OVERNIGHT MONEY: Taking a dive

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves: Interested observers are also set to get another glimpse of where the economic recovery stands on Thursday, when Labor releases its weekly look at initial jobless claims. 

First-time applications for unemployment benefits have been fluctuating in recent weeks and have been stuck above the 400,000 mark, higher than what economists say signals steady job growth. 

All this information comes after last week’s disappointing reports on the nation’s gross domestic product (1.8 percent in this year’s first quarter) and this week’s release of the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, which included more bleak data on tumbling home prices across the country.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR:

Appropriations marches on: The House is expected to approve the first 2012 spending bill on Thursday, with a measure funding homeland security. The House is currently debating the measure under an open rule, the first time in several years that the chamber has employed what is essentially its version of a free-for-all. 

{mosads}An Appropriations subcommittee is also scheduled to tackle an energy bill that Democrats say will keep the U.S. dependent on foreign oil. Another subcommittee will be looking at the troubled finances of the U.S. Capitol Police.

Moving on up … Pennsylvania Avenue, that is. A day after House Republicans gave President Obama an earful of demands for raising the debt ceiling, the president will address a far friendlier crowd — the chamber’s Democrats.

Liberal members of the caucus are expected to question Obama about what exactly he is willing to give up to get the debt ceiling raised by Aug. 2. Vice President Biden has said that talks are on track to yield more than $1 trillion in spending cuts.

News conference circuit: A quartet of House GOP freshmen are expected to brief the news media after meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the debt ceiling on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is pushing for Elizabeth Warren to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will speak on that issue.

Talking taxes: The House Ways and Means Committee is set to tackle how an overhaul of the tax code can help create jobs on Thursday – not long after its chairman, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), stressed again that he wants a tax reform package that looks at both the individual and corporate sides and does not explicitly seek revenues to dial back deficits.

For their part, a fair number of Democrats — including some in the administration — have expressed an interest in squeezing some extra revenue out of the tax code. 

Elsewhere on the House (and tax) side, an Oversight subcommittee is set to take on the IRS’s e-file program. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that a Government Accountability Office official plans to tell the panel that taxpayers were almost five times more likely to see their identities stolen in 2010 than in 2008.

In the tank … The House Budget Committee is expected to join the ongoing discussion over the housing market on Thursday, with its own discussion on taxpayer exposure to that ailing market. Think tank experts, as well as the assistant director of the Congressional Budget Office, will testify. Republicans have long argued that the government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is exposing taxpayers to significant losses, and tomorrow’s hearing is the latest push in the effort to wind down the mortgage giants.

Doubling exports: The International Monetary Policy subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee will mark up legislation Thursday that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.

(Other) economic indicators:

Also out on Thursday: Productivity, costs and factory orders, with the market expecting a drop of about 1 percent. 

BREAKING WEDNESDAY:

Meeting of the minds: Be sure to check out our colleagues’ take on today’s back-and-forth between President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. (aka, who’s calling who a demagogue?). Not to mention: Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) push to have a debt ceiling done within a month. 

The auto update: The Big Three — Chrysler, Ford and GM — took the top spots in domestic car sales for the first time in more than five years, The New York Times reports.  

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

On the Money’s Wednesday:

Treasury on the debt ceiling: It’s still Aug. 2.

Darrell Issa to Elizabeth Warren: You’re coming back.

Shocker of the day: Jim Jordan and Dennis Kucinich disagree on welfare spending.

Close to 500 groups lobbied on Dodd-Frank in the first quarter.

Speaking of which: Wall Street says it wants new derivatives rules.

Thousands of federal employees make more than their workplace’s governor. 

Another day, another Democratic blast on House GOP cuts. 

Lawmakers want strong trade rules with Vietnam.

Mortgage applications took a dive. 

And the latest from our friends at Blog Briefing Room on Weinergate. (You know you want to.)

Feedback? Shoot it to bbecker@digital-staging.thehill.com