This interesting report came across the wires from the AP today. Here is an excerpt:
WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan package of tax breaks and other steps designed to help businesses and homeowners weather the housing crisis.
The measure passed by an impressive 84-12 vote, but even its supporters acknowledge it’s tilted too much in favor of businesses such as home builders and does little to help borrowers at risk of losing their homes.
The plan combines large tax breaks for homebuilders and a $7,000 tax credit for people who buy foreclosed properties, as well as $4 billion in grants for communities to buy and fix up abandoned homes.
The measure, titled the Foreclosure Prevention Act, will be significantly redrawn by House critics who say it favors businesses such as home builders instead of borrowers.
“Quite candidly, what we’ve done does not quite live up to the title,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the measure’s top sponsor. “We have more work to do. We do not do enough in preventing more foreclosures in the country.”
Democrats failed to win approval of ideas such as giving people threatened with losing their homes the right to seek more favorable loan terms from their lenders in bankruptcy courts. At the same time, a proposal to have the government back up refinanced loans for people facing foreclosure has yet to win GOP support.