Would it be better to refinance every U.S. Citizen's Primary mortgage than give >$1tril to financial giants?

b.wtfdik asked:


The current ~$700Billion plan looks a lot like Government is bailing out its buddies in BIG BUSINESS, and nothing will ever trickle down to the common U.S. Citizen. To turn that around use the leftover ~$300Billion Bush Administration bail-out plus President Elect Obama's $825Billion to pay the Mortgage industry (the cost of processing the loan) to alter an process every U.S. Citizens primary residence mortgage decreasing it by ~20% and refinance that amount at the current Fed bank-to-bank trading rate. Banks are writing down all these mortgages/loans anyway because of decreasing values. Yes, these institution have some medicine to take, but there are hard times ahead, and the majority (U.S. Citizens) need to feel support.

The majority of U.S. Citizens upside-down in their mortgages are more likely to see value in making payments rather than just giving their house keys to the bank and vacating, which will wash-out home values, equity, and personal wealth in our Nation with catastrophic effect. This will allow every U.S. Citizen, in our Nations consumer economy, a long-term (30-year mortgage term!) solution to add breathing room in the upcoming years of this global economic downturn. The beneficiaries are the U.S. Citizen that then trickles up to U.S. Retailers, U.S. Banks, and Wall-Street.

This provides relief to ALL U.S. Citizens, even Us that made conservative decisions knowing what we could afford, while also restructuring recent mortgages of those duped by the greedy practices of this decade. The majority of mortgages will still get paid, banks can maintain cash flow, homeowner mortgage vs. home value evens, right-sides up, or equity is built. If the U.S. Citizen losses their house it's a good bet they will walk away from Credit Card debt and any other outstanding loans. Then what will happen to the Financial industry and all the $400billion in tax-payer money that's already been handed to them to do with as they please?

This isn't about the American public seeing immediate benefit (i.e. one-time stimulus check), but as a longer term (~30 year mortgage term!) solution to stimulating our consumer (~62%!) economy. It also shows that Government is supporting real people, not just big business. I think if You do the math You will find that the cost of writing these loans, which is consumed by the leftover ~$300Billion Bush Administration bail-out plus President Elect Obama's $825B stimulus package, doesn't compare to the cost to Financial institutions, and the U.S. Tax-payer swallowing ~10% (or greater) National home foreclosures. What will Financial institutions do with all these assumed homes and property that are now worth 30-50% less than their original cost to them? Will Government, I mean the U.S. Tax-Payer, buy them? Restoring consumer confidence is what the focus is here. How does getting 9 financial institutions to start loaning money to ultra qualified people that don't need a loan, compare to ~130,000,000 homeowners across 50 states having a few hundred extra dollars a month, for the next 30 years, to do with how they see fit?
Excellent response Jeff T, but if the U.S. is trying to support homeonwnership, which is a massive staple of our 62% consumer economy, when the next avalanche of foreclosures hit what will happen to personal wealth in all classes in the U.S. Remember the original question dealt with if the Government couldn't do nothing, would it have been better to give the money back to the people in the form of refinanced 20% decreased mortgages very low interest rates so 10's of millions of families would opt to keep paying their mortgages (and other debta) rather than just walk away to let the remaining tax paying nation to bail them out. And then what about after the next wave, then the next? As foreclosed homes flood the market and the nations wealth is swept away, and more an more credit is lost, and more and more banks board their doors, who will be left to bail them out? How can this chain of events be stopped? We must bring more minds to the table to discuss this!