The well-used politician's art of floating a thought bubble and standing back has been mastered by Jacqui Lambie,  the Palmer United Party's Tasmanian senator-elect. Speaking on ABC's 7.30 program on Tuesday night, Lambie called for a tax on Australian banks as an alternative to hitting lower-income earners in the budget. The idea had not been discussed with PUP leader Clive Palmer, Lambie admitted, and our follow-up phone call to his media minder was not returned.The Australian Financial Review quotes Lambie as saying: "You'd put extra taxes on the banks, but you would make sure that's not passed down to the consumer." If they adopted her idea as policy, PUP would be lined up alongside the Greens, who raised a very similar idea last month.The Greens, with the benefit of modelling by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office, said almost A$11 billion could be raised for the Commonwealth over the four-year budget period through the imposition of a 20 basis point levy (0.2 per cent) on bank assets above $100 billion.