Obama Has 'Solid' Housing Plan

The Wall Street Journal reports, The Obama administration this week will announce a "good, solid" plan with the goal of stemming mortgage foreclosures and putting a floor under falling real estate prices, a senior White House aide said on Sunday.

David Axelrod speaks on "Meet the Press." Mr. Axelrod pressed the Obama administration's housing plan on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," senior adviser David Axelrod said the plan that President Barack Obama plans to announce on Wednesday will aim to stem foreclosures, provide immediate help to homeowners who are "right on the edge" of foreclosure, and ultimately help in "raising home values that have been plummeting."

Mr. Obama plans to unveil his housing plan during a visit to Phoenix. As part of his swing through western states, he is set to stop in Denver Tuesday, when he will sign the $787 billion economic-stimulus plan just passed by Congress.

Mr. Axelrod provided few details of the housing plan, but said a government investment of $50 billion to $100 billion to fund foreclosure prevention "is obviously a necessary part." He promised that the plan would contain "a lot of aspects."

In a later appearance on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press," he cited a letter Mr. Obama recently read from an Arizona homeowner as an illustration of the problem. "He showed me a letter the other day that was just heart wrenching from a woman in Arizona whose husband lost his job," Mr. Axelrod said. "He now has a job that's one-third the pay and they're really struggling to make their payments and meet their responsibilities. And she was emblematic of people all over this country."

One likely element of the plan would reduce Americans' payments on troubled mortgages, people familiar with the discussions said late last week, possibly through a cut in the interest rate, the costs of which would be shared by the government and mortgage servicers. Government officials would make the reduction available to people who are at risk of defaulting. A loan-modification program at government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently calls for holding monthly housing-related payments to 38% of pretax income. The new formula is likely to be as low as about 31%, according to some people.

In addition, the administration is expected to endorse a plan to allow judges to modify mortgages during bankruptcy proceedings in some circumstances, a move long opposed by the mortgage industry. And it could push measures that would remove some contractual obstacles that hinder mortgage servicers from modifying troubled loans. Pending any announcement, the country's three largest mortgage lenders are putting a temporary halt on foreclosures. MORE HERE

House Votes For Obama Stimulus Plan

No GOP Votes!

The Washington Post reports: The House approved an $819 billion stimulus package on a near party-line vote yesterday, a plan breathtaking in size and scope that President Obama hopes to make the cornerstone of his efforts to resuscitate the staggering economy.

Obama engaged in an all-out lobbying push for the bill, which is among the most expensive pieces of legislation ever to move through Congress, and marked a big victory for his presidency a little more than a week into his term. He will now turn his attention to the Senate, where Democrats are scheduled to begin debate on the measure on Monday and the price tag is likely to reach $900 billion.

Larger than the combined total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, the two-year stimulus plan would provide up to $1,000 per year in tax relief for most families, dramatically increase funding for alternative energy production, and direct more than $300 billion in aid to states to help rebuild schools, provide health care to the poor and reconstruct highways and bridges.

But Obama's personal salesmanship effort failed to secure a single Republican supporter for the spending plan, which passed on a 244 to 188 vote. Just a day after the president spent more than an hour behind closed doors at the Capitol seeking their support, all 177 House Republicans opposed the measure, arguing that it would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on initiatives that would do little to stimulate the economy. Eleven Democrats opposed the bill.

In a statement issued after the early evening vote, Obama said he was "grateful" for the House action.

"There are many numbers in this plan," he said in the statement. "But out of all these numbers, there is one that matters most to me: This recovery plan will save or create more than 3 million new jobs over the next few years."

While Obama made no mention of the unanimous Republican opposition, a top adviser immediately warned of the political fallout GOP lawmakers could face from constituents struggling in tough economic times.

"There will be people in districts all over the country that will wonder why, when there's a good bill to get the economy moving again, while we still seem to be playing political gotcha," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in an interview.

Some moderate Republicans who opposed the bill left open the chance of supporting the final version if the White House and Senate address their concerns about spending. And Democrats remain hopeful of securing a more bipartisan result in the Senate, where committee action has driven up the cost as the amount of tax relief has increased, something Republicans have demanded before they will consider offering their support.

In addition to other tweaks to the tax portion of the package, the Senate Finance Committee added a $70 billion fix to the alternative-minimum tax to the chamber's version of the bill, a provision aimed at preventing the tax from being applied to middle-class households, pushing the total cost to at least $890 billion.

The Finance Committee also added a provision that would reduce taxes on businesses that buy back their own debt at a discount. Senators in both parties were readying amendments to make further changes, including a proposal that would dramatically reduce taxes, from 35 percent to 5.25 percent, on corporate profits earned abroad and brought back to the United States.

