Top Senators skeptical about Wall Street bail out plan

New York, Sept.24 : The Bush administration's 700 billion dollar plan to bail out the American financial industry is being received with a great deal of skepticism.

Influential lawmakers in both the Republican and Democratic parties have demanded changes in the White House-backed proposal, and conservative Republicans have recoiled at the prospect of federal intervention into private capital markets.

Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Tuesday, "What they have sent us is not acceptable."

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said, "We have got to look at some alternatives."

Democrats want to limit the multi-million dollar salaries and severance of top executives from any companies which take the government's life line, reports CBS News.

The other sticking point is relief for bankrupt homeowners and those on the brink of foreclosure, adds Orr.

Six weeks before the elections, both major party presidential contenders also insisted on alterations in the administration's prescription for the worst financial crisis in decades.

Meanwhile, financial markets extended their declines Tuesday as investors worried that lawmakers were beginning to doubt the necessity of the bailout as a way to revive ailing credit markets.

The Dow Jones industrials, which had been higher for the first half of the session ended at the lows of the day, tacking a 161-point loss onto a steep drop from Monday.

Separately, law enforcement officials said the FBI had begun investigating four institutions whose collapse helped trigger the financial crisis.

ANI