OVERNIGHT MONEY: Fingers crossed

What Else to Watch For:

Conference Time: At a Families USA gathering on Friday, President Obama will continue pushing his State of the Union theme of winning the future in a speech likely to include a fair bit of talk on health care. 

The conservative Heritage Foundation, meanwhile, is slated to host a symposium on entrepreneurship and development, while the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is expected to hold a discussion on the global economy as a foreign policy challenge for Congress. 

Pushed Back: The Senate Judiciary mark-up of legislation that would revamp patent rules has been delayed a week. 

Economic Indicators:

— The Labor Department is scheduled to release an employment cost index for the fourth quarter. 

Breaking Thursday:

Fingers. Pointed.: As expected, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was not shy in parceling out blame for the economic meltdown, saying regulators, policymakers and Wall Street officials were all somewhat at fault. 

In fact, our Peter Schroeder finds that Republicans on the commission found the 633-page report too broad and blamed too many people.  In the end, the report only got the approval of the six Democratic commissioners, with the four from the GOP side issuing two separate dissents.

The official report brands the Federal Reserve’s performance as a “pivotal failure” and adds, in a part unlikely to be embraced by congressional Republicans, that the housing market was not a primary cause of the crisis. For their part, three of the conservative commissioners pushed back that it didn’t make sense to try to pinpoint an American cause for an essentially global crisis. 

Fine. We’ll Do It Ourselves: As our Erik Wasson reports, Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee may not be particularly thrilled with President Obama’s leadership on the budget.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the panel’s chairman, suggested at a Thursday hearing that the committee may have to take the lead on getting the country’s books in order, though he later said that wasn’t a swipe at the president. And Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the committee’s ranking member, said Obama’s State of the Union was not honest enough about what will be needed to balance the budget. 

As for the hearing’s witness – Douglas Elmendorf, the Congressional Budget Office director – he warned that interest payments on the current deficits could lead to a crisis. 

One Man’s Tax Break…: Effective tax rate for biotechnology companies: 4.5 percent. Effective tax rate for Eastern electric utilities: roughly 30 percentage points higher. As The New York Times reports, a roadblock for corporate tax reform could be that lowering taxes for one industry means raising them for another. (Not to mention that some tax exceptions are actually pretty popular.)

Hizzoner Digs the Train: As The Wall Street Journal reports, a congressional hearing on rail service came to New York’s Grand Central Terminal on Thursday – and heard a strong endorsement on the high-speed variety from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

What You Might Have Missed:

On the Money’s Thursday:

— Timothy Geithner implies that the tax reform debate has about eight innings to go.

— Robert Gates warns that not increasing Pentagon spending could put security at risk.

— Harry Reid suggests President Obama “back off” that earmark pledge.

— 1099 repeal gets to 60 (co-sponsors) in the Senate. 

— Congress could get the South Korean trade as early as March. 

— Two senators want a two-year budget cycle.

— Senate Democrats and Republicans divvy up committee slots. 

— Pending home sales rise.

— But so do unemployment claims.