SIGTARP

The unwillingness of political reporters to actually realize that people being abused by the HAMP program is actually a nice "Obama sucks" story they could run with is a mystery. I guess they're just lucky duckies having some funemployment.

The inspector general's report also said Treasury took too much credit for helping homeowners who did not ultimately benefit from Treasury's Home Affordable Modification Program.

Treasury has said several times that its mortgage modification program has "helped" more than 1.3 million homeowners by reducing their monthly mortgage payments, calling each of these a "success," the report said.

However, Barofsky's team took issue with the level of success, saying more than 700,000 of the modifications ultimately failed and another 173,000 remained in limbo.

"It may be true that many homeowners may benefit from temporarily reduced payments even though the modification ultimately fails," the report said. But it adds that, "Treasury's claim that 'every single person' who participates in HAMP gets a 'significant benefit' is either hopelessly out of touch with the real harm that has been inflicted on many families or a cynical attempt to define failure as success."