BUDGET BRINKMANSHIP

Now that the White House accepted his offer for an emergency extension of the government's borrowing authority, Newt Gingrich has changed his mind. The House Speaker today said Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's projection that the federal debt limit would be reached by Oct. 31 could be "a Halloween trick to try to scare people." Instead, Gingrich wants plenty of time to pore over the figures. Rubin's warning Tuesday had scuttled Republican plans to tie the emergency debt-limit increase to their dramatic budget cuts. Who's right? Says TIME's Karen Tumulty: "The people who have the most to lose from this -- the markets -- don't seem to be worried by all this saber-rattling."