WASHINGTON — The Atlanta credit bureau Equifax ramped up its spending over the past three months to lobby the federal government and protect its image as it took fire for exposing the personal records of more than 145 million Americans.Its two main competitors, meanwhile, shifted their resources to do the same.New federal records released this week show Equifax increased its budget to lobby Congress and agency regulators by 12 percent between the second and the third quarters of this year.