WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Key Republicans on Capitol Hill blasted the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve on Wednesday for orchestrating an $85 billion bailout of insurance giant American International Group, and the White House for not informing them of the plan.

Some lawmakers complained Wednesday they didn't know a bailout of AIG was in the works.

Meanwhile, Democrats blamed the Bush administration for the financial crisis, while the White House pointed a finger at Congress.

The criticism came a day after lawmakers were surprised by the news that taxpayers would again be called on to shore up a member of the struggling financial sector.

"Once again the Fed has put the taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars to bail out an institution that put greed ahead of responsibility and used their good name to take risky bets that did not pay off," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, a member of the Senate Banking Committee.

A spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the committee, said the senator "profoundly disagrees with the decision to use taxpayer dollars to bail out a private company" and is upset the government has sent an inconsistent message to the markets by bailing out AIG after it just refused to save investment bank Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy.

"The American taxpayer should not be asked to unwillingly assume the inordinate risks that financial experts knowingly undertook, particularly when taxpayer exposure is increased by the ad hoc manner in which these bailouts have been engineered," said Shelby's aide, Jonathan Graffeo.

Republican Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri complained about not getting a heads-up about the bailout and said House Republicans are struggling to "understand a coherent strategy" about which firms get rescued and which ones don't.

Rep. Adam Putman of Florida, the third-ranking Republican in the House, said the cost is "unnerving" and called on the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve "to dispatch an envoy to the Hill to bring members of Congress up to speed."

Late Wednesday, the White House agreed to send a top Bush economic adviser and an official from the Fed to brief House Republicans on Thursday, according to a House GOP aide.

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats placed the blame for the crisis squarely on the Bush administration, arguing it failed to aggressively regulate the financial industry.

"The most recent bailout initiated by the Bush administration -- that of AIG -- is just another example that George Bush is a failed manager," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California. "Because of the inattention, or a decision on their part to have crony capitalism in our country, Americans across the country are feeling the pain of this."

Pelosi said two House committees would investigate the recent bailouts "to tell us how we can avoid this in the future, what went wrong here and also to look into this issue of fraud and mismanagement" at AIG.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Congress could have done more to head off the crisis.

"I think that Congress needs to take -- before they start throwing arrows -- take a little bit of time for some self-reflection," she said. "But also, why don't we just set that aside for a minute and focus on the fact that we have a crisis that we're trying to manage."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- who also complained that he didn't know a bailout of AIG was in the works -- said Congress won't change laws immediately to address the rapidly unfolding financial crisis because "no one knows what to do."

"We are in new territory here," Reid added. "You could ask [Federal Reserve Chairman Ben] Bernanke, you could ask [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson. They don't know what to do, but they are trying to come up with ideas."

AIG bailout upsets Republican lawmakers - CNN.com

They want to be part of the solution, but Republicans don't even understand the problem, .

They throw out all this stuff, without bothering to explain the need for the AIG bail-out. Either they don't understand it, in which case they're ignorant, or they are willfully trying to mislead voters who will not make the effort to understand more than their party tells them, .

Did you even read Democratic Senate Majority Leader's Harry Reid's statement?...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

To borrow from Mikeyy's sig:

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge. Confucious

Republicans have condemned the bail-outs out of ignorance or to "side with the people" during this election period and gain votes for McCain. Either is reprehensible. I don't expect politicians to know everything about economics, but I'm sure even the average citizen weighs situations before opening their mouths and giving an opinion (I know I do). hint: I don't think they're ignorant...

A well-thought comment from a Republican:

"It's not for me to judge in the middle of a crisis, to second-guess them or to judge what could have been," he said, but "I and all of my colleagues on the Hill are concerned about the lack of information, the lack of consultation." (House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio)

A WTF comment from another,

"Our heads are spinning right now with the bailout mania. First, we were told that Bear Stearns was too big to fail, then we were told that Freddie, Fannie were too big to fail, then we were told that AIG was too big to fail. What's next -- Starbucks too big to fail?" asked Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minnesota.

The situation is truly mind boggling. I bet my depression era ancestors are spinning in their graves to think that all the bounty they left us has been ultimately squandered.

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