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I am curious as to how this is going to help homeowners. Do we have to be in default, or in imminent danger of foreclosure to get assistance from this bill? I would love to have my interest rate or the principal on my loan reduced. Where do I sign up?

This is a bitter pill to swallow. People who took out mortgages that no remotely responsible sane adult would beleive they could afford are going benefit from this. I could have gotten a mortgage for 3 times what I did when I purchased my home in 2003, I however only financed what I could reasonably afford to repay. I should have gotten in way over my head, that way I could cry to uncle sam now and let the goverment absolve me of personal fiscal responsibility. Isn't socialism great?

Given what's going on here, attacking the one small part of this bill that offers any relief for the homeowner in trouble as "socialism" is pretty silly.

What about those ppl that had their paycut. I'm now one of those struggling homeowners because of a paycut, NOT because I wasn't paying my mortgage. I didn't by too much house for my income when we bought. Things happen and if we, the ppl/govt, are going to bailout big business, why not for once help the little guy first.

I just want to give some people insight that not all the bad home loans we have issues now comes from what I have heard: "minorities, poor people, or people that went over their head. I work in the banking industries and get pretty dissapoitment how people are evil and mean when they say that. I have had many customers and even friends that have lost their jobs affecting severely the way they can pay for things. Lay off's, unemployement and foreclosures has been happing for over 2 years now. I do not take light such comments and if you want to really say facts look at statistic that a lot foreclosed houses their owner had those house long before the hosing boom. Be more caring and supporting of people that unlike you might be in a worse situation now not because they bought a house but mainly because our economy is has been so week for over 2 years. I myself become ill and unable to work since Mar/08 and my savings is almost all gone and my husband is underemployed since the economy sucks badly for a long time. My so called protections short term disability and long term have been a joke and if I would have to rely on the solely I would be one in foreclosure croud right now. I make 1/3 of my income for the past 5 years and I not blaming anyone. Do not do that because no one knows what tomorrow will bring to you. Last year I was health as a rock and suddenly illness and almost no money. I am still thankfull to have a job and even if I am not making much it pay for my health insurances so I can continue to get treatment.

Vote for someone like Obama that has values and knows how to really help many rather than few. No one knows what the tomorrow will be but I trust that if he was our president now I, you and everyone else suffering in the middle of this crisis would not have to go through this.

Wish all of you to keep you jobs and thank for the because today many are without it. Be thankfull for you houses because many have lost them and some will never have one. Be thoughtfull when you think about people. Be caring this is everyone problem because we put Bush there. 2 TIMES.!!!

If haste wasn't making waste here, sure. This should have been the best part of the bill, The basis for the mortgage crisis, is low wages not keeping up with inflated house values, inflated by speculation. The fat cats deserve to lose some of their profit so people can stay in decent homes who are willing to pay a reasonable mortgate. It will be hard times indeed to have a country of empty houses and homeless people. However, I don't see any real plan here. It's full of empty promises: "encourage implementation by loan officers" and "... assist in faciliting any such modifications to the extent possible"??? What in the world does that mean? It's obvious nobody has taken the time to really think through a decent legal framework.

Lucia V, you are right, my post was an off the cuff reaction to what sounded to me like a whiny American looking for a handout. I reacted to that rather than respond to it, and that was wrong. Thalia's Bark has a good point also, with no concrete structure the potential for abuse and waste is tremendous. When I was having financial difficulties as a result of poor money management skills and an unreliable income stream(I worked in construction), I did some research and found a credit counselling agency that was not a schill for the banks and went in for advice. I overheard the conversation of the appointment before mine because the office door was open and the people were very loud talkers. They were looking for debt releif while still driving expensive cars(one was a Lotus), having a maid service clean their house twice a week, eating a restaurants regularly, planning vacations, ect. I feel for peole who really are having a hard time and are doing all they can to get by and there should be releif for them, but far too many people want the government, and by default the taxpayer, to bail them out while they make little or no effort to help themselves. This is what I see happening with this situation, the irresponsible spenders will be let off the hook for their bad decisions, and we all will be paying for it.

To Geoffrey: This entire bill is the socialization of risk/loss, after a long period of privatization of success/gain. I posted here because Oregonian hit a sensitive issue for me. I went through financial hard times too, I lost a lot, had to sacrifice a lot, and learned a lot from the experience. I would have loved to have my interest rate reduced or the principal on my mortgage reduced instead of cutting back on the things I enjoy, but Uncle Sam wasn't handing out tax revenues for that when I restructured my personal finances. So I'm not just rankled by this provision, my distaste of the entire situation just happened to be voiced here.

