President Bush says the economic damage to the nation will be "painful and lasting'' if Congress fails to pass a $700 billion bailout bill.
Mr. Bush said Tuesday that "Congress must act'' and said the economy is depending on "decisive action on the part of our government.'' He spoke a day after the House voted narrowly to defeat the massive relief measure that his administration and leading members of Congress had agreed was necessary.
The president said he wanted to "assure our citizens and citizens around the world that this is not the end of the legislative process.''
Members of Congress resumed blaming one another Tuesday for the House vote rejecting a $700 billion financial system bailout, which sent stocks down by a record level on Wall Street.
But Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who voted against it, said she still believes Republicans and Democrats can come together on a bill, perhaps by this weekend.
"We're committed to finding a resolution to this, and I think by week's end we will have a solution to this problem,'' she said on CBS's "The Early Show.''
Democratic Rep. James Moran of Virginia retorted that he believes House members should have supported the plan on Monday instead of voting it down.
When asked about scores of Democrats who also voted no, Moran replied that the Democratic caucus did not want to "own this bill.''
He said that he believed there was an understanding by both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio., that the two party conferences could muster at least 110 votes apiece - enough to put the bill over the top.
Blackburn said that lawmakers are still concerned about the level of public obligation - or taxpayer commitment - to the bailout and said "that is why we have worked diligently. ... This is something we can't leave on the table and leave Washington. This is something that affects every man and woman, every family in this country.''
Moran blamed Republicans for the bill's failure - it lost on a 228-205 vote - saying the Democrats "were willing to hold the vote open'' so that people could change their minds. "I don't know where the (Republican) leadership was,'' he said.
Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who voted against the bailout, said he thinks "it's important to get this vote right, not necessarily to get it quick.''
"We are principled in the fact that we believe we ought to stick to American principles, we ought to protect the taxpayer, we need to make sure that private money, private equity can get involved and have Wall Street bail out Wall Street, not on the backs of the taxpayers,'' Price said on NBC's "Today'' show.
Two other lawmakers - Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., - called on the Bush administration to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to change accounting rules to loosen up the credit crunch.
Both lawmakers said the SEC should change accounting rules to ease the credit crunch, which Kaptur said ``is really at the heart of some of the anxiety of the market.''
Specifically, they want the commission to change existing "mark-to-market'' rules that require companies to value their holdings at what similar securities have recently sold for - in some cases pennies on the dollar, when the assets get marked down. That hurts the companies' balance sheets, which could cause some to fail.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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