The two mortgage giants with country-fried names – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – hold the note on half the mortgage value of the United States. From 1996 to 2006, Freddie Mac invested $13.6 billion in Maine, backing mortgages for 116,000 new homeowners.

Yet size saved neither Fannie nor Freddie from the sucker punches of subprime mortgages and the subsequent, sinking prices of the U.S. housing market. Concerns about their cash reserves sparked market fear of their failure.

Only an emergency credit extension of $300 billion (and some other incentives) from the U.S. Treasury, prior to the world’s financial markets opening Monday, likely kept them from falling.

Doing so should shift the companies’ priorities – no longer are salaries or satisfying shareholders the primary concern.

There’s a whole new slate of stakeholders now in charge.

It would be unfair for Fannie or Freddie to stay private organizations, earning profits for shareholders, after being tossed a lifeline from the government that draws funds from public sources.

Nor should Fannie or Freddie, under this extension of credit, keep business as usual. Since their inceptions, in 1938 and 1970, respectively, each company prospered with unique lineage as government-sponsored institutions.

This relationship has always begged a philosophical question: If they needed help, say because of their imminent doom, would the federal government intervene on their behalf? The answer, now, is an indisputable yes.

For two good reasons: Because it was expected, and because Fannie and Freddie are too important for the U.S. economy to permit their suffering. Like children, parental responsibility is not absolved once they become adults.

The federal government brought Fannie and Freddie into this world. Who else would come forward to help?

Any parent knows, however, bailouts don’t breed responsibility, only recklessness. In saving Fannie and Freddie, the federal government must assert its authority as a stakeholder, and guide them into a more secure future.

Henry Paulsen, secretary of the Treasury, has expressed willingness to allow Fannie and Freddie shareholders to absorb the losses, if the government’s investment turns into a bailout.

This harsh tactic is the shortest of strings the Treasury should attach.

For if a bailout is needed, everything short of total absorption of the companies by the government should occur, both to ensure the country’s economic stability, and prevent taxpayers from assuming massive losses.

These are terms Fannie and Freddie must accept for taxpayer-supported security; while their solvency is critical to economy, even more crucial is ensuring the circumstances that led to this crisis aren’t repeated.

Government and taxpayer gold is keeping the mortgagors going.

It’s only right they get to make the rules.