The country's businesses added 215,000 jobs in November, according to a report released this morning by the Labor Department. This increase is more than the average monthy gains for the first eight months of 2005 (196,000) and follows two months of disappointingly low gains following the hurricanes along the Gulf Coast.

The House will get to work on the tax reconciliation bill when they return to D.C. the week of December 5. Vast differences between the House and Senate versions of the tax bill already threaten to impede conference negotiators, and in what promises to further complicate the situation, House GOP members appear to be split over providing excessive tax breaks to businesses in the Gulf Coast.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the economy grew 4.3 percent in the third quarter, which is the best showing in more than a year. The growth marks a sizable increase from the 3.3 percent increase in GDP registered in the second quarter of this year. Corporate profits decreased $45.5 billion this quarter, following a $59.3 billion increase in the previous quarter. According to the BEA, "The major contributors to the increase in real GDP in the third quarter were personal consumption expenditures (PCE), equipment and software, federal government spending, and residential fixed

A recent Congressional Research Services report has estimated that extending the '01, '03, and '04 tax cuts will cost the Treasury $2.286 trillion over 10 years. The CRS cost estimate was based on Congressional Budget Office estimates and calculations by the CRS, according to the report.