It's Not Just College Debt Anymore!

I'm a bit delayed, but please excuse me. I've been busy contemplating what I could do with $700 billion. And I think I could certainly do more than rescue a few companies from their own mistakes - or are they still called mistakes if they were intentional?
On October 3, the House of Representatives passed Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ("the bailout" will be used from here on, to avoid euphemisms), which had been passed by the Senate, and was an extended (451 pages) and amended ($150 billion more) form of Paulson's "bailout" plan first submitted as a three-page proposal in late September.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D, Ohio) says that he received over 2,000 emails and telephone calls per day in the week leading to the bailout vote, and that at least 95% of his constituents opposed the bailout. One week before the October 1 Senate vote, Dianne Feinstein (D, Calif.) had a total of 39,180 emails, calls, and letters - with an overwhelming majority against the plan.
Yet, on a map of states for whom the "majority" of senators - which I assume would mean all - voted for the bailout, Ohio and California were both shaded green. If their constituents didn't want the bailout, how did the bill get passed? I thought "democracy" meant that Joe and Sally Schlep could have a say.
It's not just the $2333 that each citizen now owes in order to pay for the bailout - I could buy a plane ticket back to Botswana for that much, and when dependents are factored in, our bill will probably be much more than that anyhow - it's the frustration that although the public was against the bill - or at least everyone who I talked to - the bailout still passed. And the people who voted for it aren't going to be the ones paying for it; no, most of them will retire soon while those of us who are students now - including a majority of people under 18 who couldn't even vote for their senators and representatives - will be footing the bill. (Tavation without representation, anyone?) The "Emergency Rescue Plan" - a bailout intended to deliver some billionaires from "financial ruin". I personally think it would have been money better spent to save our public schools from "finanical ruin" - they need the money a whole lot more.
I know free capitalism doesn't work, and that we need more governmental regulation. But more regulation doesn't have to mean spending more money on companies that were giving out huge bonuses just a few days before they came knocking on the government's door - the same door that public schools have been knocking on for years without a single answer.