Bush defends bailout

President Bush on Friday defended recent federal intervention in the financial system as necessary to ward off a wider economic crisis and said the actions were not just a Wall Street bailout.
"People look at the crisis and say, 'Oh, it's only Wall Street,' " said Bush, addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "I don't think so. In fact, I know that if we had not acted, it would have affected the American people directly."
"If the government had not acted, the hole in our financial system would have gotten larger," he added.
Bush's comments - his 34th public statement on the economic crisis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in mid-September - came just minutes after the Commerce Department reported that initial construction of U.S. homes fell to a fresh 17-year low in September. Housing starts fell to 817,000 residential units, down 6.3% from 872,000 housing starts the prior month.