Dana has a piece up at TPM Café in which he outlines a set of criteria - political and substantive - that qualify a housing bill as effective and viable.

• It cannot involve "massive government intervention," or it risks the threat of veto by President Bush
• It must pay for itself or include offsetting tax hikes or spending cuts to comply with the pay-as-you-go
• (PAYGO) constraints Congress has imposed on itself
• It cannot involve a bailout of either financial institutions or investors who have lent to homeowners or to
• homeowners who have borrowed, except perhaps in "predatory" cases, since "bailout" is a dirty word, connoting taxpayer exploitation

A proposal floated by House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank (D-MA) manages to meet all of the above criteria — except for the last. Still, the "FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008" (FHAHSAHRA), avoids all political and legislative minefields and could forestall over half of the foreclosures otherwise projected to occur over the next 18 months.