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Republicans Berate Geithner, Call for Him to Resign
WASHINGTON - Like a boxer under siege, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday rebuffed calls from Republicans to resign and slugged it out with lawmakers over Obama administration economic policies.
Geithner is on the hot seat with lawmakers because billions of stimulus dollars have not prevented the nation's high 10.2 percent unemployment rate, and for bank bailout decisions he made as the former president of the powerful Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
As Geithner appeared before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, launched a personal attack.
"Conservatives agree that as point person, you failed. Liberals are growing in that consensus as well. Poll after poll shows Americans have lost confidence in this president's ability to handle the economy. For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?" Brady asked.
Geithner began with a measured response, but quickly shifted to meet fire with fire.
"I agree with almost nothing in what you said, and I think almost nothing you said represents a fair and accurate perception of where this economy is today," the secretary retorted.
Turning sarcastic and partisan, the normally reserved Geithner angrily reminded Brady that the crisis began on the watch of a Republican White House.
"Now I think it's important to start, to welcome this advice that you are providing, after you gave this president an economy falling off the cliff, values of American savings cut almost in half, millions of Americans out of work, again the worst financial crisis we've seen in a generation," said Geithner.
Brady interrupted: "Remind me Mr. Secretary what post were you holding when President Bush left office?"
The answer is president of the New York Fed, where Geithner had close relations with the Wall Street banks that created the financial crisis, and where he made unpopular decisions such as rescuing failed insurer American International Group.
Just this week, a special inspector general confirmed what McClatchy reported in April - that Geithner's New York Fed paid off at face value, instead of at a lower rate, all the risky bets AIG had made with Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs.
After the heated personal exchange, the two resumed sparring over the economy.
"Congressman, again it's just a basic fact, a year ago, a year ago, this economy was falling at the rate of 6 percent a year. We were losing between half a million and three quarters of a million jobs a month and that process was accelerating, not slowing, until the president of the United States came and took office," Geithner said.
Interrupting again, Brady said, "Mr. Secretary the public has lost all confidence in your ability to do your job and it's reflecting on your president," adding that it's "really time for a fresh start and I would urge you to consider that."
Another Texas Republican, Rep. Michael Burgess, jumped into the act.
"I don't think you should be fired. I thought you never should have been hired," Burgess said.
Committee Democrats didn't immediately rush to defend Geithner, although the committee chairman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., later came to his defense.
49 Comments so far
Show AllBooting Geithner out of office is a good start. Next, we can send Summers packing, as well as members of Congress. Then let the criminal trials begin. And while we are at it, let's throw in Phil Gramm and Robert Rubin.
Gramm and Rubin would hang for collusion to defraud the US government. They are no after thought.
If I were Timmy, I'd turn states' witness.
It's that broken clock moment (even a broken clock is right twice a day) for Republicans. Even they are right sometimes just by sheer chance.
Republicans don't care about jobs. They just want to attack Obama. They are using populist rage in a very dishonest way. Unfortunately, Obama's policies and choice of appointments are providing grist for the mill.
Joe
What he said ^
This is rank hypocrisy coming from Republicans who are getting their agenda installed whole-cloth. If Geithner was "appointed" by an 'R' and not a 'D', these phonies would be falling all over themselves to get in line and give him a hearty pat on the back.
The Repubs are doing their job as the opposition party, something they do better than the Dems.
Somebody has to attack Geithner, Summers and Bernacke.
The battle against the banks must be a bi-partisan grassroots revolt if it is to have a chance at success because the national leadership of both parties is utterly corrupted by the power of the financial sector.
So I welcome attacks on the banksters by politicians of any stripe. In this very limited case the enemy of my enemy is my ally.
There are three areas where populists on the left and right share common beliefs:
1. Opposition to the bank bailouts
2. Opposition to the official version of 9/11
3. Opposition to ObamaCare, on the left because it is Corporate Pork packaged as healthcare reform.
The elitists on the right and left take a patronizing or outright disdainful attitude towards some or all of these areas of populist agreement.
Let me put it this way, I'm a union supporting anti-militarist, anti-globalization left winger, but on these three issues, I have more in common with a teabagger than with rich liberal elitists like Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore.
Rich liberals can be clueless about their position in society and annoyingly smug and superior. Rich conservatives are even worse. Boring. Selfish. The only word they know is taxes. They don't even know they should pretend to be concerned with others.
I would rather spend time with a grassroots person who harbors some right wing ideas than with Nancy Pelosi. At least they are more straightforward and you can talk. You have something in common. There is often a lot of generosity and goodness there.
