Congressman DeFazio's idea to charge a tax of .25% of each investment transaction seems fair to me. Maybe it could inspire Wall Street to bail itself out without taxpayer money.
If needed, Congress could establish an entity to administer a fund for buying the bad investments Wall Street is trying to sell Paulson. Funding would come through donations. Presumably, Wall Street investment firms and the individuals who make boatloads of money running them would be the prime candidates for contributing to the fund. Brokerages of all types could use DeFazio's formula as a baseline for their contributions. Firms that did not agree to contribute at least that much could not benefit from the program. Any contributions above that rate would be tax deductible.
Let's see if they are willing to bail themselves out. If they're not, why should we?