Bush: Effects of financial bailout will take time

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Saturday that benefits from the recently passed financial bailout will take time to show up in the U.S. economy.

One day after Bush signed the $700 billion rescue package into law, he sought to assure the public that the government would be careful in implementing the legislation aimed at easing a credit crisis that has created turbulence in global financial markets.

"In addition to addressing the immediate needs of our financial system, this package will also help to spur America's long-term economic growth," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Bush had pressed all week for Congress to approve the legislation, which was dealt a blow on Monday when the House of Representatives rejected it.

A modified version that raised limits on insured bank deposits received final congressional approval on Friday.

"While these efforts will be effective, they will also take time to implement," Bush said.

"My administration will move as quickly as possible, but the benefits of this package will not all be felt immediately," he said.

"The federal government will undertake this rescue plan at a careful and deliberate pace to ensure that your tax dollars are spent wisely."

Bush, a Republican whose two terms in office will end in January after the U.S. presidential and congressional elections on November 4, was spending the weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Responding for the Democrats, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said the loss of 760,000 U.S. jobs so far in 2008 showed that ordinary people were feeling the pinch of a slowing economy all year long, not just as financial market turbulence reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

"The crisis that hit Wall Street a couple weeks ago isn't news to families on Main Street all across this country," Strickland said.

He also criticized Republican presidential candidate John McCain's economic policies and championed those of Democratic contender Barack Obama.

"John McCain just doesn't get it. He hasn't said one thing he'd do to make his economy look any different than George Bush's economy," Strickland said.

"Right now, the change we need is Barack Obama's plan to jumpstart our economy and move America forward."

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by John O'Callaghan)