Congressional leaders tried to devise some tweak to the $700 billion plan to ease its passage in a divided House. And proponents of the plan took to the airwaves and the floors of Congress in a renewed effort to sell the bailout to a skeptical nation.
In a 20-minute speech on the floor of the Senate, Utah's Bob Bennett warned that Congress would only have one more shot at this before the market tanks. He said the stock market plummeted Monday because Wall Street thought Congress wouldn't act. It rebounded Tuesday because political leaders promised to stay in Washington until a deal is reached.
"If we break the expectation once again this time the market will drop and there will be no coming back up," Bennett said. "This time your 401(k), your pension plan, your retirement account will be hurt in a way that will take years to recover."
Even Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who opposed the bill that the House rejected Monday, urged Congress to come together.
"There's no excuse for us not getting this done before the end of this week," he said on CNBC Tuesday morning.
That may be tough because with the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the House isn't expected to reconvene until Thursday. There's also the political obstacle. The White House and congressional leaders will have to change the bill in a significant enough way that some of the 94 Democrats and 133 Republicans will have political cover to switch their votes.
Some say the damage - to the economy and the Republican Party - is already done. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who lost a Republican primary and won't be returning to Congress next year, voted for the proposal because even though it offended his free-market ideals he thought the government bailout was necessary to keep the economy functioning.
Cannon told KSL Radio's Nightside Project that if the Dow didn't have an absolutely historic recovery, "the Republican Party has probably committed suicide."
Bennett laid the blame for the enormous negative reaction to the bailout plan on TV commentators, who he says inappropriately added the value of all of the government bailouts on to this larger rescue plan without taking into consideration that some of the deals will make the taxpayers money.
He also said the $700 billion plan won't cost that much in the long run because the government will later sell the now nearly-worthless mortgage-backed securities when they recover some value.
"Some have said the U.S. government will even make money on this," Bennett said. "I don't happen to believe that it will, but I can't prove that it will not."
He also took direct aim at naysayers, including Utah Reps. Democrat Jim Matheson and Republican Rob Bishop, who voted against the bill. For those who suggest lowering the size of the project, such as Bishop, Bennett said: "That sends the message that we are not confident this will do any good."
And for people who want the bill to include new government regulations, like Matheson, Bennett said that would take months, if not a year, and Congress doesn't have that much time.
"Let's free up the credit markets right now, lets send a signal of confidence to world markets right now," he said.
