Bush to address nation on financial rescue plan

WASHINGTON -- As key administration officials wrangled with Congress over a huge rescue package, the White House announced President Bush will address the nation Wednesday night on the nation's financial crisis.

Bush will address the nation at 9:01 p.m. ET, the White House announced Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke again made the case for a $700 billion package to rescue financial firms.

The U.S. economy is slowing significantly, marked by a softness in consumer and business spending and exports that are at least in part a result of financial market turmoil, he told the Joint Economic Committee. Bernanke said both inflation and a soft economy are considerable risks, suggesting the Fed is not poised to change interest rates any time soon.

The Fed chief repeated that Congress should act quickly to pass a financial bailout plan, arguing that not acting will have dire consequences for an already weak economy.

"Stabilization of our financial system is an essential precondition for economic recovery," Bernanke said. "I urge the Congress to act quickly to address the grave threats to financial stability that we currently face."

The administation's rescue plan, which would allow the Treasury Department to buy bad assets from banks, has met considerable resistance from lawmakers of both parties. That continued Wednesday — but there were clear signs that lawmakers understood the need for action.

"We will not Christmas-tree this bill, and we will work in a bipartisan way to act, and act soon," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and the panel's chairman, told Bernanke. He said Congress was poised to act "with the exception of a few outliers in either party."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday that "it's not my job to just echo people being mad. I'm going to choose the bad choice over the catastrophic choice."

"We don't have the luxury of kicking this can down the road like we did with immigration or Social Security and dealing with it another day, hoping somebody braver than us will come along and have courage that we can't muster," he said.