A government bailout of the housing market is both fiscally and morally irresponsible; it is an unfair subsidy being paid to the wealthy (bankers), the greedy (mortgage brokers, flippers, and yes some homeowners), and the incautious (some homeowners), with little or no benefit to those paying the bill (taxpayers).

My son is one of those being forclosed on, he had been out of work for nine months and his unemployment benefits ran out. His mortgage was with Countrywide, all they were interested in was forclosure, they wouldn't even listen to any ideas. I recommended they reduce his paymentby $300.00 for five (5) years to let him catch up and after the five (5) years add $50.00 a month to his original mortgage for the life of it. tThis would let them recoup the original loan. THEY WOULD NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS IDEA.........I am against this bailout.

The reason this bailout was even thought of was caused by policies enacted by Clinton in the first year of his first term, and now we are giving the ability to clean it up back to the same people who screwed it up in the first place? That is as stupid as going back to the surgeon who screwed up your heart surgery by giving you a tonsillectomy to fix it.

The free market works, and it works best with minimal restrictions that are basically to help quell corruption, not regulations that force the market to do things that are not good for it.

So let me get this straight. If I buy a house and something goes wrong (paycut, job loss, etc...), I should expect my neighbor (taxpayers) to pay my mortgage. This is nothing short of socialism. It would be nice if the government took care of us from cradle to grave but it is not constitutional. Our founding fathers would be appalled at our current state of thinking and expectations. We need to start taking responsibility for our own failures and quit blaming everyone else. In the past, families would help each other in time of need. Now we expect our government to be our mommy and daddy. Shame on us.

The entire problem was caused by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI), Which were Democrat policies. They enriched the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which maximized contributions to these same Democrats. They forced banks to make loans that know sane person would make. Banks had two choices make the loans or close branches in the targeted areas. These GSE's, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be dissolved and assets sold off.

mndasher: If the real culprit was the CRA why are we having this crises 30 years after this act was passed?

This current situation is squarely the fault of the current administration's policies and their deregulation efforts. I point you to today's NYTimes: "Agency’s ’04 Rule Let Banks Pile Up New Debt" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/bus...>

you can't beleive everything you read in the news!

"What about those ppl that had their paycut. I'm now one of those struggling homeowners because of a paycut, NOT because I wasn't paying my mortgage. I didn't by too much house for my income when we bought. Things happen and if we, the ppl/govt, are going to bailout big business, why not for once help the little guy first. posted by Dewey at October 1, 2008 "

My pay went from $90,000 to $42,000 -- What to do? Simple I sold my home and bought a smaller home. I improved my cash flow, because of lower mortgage, and lower taxes, and lower utilities. And still am able to send my daughter through college. Bought a new car this year too. The American way is to fix your own problems.

This section of the bill which allows arbitrary reductions in interest rate, arbitrary reductions in principal owed, and " other similar modifications" which is an open ended statement to do what ever one wants like complete forgiveness, or no-pay-loans.

The unintended consequence of this will be massive corruption with special deals for friends, cronies, and political favors.

My job was taking a toll on my health so I knew I had to prepare to retire before it killed me.

I assessed all of my obligations (mortgage, credit card debt, utility payments, etc.) and all of the things that I was buying (newspaper, cell phone, magazines, lunches, etc.)

I realized I could cut my expenses drastically by not paying for things I really didn't need so immediately cancelled newspaper, didn't resubscribe to magazines, took paper-bag lunch, etc.

Then I forced myself to save as much as possible even if I had to sacrifice those foods I thought I couldn't live without and other goodies I was used to being able to purchase.

The end result was by careful planning and preparation I was able to retire with a 50% reduction in monthly income and live comfortably. I paid off my mortgage, my car payment, and did not and do not purchase anything that isn't absolutely necessary.

But now I am facing a huge tax increase to pay for the laziness, greed, bad decisions and Socialist's ideology that permeates this country and may be forced to go on the dole after working very hard to avoid that and being responsible. That stinks!

This bailout sends a clear message from the government that it wants people to be greedy, fail, and be irresponsible so it can dictate to everyone what they may do, have and how they must think and act. It is a deliberate attack on freedom, the free market, and worse of all, responsible, hard working, generous people.

Socialism stinks because it makes everyone equally poor and dependent on what the government thinks you should believe, have and do.

I believe we haven't even begun to see the damage this administration has done to our economy. If those that are not in trouble now do not care how ordinary citizens are considered in this bill, they will care in a year or so when they loose their jobs through no fault of their own and they can't pay their mortgage or rent or health care or food bill.