Joe
I agree with you both. There is nothing more disgusting than someone such as Nancy Pelosi posing for cameras with her "I am so superior to everybody" look on her face. I would give what little money I have just to have the honor of being the one selected to give her the roll of toilet paper when she is surrounded on the street by a group of her "lesser" constituents who happen to be without adequate healthcare provisions or happen to be "food insecure."
"Conservatives agree that as point person, you failed. Liberals are growing in that consensus as well."
Progressives never wanted Geithner. Democrats perhaps, but never Progressives.
It's all theater, mock opposition, a fake food fight,
pots and kettles clanging.
Yea I wonder how much different things would have been under McCain. I'm sure there would have been a lot of pot clanging over the bailout, "Let them fail we say", but in the end they would have been bailed out anyway.
I would guess that in place of the "stimulus" the Republicans would have had truly MASSIVE tax cuts especially to the RICH. (Gotta keep that trickle down thing going!) To make up for those lost tax dollars they would also borrow from the Chinese.
So in the end we would be in the same financial whole, but it would just be dug by a different set of shovels.
Same shovels, they share.
schumer and maloney have taken huge money from banks
(their from ny unfortunately) and they have to protect
this weasel! they will block and obstruct as much as
they can from straightening this mess out.
It must be nice being little Timy Geithner - You get to be President of the NYC chapter of the "federal" reserve banking cabal, and not have to pay taxes - then get promoted to the position of Treasurer and apologize for not paying taxes and say it was an oversight. If you or I tried using that as an excuse we'd be sent straight to the big house, not get a promotion or a reward.
Geithner was a part of both the Bush administration in the FED and now the Obama administration. The job situation is NOT better now than a year ago, there are some new B.S. government created jobs, bridges to nowhere are being built, but in the same breathe our real manufacturing and industrial industries (and their surrounding towns) are being dismantled and left empty like ghost towns.
In the mainstream unemployment is at 10.2% but that isn't counting the people who are no longer collecting unemployment, nor those who are discouraged and completely gave up on trying who are now living in tent cities, nor is it counting the people forced to work at crappy part time jobs because there are no real jobs to get . The real level of unemployment in this country is somewhere around 17% and climbing.
There is no such thing as a Jobless Recovery, thats like saying you are half pregnant.
The Solution, END the FED! End the endless WARS in the middle east, close down ALL the military bases around the world and bring home all our troops. That would cut spending enormously. Then we need to rebuild Americas Manufacturing and Industrial plants, small farms as opposed to government subsidized farms. Americans need to rebuild their saving and wealth and stop spending all their free times in Shopping Malls, Fast Food Restaurants and at Sports Arenas.
Lets become Hard Working Respectable Americans Again!
And lets start by ENDing the FED - google END the FED - and on November 22nd join Americans across the country Rally and March to END the FED and Save America!
And what about the guy that put lil timmy and summers FIRMLY in place? And backs them, 100% ?
"After the heated personal exchange, the two resumed sparring over the economy"
Fissures and fractures appear among the factions of the elite establishment, weakening it, making it highly vulnerable to the populist/universalist onslaught. We may actually achieve universal equity/justice before the end of the decade.
"Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., later came to his defense"
sierra7
Is the "Mother" eating her young??????
Geithner should be investigated and so should any individual who has had financial ties to the "too big to fail" crowd on Wall Street, or for that matter any other financial institution that have received large amounts of tax payer dollars. Its time for some ACCOUNTABILITY to start and we need to try these folks under racketeering charges at the least...
Yeah, but Republicans? Republicans have no standing anymore.
Unfortunately, not for long. Watch what happens next November.
Obama and the congressional Dems will be the ones who has lost standing.
Damn if this isn't a bipartisan consensus I can back.
AD
>>"After the heated personal exchange, the two resumed sparring over the economy"
They sparred over the direction the economy was taking simply because it gives the Vpter in the United States of America the ILLUSION that there a CHOICE and a difference between the two parties.
The UNinformed voter who gets laid off or sees wages cut or loses their home looks at this and says "Yeah the REPUBLICANS are right..they ae speaking for ME. I am gonna vote Republican"
Then the whole thing happans again and again and again.
Watch the speech given by Tommy Douglas called MOUSEland.
Well said.
Odd thing to me is that Geithner is patently admitting to a mistake, or at least that the policy or program no longer works. I'm scratching my head trying to remember a Republican who ever did that. And of course they're expressing adamant opposition. It's their art and they have perfected it. Dittoheads.
