With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: “We can’t wait” for lawmakers to act.
From the Washington Post:
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, working with the Obama administration, said that up to 1 million “underwater” borrowers might benefit from an expanded program that targets homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth.
These two stories, in addition to a few others related to Obama efforts to address the economy despite congressional resistance. Congress has already authorized through previously passed legislation activities that might allow the president the ability to act independent of Congress.
Update: The Daily Beast - We Can't Wait for Congress: With congressional Republicans having killed his job plan, President Obama is turning to actions that don’t require their approval: he will travel to Las Vegas Monday and Denver Wednesday in order to announce executive actions to revamp housing and student-loan regulations. His message will be “we can’t wait” for lawmakers to fix the economy. Obama’s housing plan will allow homeowners to refinance their mortgages no matter how much value they have lost; the current program, originally designed to aid 9 million homeowners, reached only about 1.7 million.