Do you trust mortgage firms to carry out Pres. Barack Obama's programs designed to keep people from losing thier homes to foreclosure? How about the government itself? Do you trust it to do anything meaningful to keep people from falling into foreclosure?

I know I have my doubts. That's why I wasn't particularly excited to learn that mortgage companies will be meeting with the Obama administration to list the reasons why they haven't done enough to stem the rising tide of foreclosures across the nation. You can read about this meeting at the Web site of ABC News.

The meeting's results will probably not be made public until next month. But mortgage servicers are coming under intense criticism for not doing enough to help homeowners rework their existing mortgage loans into ones they can actually afford to pay.

Scan most newspapers' archives, and you'll find stories featuring struggling homeowners who were unable to persuade their mortgage lenders to rework their loans. This is unfortunate, because when homeowners are facing foreclosure, they're advised to contact their lenders as soon as possible to work out a solution.

But many mortgage lenders are so busy dealing with existing foreclosures that they often struggle to find time to deal with new cases.

We can all hope that the White House meeting between the Obama administration and mortgage lenders results in a renewed commitment to keeping people in their homes. But hoping for something and actually believing it will happen are two different things.