布什参加国家住房问题圆桌会议款(2008-07-01)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for having us. Were here at the Family Service Agency here in Little Rock to discuss ways to help people either buy a home for the first time or stay in a home.

Before I say a few words about how the government can help people stay in their home, I do want to thank Charles and your team of counselors¹ who are here. Thank you for your briefing; I thought it was very thorough and understandable. I do want to thank the Secretary of HUD for joining us, as well as Congressman² Boozman. I really appreciate your time.

And I want to thank Caroline, first time homebuyer -- or, she went to the first time home-buyers program in Jacksonville, Arkansas -- and Patty, from Conway, Arkansas.

One of the problems we have when it comes to buying a home is that theres a lot of fine print and people get worried about it. So these counselors have helped simplify the process. And one of the great challenges now is how to help creditworthy people stay in their homes. Because we got some people who are -- just with some little help, some advice and some counseling will be able to figure out a way to stay in the home. Its in our national interest we do so. Thats what Patty bought -- she had a home and was very worried about being able to stay in it; got some good advice from Sue and [is] now in the home. And this has happened all across America, by the way. Theres some good programs coming out of Washington, all aimed at saying to the American citizen, if you are worried about staying in your home, contact a counseling service, well help you -- "we" being the collective group of people there in this business, after all, this is a HUD-funded counseling program; you receive some money from HUD for your counseling.

Congress can help, when they come back, to pass a good piece of housing legislation that modernizes³ the FHA and reforms these GSEs. And I think we can get us a bill. But its going to require less politics and more focus on keeping our minds on who we need to help -- and thats the homeowner.

And so I do want to thank you very much for having us. This is an issue on peoples minds. Its an issue where there is good help to be had. And so if people are looking for help here in Arkansas, its a good place to turn to -- Family Services. And there are other places around the country where people can get help, where theres experts that are helping⁴ refinance their mortgages or work with their mortgage companies to help you stay in their homes. Its in our interest that more people stay in their homes during this period of uncertainty⁵.

Im confident in the long run America is going to be just fine. Were a country that has overcome challenges before -- and weve got some challenges: high gasoline prices, weve got some challenges in the housing industry. We know the way forward in housing -- good legislation and helping people stay in their homes. And the truth of the matter is we know the way forward when it comes to energy. We depending too much on energy from overseas; we ought to be finding more energy here at home. If people want their gasoline prices down, lets find energy here in America. And theres plenty of energy to be had.

At any rate, thank you all for your time. I enjoyed it.

1 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

2 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

3 modernizes   

现代化事物( modernize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It modernizes the game while lowering the learning curve for newer players. 它让游戏更为现代化，降低了对新手的入门要求。
• In time to come, as a society modernizes, people's rights and responsibilities should be balanced. 从发展的角度看，一个社会越是具有现代性，它的公民的权利和义务就越是平衡。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。