The Bush administration has asked Congress for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the U.S. financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression.

The rescue plan would give Washington broad authority to purchase bad mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions for the next two years. It does not specify which institutions qualify or what, if anything, the government would get in return for the unprecedented infusion.

In a fact sheet released Saturday night, Treasury said it was seeking latitude for the secretary and the Federal Reserve chairman to expand the bailout to non-U.S. companies if they determined it was necessary to stabilize markets, but the original request sent to Congress is limited to firms headquartered in the United States, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

Democrats are pressing to require that the plan help more strapped borrowers stay in their homes and to condition the bailout on new limits on executive compensation.

I am sorry guys but this country only has so much money and that is quickly being used up by all these bailouts.  Somewhere if we only want this spiraling situation to slow or stop; we must let someone fail, I mean one of the biggies not some small struggling mom and pop operation.