Mitt Romney enjoyed his best fundraising month in March while his supporting super PAC outraised Barack Obama's super PAC for the third straight month in 2012.

Romney's campaign raised $12.6 million as Restore Our Future -- the Romney-backing super PAC -- added $8.7 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

By Eric Pianin

President Obama ventured into the Rose Garden Tuesday morning to announce new measures to crack down on oil market manipulation and address soaring gas prices. But as he departed, a television reporter shouted out the burning question of the hour:  Would the director of the U.S. Secret Service resign?

Obama ignored the question.

With more and more unsavory details leaking out about the Secret Service Colombia sex scandal, it would come as no surprise if Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan were shown the gate before too long. The Obama White House has no compunction about firing underlings to try to blunt political controversy.

By Merrill Goozner

The possibility that the Supreme Court will strike down all or part of the Affordable Care Act has given new life to Republican calls to put market mechanisms to work in holding down health care costs. The public is certain to hear lots more about it on the campaign trail later this year.

There's one big problem, though. Markets cannot work when consumers and patients have almost no information about the prices they pay for health care.

Here's an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2007, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year.

That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services.

About 10 states are now considering raising the rate, and Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, is proposing to increase the federal rate in three increments to $9.80 an hour in 2014. Many of the initiatives under consideration would smartly tie the minimum wage to the cost of living, meaning that those workers' wages would finally keep up with inflation.

By Brian Faler

House Republicans are calling for $34 billion in cuts over the next decade to the food stamp program, setting up a fresh election year battle over the U.S. budget deficit.

Lawmakers said they plan to include the reductions in a package of $261 billion in spending cuts they will propose to replace automatic cuts scheduled to take effect in January.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said the plan is designed to squeeze inefficiencies out of the food-stamp program, which is projected to cost taxpayers about $80 billion this year.

By Joe Deaux

President Barack Obama ramped up fundraising last month with March's total topping February's haul by nearly 18%.

Obama, the Democratic Party and two other campaign funds raised $53 million in March, the president's campaign announced Monday in a YouTube video.

By Joe Deaux

Election 2012 has made its opening move, and the first pawn is women.

That's the early direction the campaigns of President Barack Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney have taken as Romney trails the president by double-digit percentage points among women.

By Edward Glaeser

Rick Santorum's withdrawal from the race seems to make Mitt Romney the inevitable Republican presidential nominee. As the former Massachusetts governor turns to the general election, I have a modest proposal for him: Don't try to win the election. Try to change America instead.

Romney should give up on contorting himself to please voters, for America and the Republican Party desperately need a leader who will put truth above popularity, and honestly discuss the costs of the benefits he promises.