President Barack Obama's plan to aid millions of Americans who are at risk of losing their homes is getting a mixed review from state governors who gathered in Washington for a three-day meeting. A rash of home foreclosures helped plunge the United States into recession, and the national foreclosure rate shows few signs of subsiding.
美国各州的州长正在首都华盛顿召开为期三天的会议。他们对奥巴马总统提出的帮助数百万可能失去住房的美国民众的计划反映不一。美国许多人丧失住房赎回权导致经济进一步陷入衰退，而全国住房失赎率几乎没有下降的迹象。
Unveiled last week, the Obama plan encourages struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages at a lower interest rate. If refinancing is not enough to prevent foreclosure, the plan provides a mechanism for lowering a homeowner's mortgage debt burden, and incentives for both lenders and borrowers to abide by the reworked agreement.
奥巴马上个星期推出的计划鼓励陷入困境的房主办理利率比原来贷款更低的转按揭项目。如果转按揭仍然不足以避免住房赎回权被没收，这项计划将提供一种机制，以减轻房主的按揭债务负担，并激励贷款方和借款方遵守新的按揭协议。
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan says the plan will help honest Americans who have been hurt by the economic downturn, not real estate speculators whose investments turned sour when property values dropped.
美国住房及城市发展部部长多诺万说，这项计划将帮助那些在经济衰退中受伤害的诚实的美国人，而不是那些房地产投机者，这些人是由于房屋价值下跌而投资受损。
Donovan spoke on CBS' Face the Nation program.
多诺万在哥伦比亚广播公司“面对媒体”节目上说：
"What is really driving foreclosures is people losing their jobs. We have millions of families across this country that, through no fault of their own, are in trouble on their mortgages. We are going to stop speculators from getting in the plan [benefiting]," said Donovan. "But we have to make sure that folks who have played by the rules and are struggling can get some help."
“真正导致房屋赎回权被没收的原因是失业。在全国各地有数百万家庭无法支付房屋按揭，但这并不是他们自己的错误造成的。我们将阻止投机者通过这个计划牟利。不过，我们必须确保那些按规矩办事却陷入经济困境的老百姓得到帮助。”
Total costs for the plan are estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
据估计，这项计划的全部耗资将达到数千亿美元。
Although home foreclosures hurt the national economy as a whole, they are particularly worrisome to state and local governments, many of which rely on property taxes for revenue. Foreclosures tend to depress housing values for entire neighborhoods, and lower assessed values mean lower tax receipts.
丧失房屋赎回权虽然伤害美国整体经济，但是它们尤其使州政府和地方政府感到担心，因为这两级政府的收入大多依靠财产税。丧失住房赎回权一般会降低整个地区的房屋价值，而房屋评估价值降低就意味着房产税减少。
But while America's state governors agree the housing crisis must not be allowed to fester, some are critical of the Obama administration's prescription for fixing the problem.
虽然美国各州的州长们也认为不能再让房市危机继续恶化下去，但是一些州长对奥巴马政府解决房市问题的方法提出批评。
"I think it is a horrible idea," said Mark Sanford.
南卡罗莱纳州共和党州长桑福德在“福克斯周日新闻”节目中说：“我认为这是一个非常糟糕的办法。”
South Carolina's Republican Governor Mark Sanford says the administration's plan rewards irresponsible behavior. Sanford spoke on Fox News Sunday.
他说，政府的计划奖励不负责的行为。
"About 95 percent of folks are playing by the rules and struggling, but still paying their mortgages," said Sanford. "The idea that somebody down the street gets a different system is something that, ultimately, is going to undermine a whole lot of other folks with regard to paying their mortgage."
Also appearing on Fox News Sunday, fellow-Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said the federal government has no business restructuring private mortgage contracts.
明尼苏达州共和党州长保伦提也在该节目中说，联邦政府无权改变私人按揭合同的内容。
"This notion where the government is going to step in and then forcibly reconfigure the terms of an existing contract should scare us," said Pawlenty.
他说：“政府搀和进来，强制改变一份现有合同的内容，这种想法令人感到害怕。”
But others say struggling homeowners must be helped for the same reason that failing banks must be rescued: to do otherwise invites economic catastrophe that harms everyone. Democratic Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
不过，其他州长说，陷入困境的房主必须得到帮助，这和即将倒闭的银行必须被救助是一个道理，那就是：对此坐视不理会引发经济灾难，伤害所有人的利益。
"If we do not do it, the whole system collapses. Every economist - conservative, liberal, moderate, progressive - says that we have got to do these bailouts, as bad [painful] as they are," said Rendell.
宾夕法尼亚州民主党州长伦德尔说：“如果我们不这么做，整个系统就会崩溃。不论是保守派、自由派、温和派还是进步派的经济学家都说，虽然救助措施是艰难的，但我们必须采取这些措施。”
President Obama says his home foreclosure plan is one of three tools he will deploy to stabilize the U.S. economy. The other two are the stimulus plan he signed into law last week and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's initiative to save troubled U.S. financial institutions.
奥巴马总统说，他的住房失赎计划，是他为了稳定美国经济使用的三个工具之一。另外两个工具是他上个星期签署成为法律的经济刺激计划以及财政部长盖特纳提出的挽救困境中的美国金融机构的计划。 |