The bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration would give the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - a former Wall Street CEO himself - the power to buy up extremely risky mortgages and other dangerous debt using taxpayer dollars. Because the US government continues to run a deficit, under the plan, the Treasury would have to borrow money to buy this private sector debt - essentially using the taxpayer's credit card to buy home loans that are currently weighing down Wall Street firms.
