WASHINGTON -- As lawmakers dashed home to explain themselves to voters as perplexed as they were angry at the credit-market meltdown and the House's decision to reject a bailout package, John Gorenc got on the phone to members of Congress.

"I called Altmire and Murphy and even Murtha," said Mr. Gorenc, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Clinton, and who had spent part of the day arguing with a friend about what -- if anything -- to do about the bad mortgages and Swiss cheese investment packages now threatening to sink the market.

Mr. Gorenc asked if, just this once, the simplest solution might not be the right one.

"What would be the simplest way?" he said. "Let them drown."

He paused.

"It's one thing to let them drown, but who do they drag down with them?" That was the question that hung over the Capitol yesterday for the men and women assigned to sort through a mess as hard to define as it is to solve.

"The worst thing we can do right now is nothing, and if someone has a better idea, they better put it on the table quickly," said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., a Senate Banking Committee member who said he thinks the Senate "would have passed this tomorrow" if the House had put the bill through Monday.

As it was, Congress didn't even get close to passing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The bill failed 228-205.

Among those voting against it were two of the congressmen whom Mr. Gorenc phoned: Reps. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair. Rep. John Murtha, the Democratic leadership veteran from Johnstown, voted in favor of the bill.

Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Barack Obama of Illinois both weighed in on the crisis yesterday, with suggestions ranging from limits on golden parachutes to substantially increasing the amount of savings guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., from $100,000 to $250,000 -- a move aimed at helping small businesses. Both men also stopped using the term "bailout," talking instead about a "rescue."

Within hours, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman asked Congress for temporary authority to raise the limit by an unspecified amount. That could help ease a crisis of confidence in the banking system, said Chairman Sheila Bair.

President Bush spoke with both nominees during the day and made another statement at the White House. "Congress must act," he demanded in front of the cameras. "I recognize this is a difficult vote for members of Congress," he said. "But the reality is we are in an urgent situation, and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act."

As a perfect economic storm brewed on an election eve, congressional leaders scrambled yesterday to put forward another vote, with debate swirling among nervous House members -- all facing a Nov. 4 election -- on whether the bill needs to be substantially changed or simply better explained.

The White House signaled a willingness to accept some changes to the bill. Spokesman Tony Fratto said there are plenty of good ideas to help the financial markets, and "we're going to look at all of those."

Last night, Senate leaders scheduled a vote for tonight on a version of the bill that adds substantial tax cuts meant to appeal to Republicans when it reaches the House.

The goal is to net at least 12 more House votes than the rescue proposal received Monday, when lawmakers rocked the political and financial worlds by rejecting it.

For Rep. Phil English, an Erie Republican and perennial Democratic election target, Monday's "no" vote was based in part on a conviction that the commercial markets should do more for themselves, and a worry that Congress ceded too much of its oversight powers to the executive branch.

"I'm willing to look at almost anything that they're going to lay before us at this point. But I want to see internal controls," Mr. English said yesterday. "I want to see some limits on how a future Treasury employs devices like this. This is a bailout that is the equivalent of 6 percent of GDP."

Mr. English has been a proponent of "profit repatriation," essentially a reduction of taxes or amnesty for profits that American firms hold in offshore accounts to avoid U.S. taxes. He believes that it could bring an estimated $350 billion into the U.S. market -- money he thinks could ease the deepening freeze on credit that threatens business growth. "I'd like a greater confidence that we're not only going to be able to fix this thing using tax dollars, but also providing some pro-growth policies that lift the market and limit the damage," he said.

Republicans -- rank-and-file members who balked at the administration's bailout proposal -- have also called for changes in federal law that currently require banks to mark down the value of assets that have fluctuated over the course of a year, the so-called "mark-to-market" rule.

In short, banks holding commercial paper --say, real estate -- that dramatically drops in market valuation must rush to the credit markets for cash reserves they are required by law to keep on hand. Those reserves are a set percentage of monies the banks have lent.

Both Mr. English and Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Blair, said they want changes in the law to allow banks to average out those valuation estimates, effectively giving them wiggle room to meet reserve requirements.

Some members who opposed the bill want more ambitious changes, far from the tweaks hinted at yesterday by House leaders.

"Part of what I see that has contributed to this spindown in the marketplace has been the cost of energy and manufacturing in this country," said Mr. Murphy, the South Hills Republican who joined Mr. Shuster and Mr. English in voting no. Mr. Murphy said the House should consider somehow tying the rescue bill to energy investments that he said would spur job growth, be they a boost in offshore drilling or coal-generating technologies. "Then you'd have some real value connected with this," he said.

As dissenters debated what to do with the failed bill, one of its principal supporters, Pennsylvania's Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Luzerne, chairman of the House's subcommittee on capital markets, said he was working with leaders on a revised bill, but hinted that there was a limit to what could be done. "We can also consider additional provisions to improve the legislation," he said. "But I caution my colleagues that during this economic crisis is not the time to let the perfect become the enemy of the good."