Advocates say that the measure, sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.), would prompt companies to "repatriate" hundreds of billions of dollars, money that could be used to expand domestic operations and save jobs. Supporters estimate it could increase federal tax revenue by as much as $40 billion. More HERE

How They Voted: H.R.1

President Barack Obama's Housing Agenda

Check out the promises about housing that President Barack Obama made on the obameter located on Politifact.com

No. 15: Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners

Create a $10 billion fund to help homeowners refinance or sell their homes. "The Fund will not help speculators, people who bought vacation homes or people who falsely represented their incomes."

>>More

No. 19: Create a mortgage interest tax credit for non-itemizers

Create a refundable tax credit equal to 10 percent of mortgage interest for nonitemizers, up to a maximum credit of $800.

>>More

No. 116: Expand housing vouchers program for homeless veterans

"Expand proven homeless veteran housing vouchers to assist those already on the streets."

>>More

No. 117: Launch a supportive services-housing program for veterans to prevent homelessness

"Launch an innovative supportive services-housing program to prevent at-risk veterans and veteran families from falling into
homelessness in the first place."

>>More

No. 312: Create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score for mortgage comparisons

"Will create a Homeowner Obligation Made Explicit (HOME) score, which will provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages. The HOME score will allow Americans to easily compare various mortgage products and understand the full cost of the loan. The HOME score would also help borrowers understand their long-term obligations and would be required to include mandatory taxes and insurance."

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No. 313: Allow bankruptcy judges to modify terms of a home mortgage

Will repeal provisions of the Chapter 13 law that prohibit bankruptcy judges from modifying the original terms of home mortgages for ordinary families—regardless of whether the loan was predatory or unfair or is otherwise unaffordable - "so that ordinary families can also get relief that bankruptcy laws were intended to provide."

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No. 314: Increase the supply of affordable housing throughout metropolitan regions

Will support "efforts to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund would use a small
percentage of the profits of two government-sponsored housing agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to create thousands of new units of affordable housing every year...Will also restore
cuts to public housing operating subsidies, and ensure that all Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs are restored to their original purpose."

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No. 360: Restore housing in New Orleans

"Will work with the state to establish a goal for approving all Road Home applications within two months...Will also work to increase the supply of rental property, which is particularly important in New Orleans where 57 percent of pre-Katrina residents were renters."

>>More

No. 375: Expand the YouthBuild program, a youth education and housing program.

"Will work with YouthBuild to grow from 8,000 slots today to 50,000 slots over the next eight years in order to meet the demand from young people and communities for this valuable program." YouthBuild programs allow low-income young people to work toward their GED or high school diploma while they build housing for low-income people.

>>More

No. 434: Set a three-month moratorium on foreclosures

"I'll put a three-month moratorium on foreclosures so that we give homeowners the breathing room they need to get back on their feet."

>>More

No. 435: Create new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud

"We will crack down on mortgage professionals found guilty of fraud by increasing enforcement and creating new criminal penalties."

>>More

No. 452: Weatherize 1 million homes per year

"Will make a national commitment to weatherize at least 1 million low-income homes each year for the next decade, which can reduce energy usage across the economy and help moderate energy prices for all."

>>More

Shaun Donovan Named HUD Secretary by Obama

As reported by Mike Fletcher at the Washington Post, President-elect Barack Obama today named Shaun Donovan, New York City's commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development, to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

As head of New York City's housing agency, Donovan, 42, helped lead what was called the nation's largest affordable housing plan, which aims to build or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2013. He also has led efforts to provide legal and credit assistance and financial education to homebuyers seen as being most prone to predatory lending. Most recently, he has worked as an Obama campaign adviser, after taking a leave of absence from his job in the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Donovan previously worked as a deputy assistant secretary of HUD during the Clinton administration and at Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., as managing director of the firm's Federal Housing Administration loans and affordable housing investments.

Obama announced Donovan's selection in his Saturday radio address, calling HUD an agency that will play a pivotal role in ending the nation's economic crisis. More HERE

Mayor Daley wants road money in his hands, not gov's

Mayor Richard M. Daley is lobbying to keep Gov. Rod Blagojevich's mitts off several hundred million dollars Chicago is poised to get through a proposed economic stimulus package under debate in Congress.

Historically, almost two-thirds of federal road funds go to metro areas, where locals decide how to spend them. But Mr. Daley and other U.S. mayors and local officials are worried that Congress will shift highway project decisions to the states in an attempt to simplify the process and create jobs more quickly.

"This is creating a great deal of heartburn," says Robert Fogel, senior legislative director for transportation at the Washington, D.C.-based National Assn. of Counties. "There's no guarantee that counties or cities will see one cent of the money for work on all of our many ready-to-go projects."

The impact on Chicago is potentially dramatic. Under a recent House-passed, $60.8-billion stimulus bill, Illinois would receive $436.8 million for highway projects, with no money set aside for Chicago. More HERE


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