The debate over the exact terms and conditions of the financial bailout plan has generated some, well, strange (and some might say misguided and misinformed) ideas up and down the halls of Congress. Last week, Bloomberg pointed out that a group of House leaders were actually considering a plan to impose a "transaction tax" on individual stock and option transactions of one-quarter of one percent. The idea being, of course, that someone has to pay for the $700 billion bailout: "The same Wall Street speculators and investors who are principally responsible for having caused this avoidable financial crisis and profited from it must now be required to pay for it, not U.S. taxpayers,'' according to the letter, which was signed by Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, and Representative Pete Stark, a California Democrat."

What's disheartening is that the proposal actually attracted 16 sponsors and made it all the way up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It's unclear what has happened to that proposal, but the Bloomberg article hints that the tax idea could resurface if the U.S. government finds itself losing money on the bailout.

Who's watching the watchdogs? It's doubtful that anyone - including Nancy Pelosi - has actually read every page and every provision of the bailout plan. Here's hoping that they don't sneak one past us.

[image: The honorable Nancy Pelosi via Wikipedia]