http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8901289"...I have introduced an amendment which gives the Senate a very clear choice. We can pay for this bailout of Wall Street by asking people all across this country, small businesses on Main Street, homeowners on Maple Street, elderly couples on Oak Street, college students on Campus Avenue, working families on Sunrise Lane--we can ask them to pay for this bailout. That is one way we can go or we can ask the people who have gained the most from the spasm of greed, the people whose incomes have been soaring under President Bush, to pick up the tab. They threw the party, they became drunk on greed, and now I believe they should foot the bill. What my amendment proposes is quite simple. It proposes to raise the tax rate on any individual earning $500,000 a year or more, or any family earning $1 million a year or more, by 10 percent. That 10-percent increase in the tax rate from 35 percent to 45 percent will raise over $300 billion in the next 5 years; $300 billion is almost half the cost of the bailout.
If what all the supporters of this legislation are saying is correct, that the Government will get back some of its money when the market calms down and the Government sells some of the assets it has purchased, this amount of $300 billion should be sufficient to make sure 99.7 percent of taxpayers do not have to pay one nickel for this bailout.
Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in 3 years, as did Mr. Henry Paulson, current Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past 5 years as did Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers.
Most of my constituents did not cash out $650 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns, after that failing company was bought out by JPMorgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neil, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, did...."
And later...
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8901427