Just Asking

The Senate has approved a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and gone home for the holidays, but today it appears the House may not approve the deal as written. We'll leave the complexities of tax cuts, Social Security and the like to others to wrestle with, but we do have a question: Where, exactly, is the nexus between continuing a reduction in the FICA payroll tax with a home mortgage?

The question arises because the Senate chose to pay for the tax cut by raising fees on mortgages backed by Freddie, Fannie and FHA. The fee right now is only $17 a month, but knowing the way fees, once established, never go away and virtually always go up over time, we imagine this is just the proverbial camel's nose under the tent.

Here's the WaPo article if you want to read more.