For Democrats, the chickens are coming home to roost. Badly conceived efforts to rescue homeowners facing foreclosure, regional banks and the unemployed are failing.

President Obama's program to restructure mortgages for homeowners who are facing payments too large for their incomes or who owe more money than their houses are worth has only helped several thousand, not millions as expected. The Treasury now proposes to shame some banks and invasively monitor, nag and cajole mortgage-servicing companies -- much like autocratic Beijing abuses Chinese financial institutions. With mortgage rates at 30-year lows, homeowners with enough equity in their homes and solid incomes can more easily restructure loans privately. As for those underwater, the president's program pays...
TAGGED: housing, Peter Morici