BY Steve Sbraccia 
RALEIGH, N.C. — One day after the bailout bill failed to pass the U.S. House, a number of members of North Carolina’s Congressional delegation were back in their districts, listening to constituent reaction to their votes.

Nine out of 13 members of our delegation voted against the bailout plan. Three of them were Democrats.

Now, the House is gearing up for another vote on a revised bill. Among the House members NBC17 spoke with Tuesday, some are hoping this next vote will have enough supporters to pass this time around.

But there’s at least one member of our congressional delegation who thinks we ought to just put the brakes on everything and take a careful and deliberate look at the situation.

“Obviously no one likes it,” said Brad Miller, a Democrat from the 13th District. He said he “held his nose” while voting for the bill. Now, he looks ahead.

“I hope leaders on the Democratic side will try to figure out how to get some of the Democrats to come around,” he said. “I think they will come around. The problem is trusting the Republicans.”

Representative G.K  Butterfield is one of those Democrats who voted against the bill.

The 1st District Congressman said, “Right now the leadership has only listened to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a product of Wall Street. We need to get other objective opinions.”

He suggests getting outside information.

“We’re going to talk to other economists across the country who have other opinions about this because they differ in terms of approach and the scope of the bailout,” said Congressman Butterfield.

Congressman David Price said, “I hope we can tweak the bill in certain ways to bring additional votes on board.”

The 4th District Democrat is optimistic Congress can reach a consensus.

“My guess is something will pass within a matter of days. I understand the votes are there in the Senate and I hope the House will revisit this in the spirit of cooperation and urgency,” Price said.

But some Congressman believe the markets can wait until lawmakers figure out the best course of action.

“There are some very difficult problems that need to  be addressed,” said Walter Jones, a 3rd District Republican. “Many of us of both parties feel the way to do that is to hold hearings and bring in experts. Lets sit down and analyze the problems and see how we can fix those problems.”

A vote in the House could come as early as Thursday, but that could change depending on what happens with the Senate version of the bill on Wednesday.

TALK BACK TO STEVE ON HIS BLOG.

TAMPA, Fla. – Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday any plan to rescue Wall Street from its financial woes must ensure that taxpayers are reimbursed and corporate executives are not further enriched for bad behavior.
  
The Democratic presidential candidate also accused President Bush of taking a “my way or the highway” attitude on the proposed bailout.

Obama added that his proposed middle-class tax cuts remain “absolutely necessary” despite the economic turbulence. He said it would put money in the pockets of working families at a time when the economy may be sliding into recession.

Obama outlined several principles that he said should be included in the $700 billion bailout to ensure that troubled financial firms and their executives don’t take advantage of taxpayers.

Companies that take financial aid from the government must slash their executives’ salaries, he said. Taxpayers must be treated like investors who can share in any Wall Street recovery, perhaps with an ownership stake in the companies, and a new fee on financial services should be created to repay the government aid.

“This plan cannot be a welfare program for Wall Street executives,” he said at a news conference.

Decisions on how to spend that $700 billion cannot be left solely in the hands of the Treasury secretary, Obama added. An independent board should be chosen by Democrats and Republicans “to provide oversight and accountability at every step of the way.”
  
Earlier, in an interview on “Today,” Obama had said the huge expense of a Wall Street bailout might require a “phase in” of the programs he has promised, including tax cuts.

But speaking to reporters in Florida, where he will be preparing for Friday’s debate, Obama said he remains committed to addressing needs in health care, education and energy. “Tax cuts would be particularly important to strengthen an economy sliding into economic recession,” he said.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – With economic anxiety rising, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama scrambled Wednesday to adjust their messages to connect more directly with financially struggling voters.

Obama talks directly into the camera in a new, two-minute television ad on how he’ll fix an economy in which “paychecks are flat and home values are falling.” McCain and running mate Sarah

Palin softened opposition to government bailouts, accepting the U.S. takeover of the nation’s largest insurer as unfortunate but necessary to protect ordinary Americans.

