The President has talked about thesolution to this economic crisis as a stool with several legs, and hiscommitment to a comprehensive approach was clear when he moved from thefirst leg, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, immediately into the second and third legs, the Financial Stability Plan and the Mortgage Affordability Plan. Thisstarted as a mortgage crisis, and then a credit crisis, but it’s becomea job crisis, so we have to take it on all at once.

 

We estimate that the plan we’vedeveloped should help as many as nine million homeowners, and theeffects could start kicking in heavily in March. But that also dependson homeowners knowing how to take advantage of the program – if you arestruggling to keep up with your payments, or if you’re now "underwater" and having trouble refinancing because you’ve seen your homevalue fall, take a look at the Q & A we put together on whether you qualify and how to get help.

 

Lots of people who played by therules will be benefiting from this plan, in a couple differentways. Through refinancing and loan modifications with clear guidelines,along with new opportunities for people going through bankruptcy to getback on their feet, millions of people can get to a place where payingtheir mortgage every month is realistic again. A third part of the planis $200 billion as a backstop to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, who issuemore than 2/3 of the mortgages in this country, and those will go onlygo to people with good credit. 

 

Now, as tragic as this has been, webelieve that there are some who shouldn’t be helped in this plan. Somehomeowners simply went well beyond their means, some bought additionalproperty as a risky investment – these people will not be eligible forthis plan.

 

Lenders have to have skin in the gamehere too. We worked hard to find the right balance between incentivesfor all parties – the government, lenders, and borrowers -- to takepart, while ensuring that everybody also pulls their weight. We alsorequired any lender engaged in the broader Financial Stability plan totake part. As the President was about to sign the American Recovery andReinvestment Act, he said, "if we are willing to continue doing thecritical work that must be done -- by each of us, by all of us -- thenwe will leave this struggling economy behind us, and come out on theother side, more prosperous as a people." That’s the principle we triedto build from in designing this plan.