Many Americans are worried about the state of the U.S. economy and
their own financial future, but President George Bush says the
financial crisis will ease.
The president tried to reassure
Americans during his weekly radio address Saturday, calling a
$700 billion plan to rescue the troubled financial industry "the
right choice."
Mr. Bush signed the historic bailout bill
into law Friday, but he warned that not all of the legislation's
measures will have an immediate impact.
The bill allows the
government to buy failing investments from troubled financial companies
in an effort to restore lender and investor confidence, and to restart
economic growth.
But while President Bush praised lawmakers for
working on the bailout bill in bipartisan fashion, the Democrats used
their weekly radio address, given by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland,
Saturday to criticize the economic policies of Republican presidential
nominee John McCain.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said this
week he will get right to work hiring experts needed to manage the
program. It is likely to take at least a month before Wall Street
firms receive any of the money.
A previous version of the bill
was voted down in the House of Representatives because of objections
about the cost, and the concept of using taxpayer money to rescue
companies that made bad investments.
But the House approved the plan Friday after the Senate made some changes to the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, promised to hold a congressional hearing to investigate parts of the financial industry.
President
Bush says it is likely that the government and taxpayers will be able
to recoup most of the cost of the bailout eventually.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
