Isn't the government supposed to try to reduce unemployment?

So what gives with the new employment tax?

You and your spouse were both employed in 2005, at which time you bought a house, took out a mortgage equal to four years' family income and committed to a monthly payment about one quarter of your family's monthly income. Today your house is worth three year's income. To add to your injury, your family income is cut in half because you lost your job. Your housing payment is now more than half of your family income.

Your best course of action may be to fail to find a new job. Citigroup Inc. is your mortgage lender, and (as part of the Treasury rescue deal) is willing to renegotiate mortgages with people in financial trouble and limit their monthly housing payments to 38 percent of the family's monthly income. With you unemployed, your family income is low enough that you qualify for this loan forgiveness. If you find a new job quickly, you and your spouse will no longer qualify.