The two government-sponsored mortgage finance companies are nearing the five-year anniversary of when the feds took them over, a bailout that has cost taxpayers $131 billion so far. They have been vilified, particularly by conservatives, as representing the worst of crony capitalism (fairly) and as being major drivers of the financial crisis (unfairly). For many Republicans, their stated objection to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act (emphasis on stated) was that it didn’t do anything to reform Fannie and Freddie.