The heat is on, and the stakes are said to be high in Washington D.C.

Congress continues fast paced negotiations on a $700-billion bailout package designed to stabilize the country's financial markets.

Two members of the local congressional delegation say the package has been unpopular with constituents back home, yet both agree that action is needed.

Indiana Third District U.S. Representative Mark Souder says his office has received approximately 800-calls in the last 48 hours, and that “hardly anybody” wants him to vote for the bill.

Nonetheless, Souder feels that some type of package is needed, although he’s not sure it’s the one on the table. “I don’t necessarily think it has to be $700-billion and I don’t necessarily agree that it has to be done tomorrow,” Souder said.

Some fear that the proposal has been wrongly labeled as a bailout bill for bad behaving Wall Street speculators.

They contend it’s more like a Main Street protection package to keep the folks back home from feeling the mortgage crisis fallout.

“If you can’t get a car loan…all of the sudden nobody’s selling cars, nobody’s building cars,” said U.S. Representative Joseph Donnelly, (D) Indiana’s Second District. “I’m privileged to represent Kokomo where they build all the transmissions for Chrysler. There won’t be anybody building transmissions unless there are cars being sold.”

But the sheer price of the bailout package itself is enough to give any congressman sticker shock.

“I think they've had so much opposition on both sides that they're going to have to come back with a smaller package,” said Congressman Souder.

In general, Souder feels that deliberations have been moving a bit too fast.

“We’ve already seen multiple bailouts,” he said. “We’ve already taken over Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, we’ve already taken over 80-percent of A.I.G. Now they’re coming back with this, and the question is hey, explain this a little better than you’ve been doing. We’re tired of writing blank checks.”

The question that can’t be answered is ‘how much time congress has for deliberations—before it’s too late.

“The one thing we can't do is to simply do nothing,” said Congressman Donnelly.

Donnelly said he would remain in Washington as long as it took to get the job done.

Representative Souder sees the deliberations as a “high stakes poker game.”

Souder says if congress doesn’t act, “the bottom is going to keep dropping, but how rapidly? If we do do it, we’re in effect providing the average taxpayer is taking over a huge risk with very little explanation.”