ONE OF THE MOST important jobs of legislators is providing oversight that ensures government agencies are transparent, accountable and effective. Taxpayers and voters have a right to know whether government spending and programs provide the best possible return on their investment.

MY FIRST BOSS in politics was captain of the Harvard football team. He was big and tall, but friendly enough so I figured he would want to hear about how my modest salary equated to a shockingly meager wage when divided by the number of hours I was working.

WOULD YOU TURN away millions of dollars, thousands of jobs and life-saving health care for tens of thousands of Maine’s citizens?

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE THE other day caused me to make a last-minute change in the subject planned for this week’s column. (I can always go back to the politically serious stuff.)

I JUST READ THE newspaper’s article about Chris Harnish (“Augusta man plans 5-month RV trek for perfect retirement home,” Sept. 28). I was amused with his comment, “Nobody retires to Maine.” He’s wrong; we just did in April.

FOR ALL THE HYPED indignation over GOP “anarchism,” there has been remarkable media reticence about the president’s intransigence. He has refused to negotiate anything unless the Republicans fully fund the government and raise the debt ceiling — unconditionally.

WHAT’S SURPRISING — AND immensely encouraging — about the arguments about a pair of modest welfare reforms proposed by Republicans is that GOP leaders have continued to back their plan strongly, despite the sneers thrown their way from the left side of the aisle.

I SPEND MOST OF my time at a second-floor office at the the corner of Broadway and Main streets in downtown Farmington. I’m also president of the Farmington Downtown Association, so I’m understandably a partisan of this neighborhood.

OVER THE PAST 10 years, the Maine Hospital Association has been talking about the state’s MaineCare debt to our hospitals.

IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, that your brother-in-law asks you for some money to help him get by. You’re able to help, but expenses are tight for you, too.