PRESIDENT OBAMA wants to double U.S. exports between now and 2015, and it's a worthy goal. It won't be easy: Exports fell from $1.8 trillion in 2008 to $1.5 trillion in 2009, due to the global recession. But, as the president suggested in a speech Thursday, a big boost in sales of U.S. goods and services abroad would support 2 million American jobs. And some of his ideas could help that happen: an additional $2 billion in Export-Import Bank credit; streamlining the review process for sensitive technology exports; high-level support from the President's Export Council.

IF ALL GOES according to plan, Democrats in Congress will attempt to pass two major, long-sought reforms at once in the coming weeks -- of health care and student loans -- using the controversial reconciliation maneuver in the Senate. Some have characterized the move to add education to the health bill as a sneaky attempt to ram through one more "government takeover." That's unfair.

LAST SUMMER it was reported that Montgomery County public safety officers -- more than 200 police officers, sheriff's deputies and others -- had taken taxpayer-funded courses that, upon scrutiny, looked very fishy. These courses, ostensibly offering firearms training, were in fact scams that traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers' money for cut-rate weapons for the officers to use recreationally or resell as they saw fit.