It’s amazing that the political parties are not interested in a balanced approached to solving the slow down in the economy. They are more interested in the election posturing of helping the group they perceive are their voters. For one party or another to consider a program that does not cover a large cross section of people that can buy houses, spend money on repairs and create family stability is amazing. These people are the backbone of this country and members of all of the parties. This group, that owns homes, represents about sixty five percent of the population so stimulating this group targets the largest single group in the country. These stimulation programs also need to insure that these same people can get loans that will stabilize the housing market across the country. If they do not provide this stability, then more of the housing sector will decline, putting more people at risk of losing their homes, creating family instability, and creating further pressure on the lenders. When homes sell, thousands of dollars are spent on inspections, the repair, remodel, and refurbishing of these homes. These dollars are not being spent today and it is showing in the numbers. A big percentage of these trade-people are self-employed yet the ivory tower brains keep relying on the unemployment numbers to make their decisions. They need to get out from behind their desks and talk to people doing real work. Lenders make money doing loans. They need to make loans in a reasonable way. The agencies that set artificial amounts between conforming and jumbo loans need a reality check. Artificial is artificial and prior to the sub-prime joke, there was no difference in lender losses between jumbo and conforming loans. The lenders just charged more and made more on jumbo loans. Doing loans the old fashion way, like lenders did prior to the sub-prime period worked in terms of the buyers needing to qualify and sellers needing to sell. The proof is the numbers during that time. Stimulate sixty five percent of the people and the rest of the country will follow…… DUH