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"In addition, the Secretary may use loan guarantees and credit enhancements to facilitate loan modifications to prevent avoidable foreclosures."

I hate to see people loose their homes but the expansion of Bad-faith lending "loans" "credit enhancements" will only serve to create more toxic finance. Now backed up by uncle Sam rather than Bear Sterns.

This is horrible. If they only obtained the home through bad credit lending, then I, and my fellow tax payers, should not be picking up the bill. They should have chosen a house they can afford.

I see this as punishment for those who live within their means, instead of outside them. Maybe I should've bought a bigger house, just to get some free money from the government. If all of our homes are overvalued, then why aren't we all seeing these rate reductions, or principal write downs (tax payer payoffs)?

The whole idea is ridiculous... the backing of these loans caused the problem in the first place. We need to let the market decide who keeps their homes, not some elected official. If you can't afford it, try alternate lending. Can't get that? Then pull your other resources or lose your home. You shouldn't be given things you can't afford, get over it.

Can I get rate reduction or principal write off, even though I can afford my mortgage and have sacrificed to stay in my home and meet my financial obligations? Where's the reward for those who have done it right? Why enable the bad decision makers? This whole bill stinks. The American treasury is about to become the biggest enabler of financial irresponsibility ever, on both Wall St. and Main St.

Mike H., Exactly my problem. Those that have been making other sacrafices, which are financially responsible... are being left behind in this bill.

Person A pays their mortgage first, and lives modestly. Perosn B buys a house larger than they can afford, and expensive cars, etc.

Person B is going to be assisted by OUR tax dollars (ironically, person A would also be helping pay person B's mortgage... hah).

People compare this to socialism... that is incorrect. Socialism would pay them both. This is just a bill that has not been thought out, because the moronic people in Washington are in a hurry to pat themselves on the back on a job well done.

If they give me a break on my mortgage I'll be able to deposit that money in my savings, or buy a CD, and increase the capitalization of my bank, allowing them to make loans and extend credit etc. The responsible asset holders should get the $700 billion on the condition that we buy 5 yr CD's from responsible banks, this way the money will capitalize banks who make good decisions allowing the credit market to continue to operate. This way we don't reward the irresponsible lenders/spenders with a taxpayer bailout.

I have heard reports this bailout represents 45000,000.00 to each working person. Give each worker this money and they can pay cash for everything they buy instead of giving all this money to the FAT CATS ON WALL STREET THAT CAUSED THIS MESS. This bill is just punishment for those that live responsibly and pay their bills. What is the government going to do for us ???. NOTHING !!! WE GET PUNISHED FOR BEING RESPONSIBLE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My family is one of those who are currently facing the ordeal of losing our home. Not because we bought larger than we could afford, (based on 30% of our income being our monthly payment including taxes and insurance, we could afford a home for $100,000. We bought a home for $83,000 with a fixed rate loan) but because our main wage-earner has had to change careers for health reasons and no longer makes the same wage. Unfortunately, we cannot refinance our current principal to reduce our payment, because we have only been in the home a few years and do not have enough equity built up yet. Well, guess what? If we cannot afford our home now, we have some options. We can sell it. We can rent it out until our finances improve to our previous income level. I can work an extra job to make the mortgage payment. We can bite the bullet and realize that if we cannot afford our home any longer, the sound financial decision is not to go cry to the government, but to either find a way to afford our home, or move. It's as simple as that. I do NOT feel that my fellow taxpayers should bail me out of this mess, even though it was out of our control. My family has chosen to sell our home. We will move to an apartment for as long as it takes for our finances to improve to the point we can AFFORD to buy a home again. THIS is what responsible people do; when life happens, they sell what they cannot afford to keep. They sacrifice a little now knowing that in the future, they will be better off. My family and I will be fine in our new apartment, and in a few years, when we are financially stable enough to afford to buy a home again, we will buy. But we are NOT taking advantage of our fellow taxpayers, and we are NOT allowing the government to buy our house for us! And we do NOT want to pay for others to keep homes they cannot afford, either! Why should we pay for them when they had the same options we did, and CHOSE to let us take the fall?

Anonymous: I'm sorry to hear of your situation. You're financial responsibility will win out in the end. I commend you for your beliefs and hope that your example demonstrates the choice people have.

Gee, the financial institutions that are holding the troubled assets could be taking these same foreclosure mitigation efforts right now, without waiting for this bill to pass.

Do we see any of the institutions with troubled assets doing any significant mitigation to minimize their losses? No, they are waiting for us suckers to pay full price for the assets so there are no losses and their executives can get their performance-based multi-million dollar bonuses. Oh yes, and hurry up about it too, this is an "emergency".

This bill will be very disruptive to the residential home mortgage market. It will make it difficult for appraisers to determine the value of comparable property.

I am one of those that need help. It had nothing to do with buying more than we could afford. It was the artificially inflated housing market, driven by greedy realtors, mortgage lenders, and complicit appraisers who overvalued property. I resisted purchasing a home for 5 years because I felt this market correction would have to come. I only wish I had listened to my own common sense. Instead, after waiting so long, I became afraid we would never be able to purchase, as this market was continuing to escalate beyond all reason. I watched one house flip 3 times in 1.5 years, each time increasing by $100,000. Salaries were not increasing at all, so how could our economy possibly sustain itself at this rate? No one else seemed concerned though, and I eventually purchased the home I leased, to prevent myself from being locked out of the market. Three months later, I had a terrible accident, and have not been able to work since, but have been on disability. We were told our mortgage was a fixed rate, but recently learned it was an ARM with untenable adjustment rates. The closing was interrupted, and we had to wait for the papers to be sent by the lender. I think the switcheroo occurred on those papers then. We have tried to renegotiate our mortgage, but the lender would not do it, preferring to make all the interest it could, and forcing us into foreclosure. Assistance to decrease the interest rate, and add fees into the principal is precisely what we tried to negotiate, without success. This bill would help put pressure on the lender to renegotiate, and we would continue to make our note. This is what most people need, not a hand-out, just a sense of fair play, not the greed that created the monster in the first place. I assure you, the investors, (who have sold this mortgage 4-5 times/3 years)have made out like fat cats on the escalating interest. This story has probably repeated itself over and over, with unsuspecting buyers. I

The majority of those who sound off with, on average, very perceptive comments on this page continue to reelect the same representatives that have the audacity to pass such laws. Now you know where that audacity comes from. Your failure to kick them out!

Don't like the result? Fire your Congressman - now and from now on.

Want to be more effective in doing this? Organize with others to do the same. www.firecongress.meetup.com www.kickthemallout.com>

While I don't support fully what they're doing here, many people will still lose their homes. So the Smiths bought a house 2x what they can afford via a risky ARM or interest only loan that kept the payments low. The market corrects and that house is now worth 1/2 of what they paid but they're still paying on it for its original value. This provision of the bill allows the fed to refinance the Smiths at the corrected price which, they still may not be able to afford under a traditional mortgage. This is not entirely a bad thing and is better than the Smiths defaulting on the property which results in no income for the lender.