Blunt: 'Now Is The Time To Put Politics Aside'

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt pleaded for bipartisanship in crafting a plan to address the growing economic crisis on Friday, arguing what Congress does in the next week will be critical in stabilizing the market.

“Now is the time to set politics aside and prioritize stabilizing the economy,” Blunt said at a press conference. “And if we do that and do that quickly, good things can happen and it will happen quickly. We may be seeing that in the market today.”

Blunt said House Republicans were expected to hold a teleconference with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday morning and would be acting quickly to get a bill signed into law.

“Particularly we need to focus on this for the next seven days when Congress has to do its job if it is going to get done,” he said. “But we are prepared to stay as long into October as we need to stay to get this done.”