A plan being considered by the Treasury Department and FDIC would have the lender (really the loan servicer) agree to reduce monthly payments based on a homeowners' ability to pay. To attract financial institutions, the government would then guarantee to repay the lender for a portion of its loss if the borrower defaulted on the reconfigured loan (story is from the Washington Post). All this, of course, is an effort to stem the number of foreclosures. Several programs to either modify loans or freeze foreclosures are now being attempted, but this would be the most ambitious to date. The trouble, of course, is that many borrowers would have trouble making mortgage payments no matter how many breaks went their way. They just shouldn't have become homeowners. Except that the current political climate makes it impossible to accept such reality.