Bush, Dems point fingers over mortgage crisis

Two days after announcing a freeze on the interest rates for some subprime mortgages, President Bush blamed Democratic inaction for his inability to go further.

{mosads}In his Saturday radio address, Bush complained that Congress has not moved on several housing reform proposals he submitted. “These common-sense measures have been before Congress for months,” Bush said. “Congress has not sent me a single bill to help homeowners.”

In a continuation of the finger-pointing that has characterized the first year of divided government on the two ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Democrats blamed Senate Republicans for Congress’s failure to take more sweeping action to ameliorate the skyrocketing interest rates burdening a growing number of homeowners.

“Republicans in Washington are determined to make this a ‘no-can-do’ Congress,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in the Democrats’ radio address on Saturday.

Bush pointed to policies his administration has put in place already but emphasized that new legislation is needed, in particular the overhaul the Federal Housing Authority and government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In addition, Bush advocated creating a temporary tax break to facilitate homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages.

Driving home a central message of the congressional Democratic leadership, Durbin alluded to attempts to pass bills to assist troubled homeowners that fell under the weight of Republican objections. “Senate Republicans blocked two bills this week that would help families facing foreclosure hold on to their homes, and keep the mortgage crisis from spreading,” Durbin said.

On the issue of the Senate-passed bill to provide middle-class taxpayers with relief from the alternative minimum tax, Bush had kinder words for the legislature’s upper chamber, saying he congratulated the Senate for passing a patch this week.

House leaders are expected to meet Monday to decide a course of action. The president called on the House to move swiftly to vote on the Senate bill.