Obama promotes new housing initiative

President Barack Obama will bypass Congress with a series of executive branch steps that should jumpstart the economy this week, starting with new rules to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages, CBS News reports.

Obama will discuss the latest mortgage changes in a meeting with homeowners in Las Vegas today. The latest initiative will help homeowners with little or no equity in their homes refinance by cutting the cost of doing so and removing caps for underwater borrowers, USA Today reports.

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This is the president’s latest effort to get past Republican opposition to his $447 billion jobs package. He will announce a series of solutions to economic problems this week with the new mantra “We can’t wait,” to push lawmakers, the New York Times reports.

After Las Vegas, where the foreclosure crisis has hit the hardest, Obama will stop in Denver to unveil a student loan initiative and he will also hold fundraising events in Nevada, Colorado and California, Reuters reports.

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The three-day trip will not only provide a chance for Obama to announce his new initiatives to relieve economic pressures, it will give the president the opportunity to make stops in two battleground election states, Nevada and Colorado.

So far the latest phase of Obama’s candidacy, “We can’t wait,” has not been very successful due to the focus on Republicans holding up his jobs bill, the NY Times reports.

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While the Obama administration tries to help a crippled housing market with this revised approach, it remained unclear if it will provide enough of a boost to jumpstart the economy, Reuters reports.