But the 83-year-old Columbus resident believes one thing: "It stinks."

Kester is far from alone. Across Ohio, the reaction to the bailout has been confusion, concern and outright anger.

"They are protecting the companies that put the housing market where it is," said Rachel Purser, a Columbus sales assistant. "No one was protecting the consumers from the predatory and unethical lending practices. Where is my bailout?"

This was the sentiment expressed by the overwhelming majority of the 4,000 people who have contacted the offices of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

"They think they're being had," Brown said.

Ohio lawmakers are getting flooded with hundreds of calls, e-mails and letters, and the reaction has been almost completely hostile, according to Brown and the office of Ohio's other senator, Republican George V. Voinovich.

"We should not let Bernanke and Paulson bully us into a solution they can't explain," said Upper Arlington resident and business analyst Laura Herbst, commenting on the Bush administration plan presented to Congress by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Bowing to the pressure of a surge of criticism from across the country and from members of Congress, Paulson said yesterday afternoon that the proposed bailout would include limits to the compensation of executives from companies that benefit from the package.

Some think the bailout is a necessity that will prevent a financial collapse that could rival the Great Depression.

"If Herbert Hoover would have had Paulson and Bernanke on his staff, there never would have been the Great Depression," said Robert Wagner, a Columbus portfolio manager who did not want to disclose his employer.

He believes the plan is a rescue, not a bailout, and is necessary.

"If the banking system fails, the U.S. economy fails," Wagner said, adding that $700 billion is a "drop in the bucket" compared with the financial cost of a depression.

He believes the bailout needs to be approved as soon as possible to restore confidence in the stock market. "The only fear is that we act upon emotion and fear instead of reason and logic," Wagner said.

Jim Hildenbrand, a Columbus independent real-estate broker and appraiser, called the $700 billion

bailout "chicken feed."

He said the government's purchase of mortgage-backed securities with the $700 billion -- a fraction

of the overall value of the nation's real-estate market -- would eventually bring a profit.

"The government is me and you, and the taxpayers will own a hell of a lot of real estate," he said, adding that many who oppose the bailout do so "because they don't understand it."

But many who oppose the bailout say they do.

Kim Ishwar of Delaware is still concerned that those financial institutions will receive all the benefits of the bailout and the average citizen will get nothing.

"They have to look out for the homeowners as well," she said. "They shouldn't be penalized and the banks not be penalized. If they bail out one, they have to help the other."

Marjorie Hamon is worried about how the bailout could affect her nine grandchildren.

"That's $700 billion our poor grandchildren will have to come up with," said the 79-year-old Powell resident.

Brown, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told Paulson and Bernanke during Tuesday's hearing that, "Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative."

Westerville resident Art Sullivan was so upset about what he was reading during the weekend that he came to Washington to attend Tuesday's hearing and talk to Brown and other Ohio lawmakers.

The 60-year-old systems engineer software professional and substitute math teacher also presented a letter he wrote outlining his case against a rush to bail-

out -- and questioning whether taxpayers' money should be put at risk to save major Wall Street firms.

"These companies and their leaders have become rich over the last 10 years in a boom that had to end. They must be held accountable for their decisions," Sullivan wrote in his letter. "There is bound to be some -- maybe quite a bit -- of pain in the market corrections that are occurring and must occur."

Ohio lawmakers of both parties are hearing from outraged constituents, and the battle in Washington appears to be more between Congress and the White House than congressional Republicans and Democrats.

Chris Paulitz, Voinovich's spokesman, said that people contacting Voinovich's office seem to be concerned with two themes: that the Bush administration proposal focuses more on helping Wall Street than ordinary Ohioans, and that adding $700 billion to the national debt is irresponsible.

Paulitz said it will be difficult to get a bailout plan approved until lawmakers and everyday Ohioans are convinced that it's necessary to stave off economic chaos on Main Street and that it's designed to hold Wall Street accountable.

Speaking before the president's speech last night, Paulitz said, "No one has properly articulated to Ohioans and the rest of the country that this is a real problem we are facing."

jriskind@dispatch.com

swartenberg@dispatch.com