We are now up to $83.6 Billion for Fannie alone. Can we ask Barney Frank to pick up the tab for this round?

Fannie Mae seeks $8.4B in aid after 1Q loss

WASHINGTON (AP) – Fannie Mae has again asked taxpayers for more money after reporting a first-quarter loss of more than $13 billion.

The mortgage finance company, which was rescued by the government in September 2008, said it needs an additional $8.4 billion from the government to help cover mounting losses.

Fannie Mae says it lost $13.1 billion, or $2.29 per share, in the January-March period. That takes into account $1.5 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of $23.2 billion, or $4.09 a share, in the year-ago period.

The rescue of Fannie Mae and sister company Freddie Mac is turning out to be one of the most expensive aftereffects of the financial meltdown. The new request for aid will bring Fannie Mae’s total to $83.6 billion. The total bill for the duo will now be nearly $145 billion.

Late last year, the Obama administration pledged to cover unlimited losses through 2012 for Freddie and Fannie, lifting an earlier cap of $400 billion.

Fannie and Freddie play a vital role in the mortgage market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and selling them to investors. Together the pair own or guarantee almost 31 million home loans worth about $5.5 trillion. That’s about half of all mortgages. (emphasis mine)

Fannie Mae wants $8.4 billion more in federal aid

“The federal debt stands at $8 trillion. But the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Bank debt stands at $8 trillion as well,” Anthony Sanders, a real estate expert from George Mason University, told the recent House hearing. Together, those debts are greater than a year’s gross domestic product, which he called a “Grecian Formula” of debt issuance to fund housing goals.

A solution to the thorny problem of housing-market finance is notably absent from the financial reform bill now working its way through Congress.

Imagine that?