Free Republic

Zillow and Thumbtack found property taxes, maintenance and insurance now add $1,380 a month beyond mortgage payments ... The hidden costs of homeownership are rising and have increased by nearly one-third in the last five years as expenses like insurance, maintenance and property taxes take a bite out of homeowners' budgets. A new report by Zillow and Thumbtack found those costs amount to about $16,566 per year, which amounts to roughly $1,380 a month in addition to a mortgage payment. Within the $16,566 total cost, the typical U.S. homeowner faces about $11,171 in annual maintenance, $2,266 for homeowners insurance and...

The Senate Finance Committee will perpetrate a huge fraud on the US public today. Chairman Max Baucus promises to hold a final vote on his health-care overhaul -- most of whose costs he has hidden with budgetary gimmicks. The widely reported numbers are wrong: This bill would increase the deficit and cost more than $2 trillion over 10 years. Yes, the headlines on the Congressional Budget Office's preliminary cost estimate were that the bill could cost $829 billion over 10 years and trim the federal deficit by $81 billion. But those numbers are pure fantasy -- as CBO plainly, if...

Virginia Reyes -- the sister of Victor Reyes, Mayor Daley's key political operative -- was on the verge of snagging a contract as a minority-owned business to supply toilets and other plumbing items at O'Hare International Airport. But she had two problems. She needed City Hall to quickly certify her firm, Toltec Construction, as a minority vendor of plumbing supplies. And she needed plumbing supplies.