Moving with lightning speed, the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House agreed Wednesday on a compromise $790 billion economic stimulus bill designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession. President Barack Obama could sign the measure within days.

But while the days of debate raged on who gets what and who does not the economy continues its downward spiral.  Banks are getting grilled and at the same time having their pockets filled with taxpayer money.

And the news from Main Street just keeps getting worse with every report.

U.S. foreclosure filings exceeded 250,000 for the 10th straight month in January as falling prices trapped owners in homes worth less than the mortgage, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

A total of 274,399 properties got a default or auction notice or were seized by banks, the Irvine, California-based seller of default data said in a statement today. It was the 37th straight year-on-year increase in filings.

The housing market lost an estimated $3.3 trillion in value last year and almost one in six owners owed more than their homes were worth, online data provider Zillow.com said last week. The U.S. economy shrank 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the most since 1982, and payrolls plunged by 598,000 in January, pushing the jobless rate to the highest level since 1992.

Home prices have fallen every month since January 2007 and tumbled 18.2 percent in November, according to the S&P/Case- Shiller index of 20 U.S. cities. President Barack Obama may support federal guarantees for modified home loans as the administration and Congress consider ways to help borrowers facing default or negative equity.

No one was any idea how to fix the economy…there is plan after plan…idea after idea….but none seem to be the right answer….as those who live on Main Street USA  watch and wait….their lives and their resources shrink and they worry….and Congress plays the partisan fiddle