You might not want to read this one and eat your breakfast at the same time.  U.S. lawmakers are nearing an agreement on how to "rescue" our economy:

[Thanks L!]

At a Wednesday evening meeting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made major concessions to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits in exchange for tax rebates of at least $300 for all people earning a paycheck, including low-income earners who make too little to pay income taxes. Families with children would receive an additional $300 per child, while those paying income taxes could receive higher rebates as well, a senior House aide said. [Hey-I have a teenage daughter that's working part-time- do we both get $300?]

So we all run to Walmart or Target and buy cheap imported goods when we get our check.  What happens the month after that?

Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, had yet to reach agreement on a package of tax breaks for businesses after estimates showed a tentative agreement could exceed $70 billion, far more than had been expected, the aide and a Democratic lobbyist said.

When was the last you remember any government plan costing LESS than expected?

Pelosi and Boehner appeared optimistic Wednesday night as they left their third extended negotiating session of the day with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. A tentatively scheduled Thursday morning negotiating session was called off, her spokesman said, as Pelosi first needed to brief fellow Democrats on the emerging but controversial plan.

"We’ll have more to say tomorrow," Boehner said. "We’re hopeful."

I’d feel better if they were deadlocked in a meeting somewhere.

The business tax portion still being negotiated would give businesses incentives to invest in plants and equipment, give small businesses more generous expensing rules and allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid. The last item on spreading operating losses was proving to be unexpectedly expensive.

Lawmakers learned during the day that the government’s deficit already would swell to $250 billion this year because of falling corporate tax revenues — then they signaled they were willing to balloon it higher by more than $100 billion with a stimulus package.

It’s not their money, why not?

The federal deficit, which has been dropping in recent years, could reach $379 billion for 2008 — more than twice last year’s red ink — once the costs of the economic rescue measures are factored in, said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt Jr., D-S.C.

"We should act, and act now, to strengthen the economy … mindful, however, of the long-term budget challenges, the structural deficits that we face unless we act and act seriously," Spratt said.

I guess as long as you don’t smile while you do it, it’s OK.

Bush expressed optimism about quick action.

"I’m confident that we can get something done," Bush said in brief comments to reporters. "There’s a spirit that says we need to take a fundamentally strong economy and help it."

Ah come on…. we all know that if this was a "fundamentally strong economy," legislators wouldn’t be doing this!

And of course, we can’t forget housing….

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said negotiators were near an agreement on an overhaul of the Federal Housing Administration that would make it easier for thousands of homeowners with ballooning interest rates to refinance into federally insured loans. The measure might advance separately of the tax relief package, however.

Both sides reached agreement to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — government-sponsored companies that are the two biggest U.S. financers and guarantors of home loans — to buy loans much larger than the current $417,000 limit, aides and lobbyists said. Frank said that lending cap might reach as high as $700,000 in areas with the highest home prices.

Wasn’t Fannie supposed to be about providing "affordable housing?"  Why should they help people afford what ought to be a jumbo loan?

Has panic driven all sense of fiscal responsibility from Washington?  There was this moment of sanity:

Some lawmakers expressed alarm about the stimulus package more than doubling last year’s deficit of $163 billion.

"I am concerned that, in our rush to help, we will talk ourselves into a quick, feel-good hit today that will leave us with a bigger budgetary hangover tomorrow," said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, top Republican on the budget panel.

I agree with Ryan.  We’d better start cooking the menudo now- we’re going to need a lot.