President Obama introduced a fee on financial institutions benefitting from the bailout to be detailed in the forthcoming budget. The fee was framed in populist terms, as if the people were asking for their money back. The federal Troubled Asset Relief Program distributed $700 Billion to financial institutions to share the burden of the financial crisis. The fee is intended to recover the federal monies that the banks are not projected to return.

The goal of the idea is to recover all $700 Billion+ that the TARP spent. The administration projects that $117 Billion of the TARP money will remain unreturned with no extra action. The new fee seeks to recover that extra $117 Billion.

The plan is to exact a fee on those institutions benefiting from the bailout with over $50 Billion in assets. The companies will pay money back to the federal government according to their size, federal assistance received and debt exposure. The fee is estimated to provide $90 Billion over 10 years.

The fee will be officially introduced with the President's budget proposal. It will need to pass both houses of Congress with a detailed calculus explaining which companies will be charged and to what extent.