President Bush stepped back before the microphones this morning to once again plead with congress to pass his $700 billion dollar Wall Street rescue package.   Speaking Tuesday in New Orleans, members of the Louisiana delegation said Congress won't act until the administration retools the plan.

"Our overall federal budget is $2 trillion dollars. $700 billion dollars is one-third of the budget and we got things down here, of course, and every time we want to finish our projects, they tell us we don't have the money for it," said Rep. Bill Jefferson.

Congressman Steve Scalise says Wall Street should do more to clean up its own mess before the federal government cuts a check.

"There are a lot of really bad, irresponsible decisions on Wall Street that got us here. You don't solve the problem by putting $700 billion dollars of taxpayer money back into Wall Street and let the people that created this mess, go and figure out how to get us out of it," said Scalise.

Senator Mary Landrieu agrees.  "These financial institutions that were responsible basically for the fallout should have to pick up the tab, not mom and pop and not homeowners who had nothing to do with this."

Senator David Vitter says the Bush bailout would have given too much responsibility to former Wall Streeter, Henry Pauleson, as Pauleson headed up the investment firm Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury Secretary.

"I had some fundamental reservations with that plan and I still do. It gives tremendous power and unbridled discretion really to one person. I think it lead to more and more bailouts in the hands of one person," said Vitter.

Mayor Ray Nagin is watching the Wall Street woes very carefully. He says the money crunch has the potential to slow the hurricane recovery of New Orleans.

"It's definitely a concern," he said. "If we had to go out and sell bonds, which we're not scheduled to do them until later on this year, today, we probably couldn't sell them at a decent rate. The capital markets and financing mechanisms and techniques that we used in the past are just not relevant right now."

The Bush administration hopes to present a bailout plan more palatable to lawmakers when Congress returns to Capitol Hill on Thursday.