Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich wants to impose a 60 percent excise tax on the fat bonuses that were paid to executives of companies that took money from last year's bank bailout.

On Wednesday, he proposed an amendment to a pending financial industry reform bill that would do that and impose an additional 70 percent tax on TARP recipients' corporate profits.

"Without the extraordinary actions of the federal government, many of these institutions would have collapsed a long time ago," Kucinich told the House Rules Committee, arguing that his amendment would hold "to account those institutions and individuals that made the decisions that led to the crisis."

The Rules Committee did not permit his amendment to be considered on the House of Representatives floor because it was opposed the Financial Services Committee, a Rules spokesman said.

Kucinich says he plans to introduce a freestanding bill next year to accomplish those goals, modeled on on British efforts to tax banking bonuses. He estimated his suggested excise tax on bonuses would generate about $14 billion for the U.S. Treasury.