Here's what Dan Meek, an attorney who served as lead counsel for a couple of congressional committees wrote about the 110-page bailout bill:

The press is conveying incorrect information about the Wall Street bailout bill that the U.S. House of Representatives rejected yesterday. I have read its 110 pages. The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to spend $350 billion and then another $350 billion to buy "troubled assets" (which includes any type of financial instrument) he wants to buy at any prices he wants to pay.

All of the other provisions are optional and need not be implemented. Those include the alleged limits on executive compensation and "golden parachutes," the alleged assistance to homeowners who cannot pay their mortgages, and the opportunity for the government to get partial ownership of the assisted corporations.

The bill does not require Secretary Paulson to take any of those actions, and he has repeatedly stated that he opposes such actions.

As for the "taxpayer protection" provision, it is truly absurd. It only states that, after 5 years, "the President shall submit a legislative proposal that recoups from the financial industry [undefined] an amount equal to the shortfall." The bill does not in any way get back from the "financial industry" the amounts paid by the taxpayers for the bailout.