Obama's Refi Plan Dead on Arrival?

The White House has been talking up a plan to help underwater borrowers who actually want to stay in their homes refinance, but from what we're hearing from lobbyists and at least one former administration official, it may be too little, too late. It boils down to this: A Republican controlled Congress (and plenty of Democrats) blame housing/mortgages for the Great Recession and throwing more money into a new program is like torching $20 bills – lots of them. But the biggest stumbling block to modifying loans is something we've been hearing about for two years, but cannot confirm enough to write a hard news story about. It boils down to this: While firms like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase may say publicly (and boast) about their modification efforts they are loathe to reduce principal and could care less about the troubled borrowers they inherited from their legacy purchases. In the case of B of A that would mean Countrywide Financial, the nation's poster child for poor quality originations…