Bush: Financial markets crisis has gone "way beyond NY and Wall Street"

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US President George W. Bush maintained Thursday that the crisis in the financial markets "has gone way beyond New York and Wall Street" and implored the US Congress to get the $700 billion relief bill to his desk. A day before the House of Representatives was set to vote for a second time on the package, Bush sought to up the pressure on the lawmakers who voted `no' on Monday. The House's defeat of the bill shocked Wall Street and Washington and jolted international mardkets. The result was a sweetened measure that the Senate approved handily on Wednesday night. Bush appeared before reporters and cameras at the White House with more than a dozen manufacturers and business owners from across the US He was pressing the case that the measure still before Congress is not just about rescuing high-flying financial firms from bad investment decisions, but also about a widening credit crunch that is paralyzing much of the nation's commerce. "This is an issue that is affecting hardworking people," he said. "They are worried about their savings; they're worried about their jobs; they're worried about their houses; they're worried about their small businesses."