An op/ed in Monday's Boston Globe praises the housing finance reform proposal from Sen. Warner and Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker as "bipartisan, substantive and bold -- three words not often found together in today’s Washington."

The column by former New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu describes the Warner/Corker proposal as a serious and pragmatic effort to protect taxpayers from any future bailouts of the government-supported enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

"Their plan starts with a simple premise: Move as far as possible from the old model, in which government subsidizes Fannie and Freddie shareholders’ private returns, while taxpayers remain on the hook for losses when interest rates and mortgages go bad. Over a five-year transition period, the firms would be replaced by a new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corporation. Private companies securitizing pools of qualifying mortgages could buy insurance from the new corporation to cover 90 percent of any losses. Fees charged would cover the losses, plus a 2.5 percent capital cushion. With 10 percent of their own capital at risk, the private financiers should have incentives to manage risk more effectively than in the past."

The Boston Globe op/ed notes that Congress has "put-off the hard work" of reforming Fannie and Freddie -- which received a combined $187 billion taxpayer bailout after the 2008 economic crash -- but concludes it's long past time to fix this last remaining trigger of the financial meltdown:

"Today, they [Fannie & Freddie] are still in conservatorship, owned and controlled by the federal government. With the housing market in slow recovery, they’re profitable once again — a condition that, some fear, will make it even tougher to step away from massive government intervention in the mortgage markets..."

The Boston Globe op/ed notes that the Warner/Corker proposal already has bipartisan support from 8 of the 22 members of the Senate Banking Committee:

"For now, the plan represents the beginning of a long process. As its authors would concede, there will be many changes along the way... But Corker and Warner are at least willing to give it a try."