On Wednesday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed new guidelines for outsourcing government work to contractors. The proposed policy letter attempts to clarify the thorny issue of what exactly constitutes an inherently governmental function, or a task that only a government employee should perform. This guidance is long in coming, as the president's memorandum on contracting directed OMB to release a plan late last summer.

Yesterday, a hearing on federal financial transparency and government accountability was curtailed, as Sen. John "Cranky" McCain (R-Kindergarten) stomped his feet and pitched a fit when his team lost a vote on a motion to proceed to debate on the health care reconciliation bill.

Have you recently tried calling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ask a question about your taxes? If you have, there's a good chance that the IRS never picked up. If you were lucky enough for your call to go through, you likely spent about 12 minutes on hold before you spoke to an IRS representative. National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson highlighted these and other problems faced by taxpayers when she testified at a hearing this afternoon in front of the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means.