In an effort to encourage banks that were former subprime lenders to restructure failing mortgages, in February the Obama administration approved the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) that will dole out billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep people up with their mortgage payments. The government turned to this “carrot” approach because the pressure Congress put on the banks failed to see any results. The recipients of $50 billion from this program are mostly the same banks that caused the current financial meltdown in the first place. They sold “risky mortgages” to investors by bundling them up with good ones. When the mortgages defaulted, the housing market crashed, leading to a domino effect on the rest of the financial market. Some argue that this bailout program is helping the people who caused the problem, instead of punishing them.