The following is an expanded copy of a letter I emailed to President
Bush earlier today.

If you want voters to support a bailout you should change it so general
taxpayers don't have to pay for it. Taxpayers didn't cause the
problem. Greedy executives did. Greedy bankers were so
anxious to get richer that they made loans they shouldn't have made.

Any bailout payment should take the form of negotiable federal
securities rather than cash. The bailout program should be
separate from the
general
budget.

Securities would be paid off by mortgage payments, sale
of
foreclosed homes etc. plus special taxes on business. One such
tax
could apply to money spent on executive salaries above some amount, for
example $200,000 per year. The tax would be assessed even if the
company not have a taxable income. Another tax could apply to
certain
financial
transactions or upon the income of financial institutions, etc. A tax
on short term capital gains would be appropriate. These
taxes
could be set to expire whenever sufficient funds were accumulated to
pay
off the securities.

This payment approach would force the people who caused the problem to
pay to correct it. Those who tried to buy homes they
couldn't really afford would pay part of the money for the
bailout. Sale of the bad assets would convert them to cash
to pay for the bailout. The companies that failed because of the
credit crisis in some cases purchased bad assets from companies that
remain profitable because they unloaded the bad assets they created.
Thus it would be fair to force the companies that didn't fail to
pay part of the cost of the bailout. High salaries by other
companies forced the failed companies to pay higher salaries than they
should have paid. Thus it would be fair to require all companies
that pay high salaries to help pay for the bailout.

Only a small portion of the U.S. population caused the credit
crisis. They shouldn't expect those who didn't contribute
to the problem to bail them out. Creditors have been exploiting
people for years by charging excessive interest and fees. Now
that they are in trouble they want someone else to force those they
have exploited to pay for their mistakes.