homeowners to refinance high-interest mortgages at these rock-bottom interest rates. who qualifies? homeowners who have mortgages backed by fannie mae and freddie mac. you must be current on your payments. and you ll now be able to refinance no matter how much you are under water on that home. this lifts a previous limit of 125% loan-to-home value ratio. the program also aims to streamline the refinancing process, please, and reduce and eliminate fees. i m joined now by lynnette cox, bob molten and rick newman is the chief business correspondent for u.s. news & world report. the white house says this could mean cheaper mortgage payments. some say as much as 1.7 million. it probably in practical terms will help a fraction of that. maybe 20%, 30% or so. if you look at the previous efforts, that s sort of the range, you know. we have high hopes and we want it to be able to help more, but frankly, even if it does help 1 million, we ve got more than 5 million people who are ou
evening here in the nation s capital. just to underline the peril facing the united states economy, and the american people, democratic officials familiar with the president s speech expect him to say the country right now is, quote, in imminent threat of default. with only about one week left for democrats and republicans to agree on a deal to raise the debt ceiling. in a speech earlier today, the president alluded to the bitter political grid lock between both sides. are we a nation that asks only the middle class and the poor to bear the burden? after they ve seen their jobs disappear and their incomes decline over a decade? are we a people who break the promises we ve made to seniors or the disabled and leave them to fend for themselves? that s not who we are. we are better than that. we re a people who look out for one another. we re a people who believe in shared sacrifice. because we know that we rise or fall as one nation. congressional leaders from both parties u