Paulson: ‘We need this to be clean and quick’

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Sunday said an emergency measure to boost the nation’s financial markets must be “clean and quick.” 

“The biggest help we can give the American people is to stabilize our financial system right now and to prevent the system from clogging up, because if it does clog up, this is going to have an adverse effect on people’s abilities to get jobs, on their budgets, on their retirement savings, on lending for small businesses,” Paulson said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

{mosads}The head of the Treasury made the rounds on the morning talk shows to sell the Bush administration’s plan to the American public, but he stated on “Fox News Sunday”: “I hate the fact that we have to do it.”

Paulson’s remarks mean that the Bush administration is rejecting calls from Democrats to add another stimulus package to any bailout of the financial markets. He stressed repeatedly that the situation is dire and quick action necessary.

“This is something that has to work,” he said.

“We’re not doing this to protect our financial institutions in and of themselves,” Paulson added on Fox. “We’re doing it to protect the financial institutions because that's what is needed to protect the American taxpayer. And unfortunately, the American taxpayer is right now at risk if there is a tough situation in the economy. So we're trying to reduce that risk to the American public.”