AUSTIN—Texas Gov. Rick Perry, saying he’s “sick and tired” of the partisan gridlock in Washington, slammed the federal government Tuesday for failing to agree on a rescue of the U.S. financial markets.

“Washington needs to get over the partisan bickering,” Perry said. “They’ve got their work cut out, but one of them is to get over the initial behind their names and start being Americans first and quit being Democrats and Republicans.”

Perry, who took over as Texas governor when George W. Bush became president and is seeking re-election in 2010, favorably compared his state to the rest of the nation.

“My concern is that Washington is so inept at addressing these issues that are important to Americans, whether it’s securing our borders or whether it’s securing our financial future,” Perry said. “Washington has been absolutely abject failures at this.”

Perry stopped short of endorsing any particular approach to the U.S. financial meltdown and warned against any measures that would allow shady business practices to continue.

“We’re sick and tired of watching Washington bicker with each other while financial markets are roiled,” he said. “The other side of that is we’re certainly not interested in Washington bailing out a bunch of irresponsible mortgage brokers in an industry that has too often been run on greed.”

Congressional leaders were working Tuesday to come up with an alternative to the $700 billion rescue package that was narrowly voted down Monday and caused a historic sell-off on Wall Street Monday.

Bush urged Congress to pass a new plan, saying the consequences of inaction will “grow worse each day.”