A family that excludes from its budget the mortgage payments it knows it must make is deluding itself and sabotaging its own finances. That's precisely what the federal government is doing right now with respect to billions of dollars of liabilities because of its ill-fated sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

This bill takes a small step toward restoring honest and accurate accounting to our government's finances by requiring that the enormous liabilities incurred by Fannie and Freddie be accounted for in the federal budget process using the same accounting standards for loans that we already impose on mortgage lenders.

I wish this bill abolished Fannie and Freddie outright. I wish it restored the days when banks or borrowers who made bad decisions took responsibility for them, and didn't demand that their neighbors pay for their mistakes.

But can't we at least agree that the public has a right to expect that the costs of this folly are honestly accounted for in the nation's budget?