Former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Sheila Bair was in Arizona early 2009, for the launch of President Barack Obama's signature housing plan, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In her new book "Bull By The Horns," Bair writes that she was never on board with the effort. According to The Journal, she recounts that the expansive promises issued at the time made her nervous.
"I cringed as he threw out what I considered to be wildly inflated numbers," Bair wrote in her book.
Bair referred to the 4 million homeowners whom the loan-modification effort was being touted to reach at the time.
The Journal reported, the president's liberal supporters, who wanted more aid, were disappointed because about 810,000 homeowners were enrolled in the main Treasury Department loan assistance program, also known as the Home Affordable Modification Program, (HAMP).
Bair argues in her book that the housing program put in place by the Obama administration was far too complicated.
She added that it required far too many documents from homeowners, as the administration wanted to point its programs to only "responsible" homeowners, The Journal confirmed.
"To require every borrower to essentially prove that he or she could qualify for a new loan was stupid-the loan had already been made," Ms. Bair wrote in her book.
"Given the huge number of loans that needed to be reworked, as well as the problem of ill-trained, understaffed servicers, the cumbersome process was doomed to failure."
According to The Journal, Bair also wrote in her book that Obama's top advisers were determined to keep her out of the design and operation of any of the programs from the very beginning.
She wrote, "The program was designed to look good in a press release, not to fix the housing market."
