Paulson says government will stabilize markets

The government will tackle any other problems that may arise, he said.

"From the beginning I have said, as we work through this period, if this was like other times in the past, there are going to be bumps in the road. There are going to be unpleasant surprises. You are going to find that an institution or so has problems. And when they do have problems, you work to deal with it," Paulson said.

On other matters, Paulson was cool to the need for additional economic stimulus, which congressional Democrats are promoting. A recently enacted aid plan includes tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses. Paulson said it should help bolster the economy and produce 500,000 to 600,000 jobs this year.

To Democrats, though, Bush is not doing enough to help.

"We're in the most serious economic problem we've been in in a very long time, much worse than 2001. The president's hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover in 1929, in 1930," said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. "There are lots of things that can be done, particularly on housing. Housing has been the bull's eye of this crisis."

Hoover, a Republican, was president at the time of the Oct. 29, 1929, stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression in the United States. The following decade was marked by high unemployment and deflation, but brought to power Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 who introduced the New Deal economic reconstruction program.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Much of what the administration has done has been too late."

On the plunging value of the U.S. dollar, Paulson stuck to the position of past treasury chiefs when he said a strong dollar is in the national interest. The dollar has dropped to a new low against the euro and fallen sharply against the Japanese yen. That helps sales of U.S. exports to foreign buyers because it makes U.S. goods less expensive. But the drooping dollar increases inflationary pressures.

Paulson appeared on ABC television's "This Week," "Fox News Sunday" and "Late Edition" on CNN. Schumer was on Fox and Pelosi on ABC.

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