LIKE a political Jack Bauer, the Taoiseach has only 24 hours to defuse the toxic budget decision that threatens his administration with annihilation.

One backbench TD resigned the whip and dozens are in open revolt.

If the government does change its mind then Brian Lenihan -- a man of honour and integrity -- may feel he is unable to continue as minister for finance.

If Mr Lenihan felt he had to resign, could Mary Harney who fine-tuned the details as Minister for Health, remain in government?

And if he, she or both of them go, what about the rest of the cabinet when they were all collectively responsible for the decision?

If anyone does go, it will fundamentally destabilise the government, cause great concern in Brussels and lower the reputation of this Republic around the world.

When the country is in recession and threatened with a world economic depression, a domestic political crisis -- particularly one entirely of the government's own making -- will be severely punished.

With so much at stake, it leaves Mr Cowen and his ministers with an enormous problem: can they reverse an unpardonably-foolish decision and emerge with credibility?

The count down to calamity began on Budget Day and it accelerated toward cataclysm last night with the government under siege from its own backbenchers.

But the foot soldiers of Fianna Fail are simply reflecting back on to the 15 members of government the unprecedented tornado of rage they have felt from the public.

It would be hard to overstate the seriousness of the threat to the government when TDs are demanding that the Taoiseach postpone a vital foreign trade mission to deal with the issue.

Mr Cowen must make up his mind on the China Syndrome today over whether or not to dismantle the nuclear reaction to the over-70s medical card fiasco.

Because tomorrow he takes off on a trade mission to Beijing and Shanghai, and if he goes without first defusing the anger in his party, he will come home to a sort of Boxer Rebellion within Fianna Fail.

If nothing happens before then, an enormous demonstration of the public's anger will descend on Leinster House on Wednesday to protest against his government's meanness to the over-70s.

But he has five days until Wednesday and last night Mr Cowen had taken calls from "dozens" of his own backbenchers telling him that they cannot live with the decision and urging him to back down.

When TDs returned to their constituencies last night, in some cases hundreds of outraged messages told them to reverse the decision or seek an alternative job after the next election.

The momentum within the party will almost certainly develop into rebellion over the weekend when party members and activists spell out the potential political consequences.

"They will save €100m out of the Department of Health's budget of €16,000m by taking the medical card off the over 70s," said one very angry backbencher last night.

Their anger was compounded by suggestions that the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan might stand down if the decision was reversed.

"I hope this is not a case of a minister's pride being more important than the principle of righting a wrong," said another indignant FF backbencher.

"It was a bad decision and the sooner it is reversed the quicker the political damage can be repaired."

Yet there were no cheers from his colleagues for the Fianna Fail TD for Wicklow, who resigned the party whip on the issue.

Joe Behan was dismissed as "naive" for taking unilateral action when the backbenchers believed more could be achieved through their collective pressure.

Some of Mr Cowen's closest political and personal friends -- colleagues who have championed his cause for more than 20 years -- were despairing last night.

They always saw Mr Cowen as the safest and most sensible of politicians, the most intelligent and most able of his generation in Fianna Fail.

They did not want to be disloyal -- and the Taoiseach values loyalty above all other virtues in politics -- but felt torn between fidelity to their leader and doing what was right by their constituents.

And most ominously for him, quite a few were mut- tering "Bertie wouldn't have done it ... ."

Between calls from friends and critics yesterday, Mr Cowen appeared calm dealing with such everyday matters as the neighbours up North who are not speaking to each other.

It has been a tumultuous week in the markets; the banks are scarily fragile and his first budget as Taoiseach threatens the stability of his government.

On his 164th day as Taoiseach tomorrow, he will be reflecting on the scale of his problems as he flies over the Himalayas to China.

- Sam Smyth