Bush Pronounced USA under Big Finencial Crisis...

President George W. Bush delivered a dire message to the nation Wednesday night, saying without help the credit markets could trigger a "long and painful recession" with millions of job losses.

In his remarks, Bush explained how bad mortgage debts led to a credit crunch that roiled markets, sent investors scurrying and crushed financial institutions' liquidity. But he said that without a bailout -- and a big one, soon -- the situation would quickly become far more dire and folks on Main Street as well as Wall Street would be punished.

He noted that it was not his first intention, as a believer that government should stay out of the markets, to ask the taxpayers to at least initially foot the bill.

"These are not normal circumstances," he said in the address from the White House. "The market is not functioning properly."