“The shot that has been called by the Feds – it’s understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one,” Palin told reporters during a visit to delicatessen in Cleveland.

Both McCain and Obama advocated cracking down on freewheeling Wall Street practices and for tough new regulations on financial institutions.

Obama ridiculed McCain’s calls for more regulation as an eleventh-hour conversion for one who has long championed deregulation.

Too many in Washington and on Wall Street “weren’t minding the store. They sat on their hands until it was too late,” Obama told a rally in Elko, Nev. He challenged McCain’s vow to take on the “old boy’s network…He hasn’t taken them on for the last 26 years.”

The increased emphasis on the faltering economy came on a day when stocks resumed their downward plunge following Tuesday night’s government takeover of American International Group Inc. with an $85 billion two-year loan from the Federal Reserve in return for a majority stake in the company.

“The focus of any such action should be to protect the millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans and other accounts with AIG,” McCain said in a statement. “We must not bail out the management and speculators who created this mess.”

The turnabout came a day after McCain strongly opposed additional government relief and praised the government’s decision not to rescue Lehman Brothers after it had intervened to help investment bank Bear Stearns and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

His Democratic rival addressed the AIG takeover in Elko, saying the government acted “to prevent an even larger crisis.” Arguing that the U.S. housing market was “in a shambles,” Obama said it was important now for the Federal Reserve to ensure that families with AIG insurance are protected. “It must not bail out the shareholders or the management of AIG that were making big profits when times were good.”

Obama, in his own change of tactics, speaks directly to voters in a new commercial to air Wednesday on national cable and in some battleground states.

“In the past few weeks, Wall Street’s been rocked as banks closed and markets tumbled. But for many of you – the people I’ve met in town halls, backyards and diners across America – our troubled economy isn’t news,” Obama says in the ad, taped Tuesday in a living room-like setting.

“Paychecks are flat and home values are falling. It’s hard to pay for gas and groceries and if you put it on a credit card, they’ve probably raised your rates,” he adds.

Obama also laments rising health insurance costs. He details major elements of his economic plan, including its proposal for a $1,000 tax cut for working couples, steps to reduce reliance on imported oil, bringing a “responsible end” to the war in Iraq and ending an “anything goes culture on Wall Street.”

“Doing these things won’t be easy. But we’re Americans,” Obama says.

Obama also discussed the AIG takeover McCain campaigned in Michigan, one of the states hardest hit by eight straight months of rising unemployment.

At the General Motors Orion assembly plant, he told workers: “We are going to fight the special interests and corruption in Washington. We are going to fight the greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street.”

While both presidential candidates have called for tougher regulation of financial institutions and cracking down on Wall Street abuses, neither has come up with a detailed plan, nor gone so far as to endorse a proposal for the kind of massive federal intervention that took place in the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and the early 1990s.

Then, the Resolution Trust Corp. was established by Congress to acquire the real estate, mortgages and other assets of thousands of failed S&Ls.

Some lawmakers suggest such a strategy may be needed to stabilize financial markets, rather than the ad hoc interventions the government has been doing.

A day after extending a helping hand to AIG, the White House on Monday called the U.S. economy a mixed picture that would ultimately weather the current turmoil. Press secretary Dana Perino said help for other endangered companies would be considered on a “case-by-case basis.”

Both candidates have been adjusting to keep pace with a fast-changing situation in which financial markets have been buffeted by one jolt after another.

The weak economy would normally be expected to benefit Democrats, since voters often punish the party in the White House for bad economic times, and McCain’s Republican party has been in power for the past eight years.

But an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted last week suggests McCain and Obama now are trusted equally on the economy, with 34 percent of voters saying each would do a better job.

Previously, Obama had held a solid advantage on the issue. Meanwhile, an advocacy group for older Americans questioned McCain’s recent railing against Wall Street excesses at the same time he supports a plan to allow younger workers to divert some of the Social Security payroll tax they would pay into private investment accounts, much as President Bush would do.

McCain “continues to support plans to turn Social Security money over to the same Wall Street financiers he now criticizes,” said Barbara B. Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.