Embattled Wall Street executives are in the hot seat today as irate lawmakers look to blame someone for Wall Street’s near demise.

The heads of the nation’s eight largest banks are testifying before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday morning. Combined, they received $165 billion of the $700 billion federal bank bailout. Keenly aware that they’re in trouble, some CEOs may try to preempt the inevitable tongue-lashing by proposing their own solutions to the economic meltdown.

For example, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein this week urged tougher regulation of the financial sector and tighter limits on lavish compensation for executives. Wall Street’s main lobbying association earlier also called for expanded oversight and regulation of the industry. The executives also will tell Congress they are lending money out in a responsible fashion, thanks to the government’s help through the TARP program.

Bank of America’s Kenneth Lewis said taxpayers deserve to know "what return they are making on their investment, and when it will be paid back," and that Bank of America intends "to pay all the TARP funds back as soon as possible."

But that likely won’t soften the blow coming over lavish bonuses and spending around the time taxpayers were asked to bail out the banks.

The Daily News learned that four top executives at Merrill Lynch took home $121 million in bonuses just before they got the $45 billion in taxpayer money to merge with Bank of America. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been investigating the highly coincidental timing of the bonus handouts; each executive got anywhere from $18 million to $39 million. Merrill doled out $3.6 billion in total bonuses just days before the Bank of America deal. 

"One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding," Cuomo wrote to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-MA.