The $700-billion-bank-bailout package is turning out to be a pretty hard sell on Capitol Hill. And it’s not just Democrats playing hard to get.

Vice President Dick Cheney, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and other Bush money men went from meeting to meeting Tuesday, selling the plan to worried lawmakers. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke publicly told Congress to authorize the plan quickly and without many alterations.

Many on Main Street are asking why they have to foot the bill for financial institutions’ bad decisions, but some experts argue that the consequences of not doing anything will be much worse.

Politico.com reports that the meeting with Cheney was "a bloodbath" and "an unmitigated disaster."

One lawmaker present said that Cheney, Bolten and economic policy adviser Keith Hennessey "were in worse shape when they left than when they came in."

Both Democrats and many Republicans voiced doubts and balked at the entreaties from Bush officials.

"Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days," Rep. Joe Barton, R-TX, said after a two-hour meeting with Cheney.

"I don’t know – it could pass because you know, the Fed and the Treasury secretary and the administration, they’re going to scare a lot of people," Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, told CNN on Wednesday morning. "But you know, the best disciplinarian of all of us is the marketplace. I believe if we didn’t do anything, the market would correct it all."

Democrats said they would not approve the legislation without significant Republican support.

"It’s their problem. It’s their bill. And they’re going to have to figure out if they can support it," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA.

It’s questionable the package will be approved by Friday – Congress’s self-imposed deadline. That’s the day lawmakers adjourn for the elections.

MCNBC.com reports that among rank-and-file congressional Democrats, there is deep anger that the end result is likely to be a bailout designed by the Bush administration but made possible only by sufficient votes from them. The party faces the risk that they will be blamed if they fail to pass a rescue bill and Main Street America feels the impact of an economic disaster.

But they still want assurances this package won’t just be a one-time shot in the arm simply to alleviate the crisis at hand.

"There is literally not one line in this bill, not one line, that will keep this from happening again," Sen. Evan Bayh, D-IN, told MSNBC Wednesday morning. "Once this bill is passed, getting the long-term reform done will be much more difficult."

Some key GOP senators now agree with Democratic demands that the bailout package set limits on executive salaries at financial institutions that participate in the program. Democrats have argued that CEOs whose companies accept taxpayer money to get them out of trouble should not be allowed to pocket millions of dollars in bonuses or big severance packages known as "golden parachutes."

"This is sort of an economic Pearl Harbor we’re going through," billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett told CNBC Wednesday. "But in the end, Republicans and Democrats, they’ve got the interests of the country at heart and I think they will do the right thing but I hope they do it soon."

In other financial news today:

-The 78-year-old Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett is pumping at least $5 billion into Goldman Sachs, as the Wall Street firm tries to raise cash from investors. Buffett is the second-richest American, and the move may boost market confidence.

"From our standpoint, we have a lot of cash and we now are seeing things that give us a chance to use this cash sensibly and this was a $5 billion opportunity to deploy cash sensibly,” Buffett told CNBC Wednesday morning.

-The Federal Reserve, along with foreign central banks, plowed $30 billion into money markets overseas Wednesday to help relieve the global credit crunch, AP reports. The Fed’s action sets up temporary "swap" arrangements to supply dollars to the central banks of Australia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden in exchange for their currencies.

-AIG has signed a "definitive" agreement for up to $85 billion in borrowings from the Fed, the main part of a rescue by the central bank that will see it take a 79.9 percent stake in the giant insurer, Reuters reports. AIG said the facility was "the company’s best alternative" in the current market environment.