Both President Barack Obama and a representative of the Republican Party used their weekly addresses to encourage their political opponents to pass legislation they claimed will improve the economy. The difference is the House's American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act would generate revenue to pay for infrastructure by expanding energy production while the president's proposed housing plan is just another expensive gimmick.

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In today's GOP weekly address, Congressman Pat Meehan (R-Pennsylvania) said, "Instead of more earmarks or new taxes, our bill will remove barriers to job growth by expanding American energy production - which will help lower gas prices - and using the revenue to repair and improve our roads and bridges,"

The bill consolidates more than 100 existing programs down to about 30, targets critical infrastructure needs to make sure resources are spent wisely and gives state and local governments increased involvement in determining how transportation dollars are spent. The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act would also put an estimated one million people to work by removing barriers to domestic energy production and it doesn't contain a single earmark.

Meanwhile, President Obama's latest scheme is to expand the authority of the Federal Housing Administration so it can refinance loans for up to 3.5 million new borrowers and pay for it by imposing a fee on large banks who would of course pass that new cost of doing business onto their customers. The plan would require Congress to allow the FHA to insure loans for borrowers who owe more on their loans than their properties are worth which the agency is not currently allowed to do and for good reason.

According to Congressman Scott Garrett (R-New Jersey) a top Republican on the financial services panel, with the FHA already on "a collision course with bankruptcy, it is unconscionable for the president to even consider a proposal that would make a disastrous situation worse."

But again, President Obama tries to give the illusion that his ideas will help the economy in general and the housing market in particular when in fact he is simply playing politics. One of his political allies, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California.), applauded the proposed housing plan saying that the president "understands clearly that for the economy to recover fully, the housing crisis must be resolved." He might understand that but he doesn't have a clue what that resolution might be.

"We've done this at least four times where there's some new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said when this latest proposal was announced. "None of these programs have worked and I don't know why anyone would think that this next idea's going to work and all they've done is delay the clearing of the market.”

But whether or not it will work is irrelevant to our Candidate-in-Chief. His only concern is whether or not it will fool a few more desperate souls into voting for him again.