How to Pay for the Financial Meltdown

The current strategy for paying for the subprime mortgage mess is to pass it on to the taxpayers. The people in the financial industry who made billions off of this scam should be the ones paying the bill. It's bad enough that Bush gave these wealthy individuals a tax cut, but to let them get away with the money they made while selling this dirty paper is inexcusable. They made bad decisions by giving these loans. They made bad decisions by bundling these bad loans and selling them. And they walk away with billions while the taxpayer foots the bill? Lehman paid 5.7 billion in bonuses in 2007. Another 5.2 billion in 2008. The government should go after these and the bonuses paid to management of Bear Stearns, AIG, and all the other financial institutions that got fat on this reckless scam. They cruise on their yachts while the poor taxpayer who is trying to get by foots the bill?