The plan's centerpiece still is for the government to buy the troubled assets of shaky financial institutions in a bid to keep them from going under and setting off a ruinous cascade of wiped-out retirement savings accounts, closed businesses and lost homes and jobs.
There also were indications the legislation would include limits on pay packages for executives of companies that seek assistance and a mechanism for the government to take an ownership stake in some firms - a move intended to give taxpayers a chance to profit if the bailout works.
Sandy retiree Maureen Gallegos is encouraged the government is talking about restrictions on executives benefiting from the bailout.
"I also would like to see more oversight of financial services companies going forward," she said.
Like many Utahns, Gallegos said she is not too crazy about the idea of a bailout in the first place but hopes that it will help stabilize what she sees as a shaky national economy. "Let's just hope they can get this mess cleaned up now."
Mark Abbott, who manages a floral shop in Draper, is of two minds when he considers the bailout.
He doesn't want the government to rescue banks holding toxic mortgages but said because House and Senate negotiators apparently have agreed to limit executive pay packages he can live with the compromise.
"Something had to be done," Abbott said. "But even if it wasn't the right answer, it may have been the only answer. Sometimes a bad answer is the better of two evils."
Abbott too despises the idea that Wall Street executives could be compensated handsomely under the original bailout package proposed last week by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. He is grateful that apparently won't happen.
John Montoya of Tooele said he remains worried the bailout will help only "fat cats," not ordinary Americans pinched by the nation's economic problems. "The whole mess it so pitiful, so disgusting," he said. "The little guy doesn't get any bailout."
Economics professor David Tufte at Southern Utah State University in Cedar City said he is concerned about a lot of what he has heard about the bailout.
"Nobody wants to be in the position of having to make a bad choice versus a worse choice," Tufte said. "But I guess, that if there is a choice that has to be a made you'd just have to go with the bad one."
Tufte said, however, he is concerned that many of the members of Congress involved in negotiating the legislation may not have the technical background to really understand what is going on. "And a lot of them were already tied in with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," he said.
Also, Tufte said he is troubled that much of the discussion seems to be dominated by Paulson, whom he fears may be approaching the problem from a Wall Street perspective. "Having come from Goldman Sachs he [Paulson] knows all those people on a first name basis."
Tufte said the national economy remains in pretty good shape. "It continues to grow, just not as much as most of us would like. And there is no credit crunch outside the construction, housing and mortgage industries."
And he pointed out that the world isn't going to come to an end as a result of the recent troubles. "It is only going to come to an end if those things snowball."
Yet that is exactly what Diane Etherington is worried about.
Etherington, who owns The Children's Hour clothing and book store in Salt Lake City, has been bombarded with e-mails from former high school classmates who will gather in New Jersey in two weeks to celebrate their 40th reunion. But instead of trading memories, the e-mailers are wringing their hands over the bailout.
"The common thread is that the current administration has probably caused this problem, and that they have a way to fix it. But can they fix it, or will it will be worse? Nobody really knows," she said.
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* STEVE OBERBECK, LESLEY MITCHELL and PAUL BEEBE contributed to this story.
