What We're Hearing

It's going to be a busy October and November in Gucci Gulch. (For all you outside-the-Beltway types 'Gucci Gulch' is a sarcastic term used to describe the halls of Congress where well paid lobbyists sport designer shoes as they glad-hand Congressmen into doing their bidding while handing over bags of cash.) Rest assured, lobbyists from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Association of Home Builders, will be trying to save the $8,000 first-time home buyer (FTHB) tax credit which expires at midnight November 30. Can they pull it off? Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see what the FTHB credit winds up costing the government. A tax credit results in less revenue flowing into the U.S. Treasury. The last time I checked (thanks to the 'don't tax and spend' Bush White House) we had a $1 trillion deficit last year and we're looking at another one this year -- thanks to the Obama stimulus package, TARP and a sinking U.S. economy, the latter of which results in less tax revenue flowing to Uncle. TARP, of course, was a Bush/Henry Paulson creation, one that's been fully embraced by the Obama Administration. Of the $700 billion allocated, $128 billion or so remains uncommitted...