The Government Accountability Office reports that $10 billion had been spent on 1.4 million credits as of late August.

As the economy hit trouble in 2008, Congress passed a $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers as a no-interest, long-term loan to stimulate the housing market. The credit was expanded under the economic recovery act passed in February to $8,000, not as a loan, but a fully refundable credit.

Economists worry that the tax break is going to those who would have purchased homes anyway, and filling homes by vacating others " as renters become buyers " without benefit to the economy as a whole.

Estimates are that more than three-quarters of the expected 1.5 million taxpayers who will have tapped the program would have bought homes even without the tax credit, putting the price to the government at about $43,000 per homebuyer who would not have bought a house without the credit.

The Government Accountability Office reports that 59 percent of those claiming . .

. . the credit earned less than $50,000 annually and 84 percent went to those earning less than $75,000.

I loved the quote from the WSJ - Congress has created a program that even a 4 year old can defraud.