White House aide: avoid housing overreaction

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government must be careful not to overreact to the housing crisis and make matters worse, while many congressional proposals appear to benefit special interests but not the broader economy, a senior White House aide said on Thursday.

"A lot of the policies that are being discussed on Capitol Hill right now aren't really designed to help the macroeconomy, but frankly looking more at interest group pressures," National Economic Council Director Keith Hennessey said in an interview on cable business channel CNBC.

"I think that we've taken the right actions. What we've got to make sure now is that government doesn't step in now in a well intentioned way and make the problem worse," he added.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)