by David Espo | The Associated Press

Thursday February 05, 2009, 6:45 AM

The tax break was approved without dissent and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider a reduction in the spending it contains.

“Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential,” Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill’s spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly “will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession.”

Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama’s signature by the end of next week.

While they concede privately they will have to accept some spending reductions along the way, conservative Republicans failed in their initial attempts to force deep cuts in the bill.

On another contentious issue, the Senate upheld a labor-backed provision requiring that only U.S.-made iron or steel used in construction projects paid for in the bill. A move by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to delete the so-called Buy American requirement failed, 31-65.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who advanced the homebuyers tax break, said it was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.

The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break but only for first-time homebuyers.

Isakson’s office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion.

Democrats readily agreed to the proposal, although it may be changed or even deleted as the stimulus measure makes its way through Congress over the next 10 days or so.

Other GOP attempts to change the measure went down to defeat. The most sweeping of them, by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., failed on a mostly party-line vote of 36-61. It would have replaced the White House-backed legislation with a series of tax cuts on personal and business income and capital gains at the same time it made cuts passed during the Bush administration permanent.

“This bill needs to be cut down,” Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on the Senate floor. He cited $524 million for a State Department program that he said envisions creating 388 jobs. “That comes to $1.35 million per job,” he added.

After days of absorbing rhetorical attacks, Obama and Senate Democrats mounted a counteroffensive against Republicans who say tax cuts alone can cure the economy.

Obama said the criticisms he has heard “echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems.”

“I reject those theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change,” said the president, who was elected with an Electoral College landslide last fall and enjoys high public approval ratings at the outset of his term.

Obama did not mention any Republicans by name, and most have signaled their support for varying amounts of new spending.

Even so, the president repeated his retort word for word in late afternoon, yet softened the partisan impact of his comments by meeting at the White House with senators often willing to cross party lines.

His first visitor was Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate GOP lawmaker. Later he met with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

“I gave him a list of provisions” for possible deletion from the bill, Collins told reporters outside the White House. Among them were $8 billion to upgrade facilities and information technology at the State Department and funds for combatting a possible outbreak of pandemic flu and promoting cyber-security. The latter two items, she said, are “near and dear to her,” but belong in routine legislation and not an economic stimulus measure.

Collins and Nelson have been working on a list of possible spending cuts totaling roughly $50 billion, although they have yet to make details public.

RISMEDIA, January 16, 2009-(MCT)-Every day, more people slip into the foreclosure whirlpool and spiral downward toward the day they may have to leave their home. What should you do if you are on the verge of getting a foreclosure notice?

First and foremost, industry specialists say, you should resist the natural human tendency to freeze up. Face the issue head on and prepare for days and weeks of making phone calls and corresponding with people who may be able to help.
“Don’t assume it’s too late to act,” said Ralph Roberts, a consumer advocate in Michigan and co-author of Foreclosure Self-Defense for Dummies. “As long as you are residing in the home, you probably have some opportunity to keep your home.”

Roberts, a Realtor who lost his home to foreclosure back in the 1970s, said people facing foreclosure have more avenues to pursue than they might realize-certainly more than the typical “pay up or move out” that many people think is their only choice.

Potential solutions include:

- Negotiating a modification of the loan.
- Refinancing the loan.
- Listing the home through an agent for a possible “short sale.”
- Selling the home to an investor on your own.
- Declaring bankruptcy.

Short sales-in which the lender agrees to take less than is owed on the home, writing off some or all of the loss to avoid the expense of a foreclosure-typically are handled by real estate agents, which at least takes some of the pressure off of a harried homeowner. Many professional real estate agents are working more short sales these days and have buyers lined up looking for bargains, though the process can be slow and frustrating.

“The banks are just not moving fast enough. They are sitting on these, and it’s outrageous. Something’s got to be done about that” at the national level, said Ernst Urbainczyk, a veteran agent with Keller Williams Heritage Realty in Lake Mary, Fla. Lenders may also reject short-sale offers, sometimes leaving the seller with little or no time to prevent the foreclosure.

Matthew Englett of Kaufman Englett & Lynd, an Altamonte Springs, Fla., law firm that specializes in foreclosure defense, real estate litigation and bankruptcy, said there are usually several different defenses a borrower can take to dispute a foreclosure, including “wrongful or misleading conduct on behalf of the lender or its agents.”

As the case moves forward, the law firm negotiates with the lender to try to get it to modify the mortgage with a lower interest rate and loan amount.

“In many cases, that would mean the principal would have to be reduced,” Englett said. The law firm charges a flat fee ranging from $1,750 to $2,500 for its foreclosure-defense cases.

© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).