By Julie Mason
Examiner White House Correspondent 2/17/09
With a stimulus bill in hand, President Obama this week rolls out his next big program, limiting home foreclosures, before heading to Canada for his first trip abroad as president. Other pressing issues for the administration include the unresolved automakers bailout, a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan, and key vacancies including secretaries of commerce and health.
Obama today signs his stimulus bill at an event in Denver.
“This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning,” Obama said of the bill. “The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task.”
In Phoenix, a onetime boomtown now beset by a rash of home foreclosures, Obama will detail a foreclosure program on Wednesday with a price tag of at least $50 billion aimed at helping more Americans stay in their homes.
The administration has been secretive about the plan, which is expected to provide funding to ease the lending industry, rather than having the government buy bad loans.
“Our goal is first of all, to deal with this rash of foreclosures that is being accelerated by the economy; it’s to help people who are right on the edge now — making their payments, but are on the edge of moving into that area,” Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And ultimately raising home values that have been plummeting as a result of this rash of foreclosures.”
The foreclosure program is part of the broader effort by the administration to lift up the flagging economy with infusions of government spending. The continuing bank bailout also is a part of the overall package.
Economic concerns also top the president’s agenda in Ottawa, where he will meet his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for several hours of talks Thursday and a joint news conference before returning to Washington the same evening.
The two are expected to discuss trade — including the controversial “buy American” provision of the stimulus bill, the automakers bailout, Afghanistan and other issues of mutual interest. Although not overseas, the trip is Obama’s first as president with a foreign leader.
Chrysler and General Motors face a deadline today to submit plans to the government for turning around their troubled operations. The two in December received more than $17 billion combined in federal loans.
The White House on Monday announced plans to scrap appointment of a so-called car czar to oversee the automakers bailout, and instead name a task force to be headed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
