The White House on Tuesday assailed housing legislation that appears headed for swift Senate passage, saying it “is not a bill that we could support.”

In opening remarks at the daily news briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said, “The bill will likely do more harm than good by bailing out lenders and speculators and passing on costs to other Americans who play by the rules and honor their mortgage debt obligations.”

The surprise attack posed an unexpected threat to the bipartisan bill, drafted by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

It came just before the Senate voted 92-6 to limit debate on the package offered as a substitute to an unrelated bill (HR 3221). All six of the “no” votes came from Republicans: Jim Bunning, Ky.; Tom Coburn, Okla.; Jim DeMint, S.C.; James M. Inhofe, Okla.; Jon Kyl, Ariz., and Arlen Specter, Pa.

The substitute package features an overhaul of the Federal Housing Administration supported by the Bush administration and a series of tax breaks aimed at stimulating the housing sector. The Senate could pass the amended legislation as early as Tuesday night.

Perino took aim specifically at provisions authored by Senate Republicans, including a tax credit for the purchase of homes in or near foreclosure.

“We have serious concerns that these elements and others would do little to help homeowners avoid foreclosure or reduce housing inventories,” she said. “Fortunately, it doesn’t appear likely that this bill will come to the president’s desk, as the House has indicated that it plans to go its own way anyway.”

She urged lawmakers to send President Bush only the FHA modernization, an expansion of mortgage revenue bonds designed to help homeowners refinance their mortgages and a regulatory overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, big government-sponsored enterprises that provide a secondary market for mortgage loans.

The White House criticism clearly startled senators of both parties. Asked about the attack, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, “You’re telling me something I was unaware of.”

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said he was “surprised by” the Perino remarks. He said of the bill, “It doesn’t do everything but it does a lot of good things.”

Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., was the principal author of the $7,000 tax credit provision included in the bill to spur purchase of homes in or near foreclosure, one of the elements that drew White House fire. He said he would be meeting with White House officials later Tuesday and said of Perino’s statement, “I’m not sure that’s the end of the story.”

However, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and House GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam, R-Fla., echoed the White House line later in the day Tuesday.

Blunt stressed the GOP position that home owners who took on more debt than they could manage or engaged in speculation should not be bailed out at the expense of the vast majority who regularly meet their mortgage payments. “I hope we put families first,’’ Blunt said. “But we should think about families that already have mortgages or want to get one.’’

“I’m truly interested in helping people who were taken advantage of. That’s a small number,’’ Blunt added.

Putnam went even further, saying those who speculated on real estate in his home state of Florida, which is among the states hardest hit by the real estate bust, should not get federal help.

“A lot of people speculated. Uncle Sam doesn’t need to go bail out people who were flipping condos hoping they’d be the next movie star of a 3 a.m. informercial about how they made a fortune flipping Miami condos,’’ said Putnam.

Blunt said that whatever Congress does must be done quickly. “The longer the Congress talks about the best deal down the road, the longer we sustain this problem,’’ he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., defended the package moving through his chamber, saying it would help stimulate the slumping economy.

He said that an amendment to renew for one year a set of tax breaks for renewable energy due to expire at the end of 2008 would probably be adopted by a “pretty good vote.”

The extension of those tax breaks could run into trouble in the House, however, because the cost is not offset. House Democrats have been demanding that Congress abide by pay-as-you-go budget rules.

Even before the Senate completed work on its package (HR 3221), the House Ways and Means Committee released its own alternative package of tax provisions aimed at lifting the sagging housing market.

The House panel is taking a different approach. For example, the House measure includes offsets for the lost revenue, while the Senate bill does not. And the House version includes low-income housing tax credits not in the Senate bill.

As expected, the Ways and Means bill does not include an expansion of the net operating loss carryback provision, a core provision of the Senate bill. That provision would allow money-losing home builders and other businesses to write off their losses from 2008 and 2009 against profits from four prior years, up from two years currently.

“We need to provide relief to the buyers and families themselves, not just the banks and builders,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y. “The House bill puts families first, offering a refundable tax credit to first-time home buyers, essentially a zero-interest loan to help defray the cost of purchasing a house. The bill will also expand and improve the successful low-income housing tax credit to put builders to work and create affordable alternatives for families seeking new housing.”

According to the committee’s summary, the House package will include a refundable tax credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers. The credit would phase out for buyers with adjusted gross income higher than $70,000 and $110,000 in the case of joint filers. And taxpayers would have to repay the government for the credit over the next 15 years, in equal installments.

The provision is estimated to cost $3.78 billion over 10 years. A Senate housing bill includes a narrower tax credit that applies only to the purchase of properties threatened by, or already in, foreclosure.

The Senate bill would establish a standard property tax deduction — $500 for single filers and $1,000 for joint filers — for homeowners who do not file itemized income tax returns. That provision is estimated to cost $1.17 billion over 10 years, according to the summary.

The House measure, on the other hand, would provide a smaller standard deduction of $350 for single filers and $700 for joint filers.

Edward Epstein and Molly Hooper contributed to this story.

First posted April 8, 2008 12:16 p.m.