Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-backed mortgage giants with a taxpayer-funded safety net, helped crash the economy in 2008, the Biden administration in its final days quietly laid the groundwork to set them loose again. The goal? End their conservatorship, the federal leash that keeps their taxpayer-funded gambling in check.

Last month, President Donald Trump said he would soon make a decision on the proposal. Hopefully, he and Bill Pulte, his pick to run the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will do what they’ve done with most of former President Joe Biden’s bad ideas — toss them straight into the trash. Because unless the core problem — the taxpayers being on the hook for everything Fannie and Freddie do — is fixed first, removing these rules would be a huge mistake.