Unlike other credits, the new one is really a 15 year interest-free loan. Qualifying buyers will get a refundable credit of the smaller of 10 percent of their purchase price or $7,500 for homes bought between April 2008 and June 30, 2009. Because they don’t get the credit until they file a tax return—and not when they buy the house—it’s unclear how much the cash windfall will help with down payments—which presumably was the whole idea. And interest-free doesn’t mean free: they must pay the money back to the government over 15 years.

Liberal bloggers have taken to ganging up on the Blue Dogs—conservative Democrats who tend to go their own way on fiscal and foreign policy issues. Smelling victory in November, some on the left would like to find a way to take out these lawmakers, who mostly represent southern and midwestern swing districts.

For a brief 48 hours, it looked as if John McCain was courageous enough to say something sensible about tax policy—and as a result was immediately attacked by both the right and the left. Today’s Wall Street Journal reported disapprovingly that McCain would consider payroll taxes as a way to bolster Social Security’s finances.“Mr. Stephanopoulos [on ABC’s This Week] pressed, ‘So that means payroll tax increases are on the table, as well?’ Here came the words that have caused the McCain campaign well deserved grief: ‘There is nothing that's off the table.

To paraphrase the oily Captain Renault of Casablanca fame, we in Washington are shocked, shocked to find that deficits are going on here. To listen to the cries of outrage and dismay, one might think the Bush Administration’s latest projection of nearly $400 billion in red ink for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30, and almost $500 billion for next year was unexpected.