Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has so far failed to restore confidence in the nation's financial system despite burning through $300 billion to shore up Wall Street since Congress authorized the $700 billion bailout plan a month ago.

Most people knew that the bailout would be horrifically expensive when Congress committed taxpayer money to the rescue. In response, Congress took 10 days while stock markets tanked to craft oversight mechanism into the legislation to prevent corruption and waste.

While the money is flowing out at a rapid pace, none of the major oversight posts have even been filled, a situation Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders terms "unacceptable" in calling for an end to the Wall Street bailout.

Sanders is absolutely right that by failing to fulfill the oversight provisions of the bailout bill, Washington is again displaying the same absence of transparency and accountability that perpetuated the financial crisis in the first place.

Paulson has doled out the bailout dollars with few strings attached, so that a chunk of the money put into banks to loosen up lending has ended up staying in vaults to bolster balance sheets and doing little to ease credit.

What's worse, the Treasury's bailout lacks coherence, with Paulson seemingly throwing money at an every shifting target to staunch leaks in the economy. There are plenty of signs that the worst is far from over. For one, Washington is still pumping billions of dollars into the insurance giant AIG.

With Congress set to deal with the question of releasing the remaining $350 billion, Sanders wants to see the bailout money redirected toward "economic actions which will directly impact the middle class and working families of this country."

Sanders' idea is to "create millions of good paying jobs rebuilding our crumbling bridges, roads, culverts, schools and water systems," as well as investments in "energy efficiency and sustainable energies."

The items on Sanders' list will surely help the long-term vitality of this nation, but they fall more under the heading of economic stimulus. None of them will be possible unless our financial system is stable and running smoothly to provide the flow of money necessary for such massive public investments.

The first step is to restore confidence. For that to happen, Treasury needs to at least act like it knows what it is doing, and show taxpayers and the markets that the bailout money is being spent responsibly and effectively.a