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WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a housing bill Wednesday intended to rescue about 15 percent of the cash-strapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure in the next year or so.
Early in the morning and out of public view, the president signed it without fanfare in the Oval Office, adding his signature to a measure he once threatened to veto. The White House said he was accompanied by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston and other administration officials.
The measure includes $300 billion in new loan authority for the government to back cheaper mortgages for troubled homeowners; $3.9 billion for communities to fix up foreclosed properties causing blight in neighborhoods; and $15 billion in tax cuts, including an expanded low-income housing tax credit and a credit of up to $7,500, to be repaid, for some first-time home buyers.
The number of homeowners who could lose their homes to foreclosure by the end of 2009 is estimated by some to be around 2.8 million. Under the legislation, 400,000 having trouble with payments could avoid it by trading their loans for new, more affordable mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration.
Bush withdrew his veto threat early last week, saying hurting homeowners could not wait for the outcome of a veto showdown that would take weeks — though he predicted he would have won that fight.
The White House cast Bush's quiet signing of the bill as an act of expedience, not camouflage.
Press secretary Dana Perino said the early morning action was Bush's first opportunity to sign because the bill was transmitted to the White House on Tuesday night. She also noted that most bills are signed without formal ceremonies — though that is usually the case because they are ***** measures, not legislation of this magnitude.
Bush's action seemed to indicate he wanted to play both sides: avoid being seen as not helping middle America in a crisis and avoid too close an association with a bill that many in the GOP opposed."
George "Herbert Hoover" Walker Bush.Except Hoover did many any attempt to try to look like he cared about middle america at all so I guess we need to give Bush a little credit for that.But it would have been better if he and his administration had not let it get to the point where they need to raise the deficit by hundreds of billions more to try to stem the pain of all this.
Funny how the pubs feel it neccesary to do such things quietly ,they don't want to alienate the rich who are one of their main constituencys by appearing to be wasting money on the middle class and there plight.
WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a housing bill Wednesday intended to rescue about 15 percent of the cash-strapped homeowners in fear of foreclosure in the next year or so.
Early in the morning and out of public view, the president signed it without fanfare in the Oval Office, adding his signature to a measure he once threatened to veto. The White House said he was accompanied by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston and other administration officials.
The measure includes $300 billion in new loan authority for the government to back cheaper mortgages for troubled homeowners; $3.9 billion for communities to fix up foreclosed properties causing blight in neighborhoods; and $15 billion in tax cuts, including an expanded low-income housing tax credit and a credit of up to $7,500, to be repaid, for some first-time home buyers.
The number of homeowners who could lose their homes to foreclosure by the end of 2009 is estimated by some to be around 2.8 million. Under the legislation, 400,000 having trouble with payments could avoid it by trading their loans for new, more affordable mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration.
Bush withdrew his veto threat early last week, saying hurting homeowners could not wait for the outcome of a veto showdown that would take weeks — though he predicted he would have won that fight.
The White House cast Bush's quiet signing of the bill as an act of expedience, not camouflage.
Press secretary Dana Perino said the early morning action was Bush's first opportunity to sign because the bill was transmitted to the White House on Tuesday night. She also noted that most bills are signed without formal ceremonies — though that is usually the case because they are ***** measures, not legislation of this magnitude.
Bush's action seemed to indicate he wanted to play both sides: avoid being seen as not helping middle America in a crisis and avoid too close an association with a bill that many in the GOP opposed."
George "Herbert Hoover" Walker Bush.Except Hoover did many any attempt to try to look like he cared about middle america at all so I guess we need to give Bush a little credit for that.But it would have been better if he and his administration had not let it get to the point where they need to raise the deficit by hundreds of billions more to try to stem the pain of all this.
Funny how the pubs feel it neccesary to do such things quietly ,they don't want to alienate the rich who are one of their main constituencys by appearing to be wasting money on the middle class and there plight.
