S&L; Plan Won’t Be Popular: Bush : President to Announce Strategy After Weekend Review

President Bush today intensified his efforts to deal with the nation’s savings and loan crisis, planning a weekend strategy session with top aides at Camp David while cautioning congressional leaders that whatever solution arises “will not be popular.”

He said he expects to reveal his rescue package early next week and renewed his pledge that the government will continue to guarantee the safety of insured deposits.

Bush met at the White House with Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to seek their ideas on how to resolve the crisis of failing savings and loans. A bailout may cost the public as much as $100 billion.

“We’ve got a big problem in the savings and loan” industry, Bush told the lawmakers, meeting in the Cabinet Room. “There are no easy answers, no worrying about blame--plenty to go around. I want to see the problem solved.”

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) pledged their cooperation in seeking a solution.

After the meeting, Sen. Jake Garn of Utah, senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said an idea floated by the Administration last week for a fee on savings deposits “is not a live option,” even though the White House has not disavowed it publicly.

However, Garn said he believes savings institutions will have to pay a higher premium to obtain federal insurance for deposits.

Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the Banking Committee, said Bush did not give a clue about what he would propose. “I wouldn’t say he gave an indication where his thinking is going. He did take a lot of notes” on the points raised by participants.

“We’re going to look to find a way to put together a funding package that is as fair as it can be,” Riegle said. “We’re going to look to the taxpayers absolutely as a last resort.”

Setting out a timetable for producing an Administration plan, Bush said he will meet Saturday with Treasury Department officials to hear their final recommendations and then early next week will reveal the course he will take.

Nevertheless, Bush told the congressional leaders, “you’re not being presented here with a stacked deck. We need ideas and if we’re overlooking something, we want to know what it is.”