House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank is questioning the central tenet of the House Republican alternative bailout plan, which calls for a government-backed mortgage insurance program instead of a full-blown bailout.

“This is not a substitute for the Paulson plan,” Frank said to reporters Friday afternoon.

“If that is what [House Minority Leader] John Boehner thinks, we don’t have a bill.”

Frank said he was not opposed to discussing the insurance plan as part of a larger package, but insisted it could not be a substitute.