It seems to me that the problem at the moment is that the Democrats want to find a way to make the perpetrators of the current crisis pay for the problems they have caused. What is required is a checks and balances process so that excessive risk-taking is not in the trader's interests. What I suggest is that the banks or traders who are so keen to unload their bad debts on to the US government are made to repay their debt over, say, 5 years by a proportion of their future net or gross profits. The greater the amount they unload now, the more they have to repay in the future.