By Drew Pierson

WASHINGTON (MNI) – President Barack Obama held what appeared to be
an impromptu press conference at the White House Monday, interrupting
Press Secretary Jay Carney during his daily press briefing to take
questions from reporters.

Asked how the administration plans to boost the economy, Obama said
he would push Congress once it returned from its August recess to pass
the Home Affordable Refinance Program that would help homeowners
refinance their mortgages at a lower rate. Obama said the bill would
amount to a $3,000-per-year savings for borrowers who are current on
their finances.

“We have put forward an idea that a lot of American’s think make
sense, which is we’ve got historically low interest rates right now, and
the housing market is beginning to tick back up now but it is still not
at all where it needs to be, there are a lot of families out there whose
homes are underwater … and they’re having trouble refinaincing, we’re
going to be pushing Congress to see if they can pass a refinance bill,”
Obama said.

“That’s a big deal. That $3,000 can be used to raise equity in that
person’s home, which would raise home values. Alternatively that’s
$3,000 in their pocket … That would strengthen the economy as well.”

Obama said there are other steps Congress can take to help the
economy, including passing a continuing resolution to continue funding
the government to avoid shutdowns, as well as agreeing on a
deficit-reduction plan.

“Obviously the biggest thing Congress can do would be to come up
with a sensible approach to reducing our deficit in ways that we agreed
to a talked about last year,” he said.

“I continue to be open to seeing Congress approach this with a
balanced plan that has tough spending cuts, building on the $1 trillion
worth of spending cuts we’ve already made, but also asks for additional
revenue from folks like me in the top 1 or 2%.”

He stressed that the best approach would be to pass a tax cut for
those earning $250,000 a year or less, but acknowledged it was unlikely
“realistically” that it would be approved before the elections.

The president also reiterated his call for presumptive Republican
candidate Mitt Romney to release more multiple years tax returns, saying
that was customary of all presidential candidates, and especially
important when tax policy and fairness is a key issue in the campaign.

Obama defended the tone of the election to reporters who asked
whether he considered attacks made by groups associated with his
campaign to be overly negative.

Obama differentiated between assertions made by groups not directly
aligned with his reelection campaign to quotes from Romney himself,
saying the president had removed the work requirement from welfare, for
example, which is false.

“You can’t just make stuff up,” Obama said.

Asked about the situation in Syria, Obama said the White House was
continuing to monitor developments, but his “calculus would change” if
there were a large movement of chemical weapons in the country. That
would be a “red line” on U.S. policy and would cause “enormous
consequences” especially if such weapons are used on the Syrian people.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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