The Washington Post’s Paul Kane and Lori Montgomery report that Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson successfully persuaded Congressional leaders this weekend to support a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. The House will vote today on a bill whose central premise hasn’t changed from Paulson’s proposal a week ago: an incomprehensible sum of money to buy bad mortgage-backed assets from Wall Street firms.

Democrats came around to the plan after concessions by Paulson to create a bunch of new oversight offices within the bureaucracy, including an inspector general just to monitor the bailout. There will also be a new "office of financial stability" created if the plan goes through. And, perhaps most importantly, if the government hasn’t recovered the $700 billion from Wall Street firms by 2014, the 2014 presidential administration must draft a plan to make Wall Street return the money.

The Post quotes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as saying the bailout language is a done deal. There is still likely to be some resistance from the lower chamber, particularly from rank-and-file Republicans, some who have equated the plan with socialism. But expect the bailout bill to become bailout law in the week.-MB

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