It may be time to decide just how badly you want U.S. deficit counters to stay where they are.  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have asked the government to provide financial institutions $700 billion in rescue money without delay.

According to Bernanke, we’re more or less screwed if a bailout doesn’t occur.  “I believe if the credit markets are not functioning, that jobs will be lost, the unemployment rate will rise, more houses will be foreclosed upon, GDP will contract, that the economy will just not be able to recover,” Bernanke told the Senate, according to Bloomberg.  “My interest is solely for the strength and recovery of the U.S. economy.”

And a $700 billion infusion is almost guaranteed to have an immediate effect.  The only problem is that the move would impose a huge burden on taxpayers, most of whom presumably never bought stock in the failing financial institutions.  Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pointed this out to Bernanke and Paulson.

Expect the debates to continue, although unlike most political and financial issues, the urgency of the situation may cause this one to be resolved in short order.