Bailout Questions

So where did the $700 billion number come from?

Sec. Paulson told congress yesterday that the plan was to spend roughly 50 billion a month,

Sen. Schumer asked: why not $150 billion then, and let the next administration do a re-evaluation in January?  No real answer.

So, why $700 billion? Where is it all going?  And why do they need it all at once?  And how do they know how much it'll cost without knowing what criteria they're going to use to buy firms?

And what's to prevent Paulson from engineering the bailout, and then, once he leaves office, taking the helm of one of these companies as it transitions back to the private sector?

And did the administration really have a bailout proposal stashed away for weeks without informing Congress?