So much for that...

From the NY Post:

The White House plan to save as many as 13 million cash-strapped families from losing their homes in foreclosure was a huge flop -- so flawed it may have made the housing crisis even worse.

That's the finding in a blistering report yesterday by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which spent a year examining why the Treasury's $30 billion rescue effort never made a dent in the housing crisis and probably created more problems.

The panel cited a litany of blunders and missteps that slipped through the highest levels of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's team, which then tried to cover up the shortcomings of the failed rescue program, known as Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP.

The safety-net program was meant to help homeowners and lenders revise mortgages and make monthly payments more manageable.

But barely 700,000 families expect to benefit from the nearly two-year old plan -- a small portion of the 8 million to 13 million families targeted-- while the $30 billion rescue pot remains largely unused. Just $4 billion has been spent thus far.

"Many of the problems plaguing HAMP are inherent in its design and cannot be resolved at this time," the panel aid.

It added that "Treasury's reluctance to acknowledge HAMP's shortcomings has had real consequences" and that "many billions of dollars set aside for foreclose mitigation may well be left unused."

The panel said the clock ran out Oct. 3 for Geithner to revise his bungled program, leaving the US stuck with a wasteful and useless effort while foreclosures rise.