Capitol Alert

WASHINGTON - Gov. Jerry Brown was talking with reporters today about the Affordable Care Act and sequestration when Politico's Jonathan Martin asked him to weigh in on gun control and a few other matters of national concern.

"Look, I don't read these national papers," Brown said, as if he had not spent more than an hour and a half in a hotel lobby that morning with Thomas Friedman, the famous New York Times columnist.

Martin pressed, and Brown said, "So what's your point, you want me to comment on what's going on in Washington?"

Brown, in Washington for a meeting of the nation's governors, repeated opinions he has shared before about gun control, and Martin moved on. He noted the political success Democrats have had in California recently, and he asked, "What's the formula?"

"What's the formula?" Brown said. "You know that, it's like Coca-Cola, we don't reveal our formula. Why should we tell you guys?"

Brown did say Hillary Clinton would "probably" clear the Democratic field if she runs for president in 2016.

"But I don't know for sure," Brown said. "I mean, how do I know? These are all fortune telling questions, and my Ouija board is not operative in Washington."

WASHINGTON - Gov. Jerry Brown said today that he remains concerned about California's ability to control costs as the state moves to expand health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, seeking assurances from the Obama administration that California will have "broad authority" to curb future spending.

"We need to be able to control costs, period," the Democratic governor told reporters at a meeting of the National Governors Association. "And the federal government has the tendency to send out broad mandates and limit the state's authority, and then we have to come hat in hand and say, 'Please, let us manage this thing that you have thrust on us.'"

His remarks come a year after Brown lobbied federal officials unsuccessfully for authorization to enact certain cuts to Medi-Cal, part of the federal Medicaid program.