Congress in a Bind Over the Bailout

Nonetheless, Larson believes the plan will be approved quickly with few major changes because "I don't think anyone on Capitol Hill would want to be responsible for the second coming of the Great Depression."

Alice Rivlin, an economist at the Brookings Institution, the first director of the Congressional Budget Office and a former Fed governor, says Congress is just doing what it must do before approving such a significant measure -- debating it. She predicts a quick approval, but says the three-page proposal, which was big on requests, but brief on details, will likely face some changes.

"Paulson was a dealmaker. This was his opening offer," says Rivlin. "He should have expected that Congress would come back and say we need more details, we need more oversight, we need to know how the taxpayer is going to benefit."

Rivlin notes that the proposal is "a hard sell" to constituents who are angry that the cost of poor decisions by companies and their well-paid executives will come out of their pockets.

However, examining the mistakes that led up to the current crisis, and making repairs to the regulatory structure, will take a lot more time than the markets can afford.

"I don't know if Congress fully realizes that we cannot be wasting time placing blame," says Greg Womack of Womack Investment Advisors. "Because we need a significant plan of action that can bring stability to the financial markets."

Special interests are lobbying Congress from both ends, demanding either quick passage or dramatic change. Banking and mortgage-lending groups are pushing for a fast move to help the industry, while a coalition of labor and consumer-rights groups wrote a letter to Congress demanding that tighter oversight and taxpayer protections be included in the bill.