Taxing the Banks For the Bailout

 President Obama with his economic team at the White House on Thursday. He said he planned to “recover every single dime” of bailout losses.

The New York Times - WASHINGTON — President Obama laid down his proposal for a new tax on the nation’s largest financial institutions on Thursday, saying he wanted “to recover every single dime the American people are owed” for bailing out the economy.

With both anti-Wall Street sentiment and the budget deficit running high, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill welcomed the proposal, which could ultimately raise up to $117 billion to cover projected bailout losses. Republicans were uncharacteristically silent, their instinctive opposition to tax increases apparently checked by their fear of defending big bankers. And the financial industry lobby seemed splintered, with small community banks happily exempted
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/15tax.html