By John Poirier and Glenn Somerville 24 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday urged Congress to act swiftly to put in place a $700 billion financial system bailout, warning delay would put the economy at risk.Testifying before a sometimes-skeptical Senate Banking Committee, they said financial markets were in serious stress and needed to be stabilized quickly by cleansing them of illiquid assets.
Paulson wants lawmakers to approve a massive war chest, funded by taxpayers, to buy distressed debt from financial institutions to try to keep credit markets from choking up.
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