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As of July, only 9 percent of eligible borrowers had seen their mortgage payments reduced with modified loans. And the first monthly progress report showed that 10 lenders had not changed a single mortgage.

The report indicated that lenders such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo have lagged behind government expectations. Both banks received billions in federal bailout money.

BofA modified just 4 percent of eligible loans, and Wells Fargo 6 percent. Wachovia, which was taken over by Wells Fargo in December, modified only 2 percent.

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Even with all of the government programs at the federal and state levels that were designed to encourage more loan modification plans for homeowners facing foreclosure, one factor has virtually guaranteed that borrowers are evicted rather than given workout plans. This is the fact that the lenders do nothing but drag their feet when given the choice of helping a homeowner or not.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts have been given to the banks directly, with trillions more pumped into the system in secret by the Federal Reserve. This was done to prop up the banks' balance sheets, covering up their insolvency and preventing runs on banks that should have failed. In order to keep the public order, a couple hundred billion more was thrown at the banks under the guise of helping homeowners stop foreclosure.

But with all of the money literally thrown at the banks by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, lenders had little or no incentive to participate in the loan modification programs created by the government. Instead, it could sit on the free money, not recognize any losses from mortgage-backed assets (because they were sold to the government), and then not dedicate any resources to evaluating delinquent loans.

Although the government has failed to deliver on its promise to help delinquent mortgage borrowers by providing incentives for banks to offer modifications, it is the banks that should share the majority of the blame in this situation. Even years before they asked for (and received) hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts, the lenders were totally incompetent at responding to foreclosure situations and offering homeowners reasonable solutions in a timely manner. One more government program will not change that fact.

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