to produce the balanced state budget he promised on Jan. 20. Said Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, "We made tough decisions, addressed real problems ... without taking another dime in taxes from Floridians." Senate leaders in more than 30 other states must be scratching their heads today, wondering how Atwater & Co. pulled off so much, so quickly.

The Buzz is reporting that DCF chief George Sheldon is considering running for governor as an independent. Sheldon has had a distinguished career. He served as a legislative aide to Reubin Askew, served in the Legislature and was deputy attorney general under Bob Butterworth. He later served under Butterworth at DCF before raised to his current position by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Republican Party of FloridaChairman Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, revealed in a statement that former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer is the subject of a criminal investigation.

As senators set to the task of refining a proposed $68.6 billion budget, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City, and two of the Senate's leading Republicans surprised the floor with a proposal to make the state Medicaid program more closely resemble private insurance. Senators Negron, Don Gaetz, R-Destin, and Mike Haridopolos,R-Melbourne, slipped in a proviso that would require residents with higher incomes to pay deductibles or supplement Medicaid with private insurance and allow the Legislature to change eligibility requirements for certain optional programs.

No surprise on this one but state CFO Alex Sink, the frontrunner to be the Democratic gubenatorial nominee, just announced via news release that she opposes SB 6, the teacherperformance pay bill being sponsored by Sen. John Thrahser, R-St. Augustine.

Is the Crist campaign desperate, or just cranky? Campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg called me at 6:50 this morning to complain about Sunshine State News' latest story mentioning her boss's name. Seems she wanted more than the governor's verbatim quotes from the "Fox News Sunday" debate with Marco Rubio.

Still feeling pessimistic about the economy? Holding off on buying that shiny new Audi or much needed home appliance? In Florida, you're not alone. The state's consumer confidence took another dip this month, with residents reporting skepticism on their ability to buy big-ticket items as well as on the economy's long-term outlook. A new University of Florida survey shows confidence fell by three points in March to 70, just as recent unemployment figures reveal Florida's jobless rate last month stood at 12.2 percent.

A bill that would that would allow Republican and Democratic leaders in the Florida Senate and House to create committees that raise funds for candidates in their political parties has come to Gov. Charlie Crist's office, and he has a week to sign legislation Democrats fear would resurrect "leadership funds."