From the NY Times, it sounds like Tim Geithner is the force behind screwing the taxpayers:
In the end, Mr. Geithner largely prevailed in opposing tougher conditions on financial institutions that were sought by presidential aides, including David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, according to administration and Congressional officials.
Mr. Geithner, who will announce the broad outlines of the plan on Tuesday, successfully fought against more severe limits on executive pay for companies receiving government aid.
He resisted those who wanted to dictate how banks would spend their rescue money. And he prevailed over top administration aides who wanted to replace bank executives and wipe out shareholders at institutions receiving aid.
Our best hope is that public outrage is strong enough that Geithner will be forced, either by Congress, Obama, or market conditions to change his approach on all of these matters. We can only guess at how many hundreds of billions will be put at risk in the meantime.
