Bush Touts Subprime Strategy

President Bush says it is "going to take a while to work through this housing bubble," but that his administration does have a strategy for helping subprime borrowers refinance or restructure their mortgages.The president said in a speech on the economy that the Treasury Department has worked with mortgage servicers so borrowers don't "get pinched as their interest rates reset." He also noted that the Federal Housing Administration is helping to refinance subprime borrowers and could do more if Congress passes an FHA modernization bill. (The Senate just passed such a bill, which now has to be reconciled with the House version.) Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested that the federal government could provide cash assistance for distressed homeowners who can’t afford their mortgage payments. Mr. Bush stressed in his Fredericksburg, Va., speech that he is against bailouts for lenders, speculators, and people who bought a house they couldn't afford. "But we can mitigate some of the issues, and I'm concerned about people who are creditworthy enough to live in their homes not being able to deal with these resets," he said.