As to booting him out, I disagree with the bailout too, but I believe it was undertaken on the basis of the best available misinformation and in the interests of our nation. I think instead we should have tossed the failed moneylenders by taking over their function in our economy. Instead, it seems, we've left them in charge of the henhouse.
"Republicans Berate Geithner, Call for Him to Resign"
Ha HAAA!! That's funny! I don't recall hearing a single GOP'er screaming for Paulson to get out last year.
Well, THAT was different, wasn't it? That's when the Man-Ape of Crawford and Darth Deferment were looting The People's money.
Pot, kettle, black much?
More Republican Congressional Reps voted against the Bush bank bailouts than did Democrats. Look it up.
And don't forget that Obama and McCain left the campaign trail and rushed back to DC to vote for the bailout.
So much for your little black and white world.
Try Green!
And here's something you can look up in your assumptive little world:
It is also true that some D's voted against the initial $700.Bn TARP, and some R's voted for it. That didn't matter much, because both sides knew that it was ultimately going to be rammed through anyway, over the stern objections of nearly all constituencies, with the threat of martial law as just one excuse of many, (conveniently provided by Bu$hCo). The vote was mere theater and scare tactics, and both sides played their part. A good cop/bad cop schtick aimed at saving their mutual Wall St. pals.
If the GOP had really wanted to oppose the robbery, they could have called for Paulson's ouster, along with those of Bush's admin. that floated the unconstitutional threats.
My point was about the usual hypocrisy and connivance of the GOP.
Try not jumping to conclusions.
Fire Geithner ...
Good riddance to another Bilderberger (2008) and former employee at Kissinger Associates ...
Geithner screwed us all big time as head of the New York Fed and continues to screw us to this day ...
Geithner is a paid agent of the Wall Street Banksters. His phone records show he talked more to Goldman Sachs than he did to the White House. He continues to appoint Goldman employees into key jobs at the UST ...
Geithner has got to go and despite what the article said plenty of Democrats are on board with his departure and said so in as many words ...
For once I almost agree with the Repug...Now, that's scary!
But, actually, Obama should have nominated that guy. No doubt, of course, that he did so following orders from the corporate masters.
Nothing like a little theater to help the old campaign coffers.
I do admit it was entertaining. I would have liked to have gotten a blood pressure reading from Geithner.
Geithner must be fired AND prosecuted AND the 100 cents on the dollar he, Paulson and Blankfein guaranteed AIG must be reduced retroactively to 15 to 20 cents on the dollar.
Who knows? Maybe it will happen.
I just found out yesterday that Berkshire Hathaway is the MAJOR STOCKHOLDER of Goldman Sachs. Well LA DE DA! That explains Granpa Buffett's pom poms. He's happier than a pig in shit. The filthy bastard is fawned on as a "wise man" by the media. He, like Geithner, is nothing but an opportunistic, greedy crook.
Madame Defarge is on the move.
just heard Berkshire Hathaway is also heavily invested in Walmart.
The Republicans are right ... finally! Now's the time for that bipartisanship Obama is always crowing about. Fire Geithner!
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Sheila Bair of the FDIC is the only financial policy regulator with her head screwed on straight. She doesn't trust what the banks are reporting and is demanding up front multiple payments from them to help better insure deposits. But even she doesn't know how much bad paper the banks are holding and she's playing a guessing game just like the rest of us.
Massive amounts of bad bundled mortgages are still in the big banks (papered over with TARP slush money diverted into the stock market). Compounding all this deeper into irredeemable insanity is open-ended war spending, foreign borrowing plus interest, and the bipartisan sacred cow: Refusing to raise taxes on the super-rich to post-WWII/pre-JFK levels.
Then there is what may be an even bigger problem: The still deregulated broader derivatives market and who is liable for how much that is un-insurable there. Some estimates place the size of that broader global market in derivatives in terms of hundreds of trillions of dollars. Part of the refusal to regulate or investigate this global black market in the U.S. is the fear of what will come to light and what it would do to the entire global economy. This market is said to be incredibly complex and interwoven.
As goes California, so goes the nation on steroids if we see one or two more major bubbles implode. California's public university students, faculty, sanitation engineers, and related unions are learning about solidarity the hard way.
Amurka is not transitioning away from our abject dependence on imported fossil fuels while EU countries, Japan and China are starting to leave us behind in green tech.
The only people in this country who can change it for the better are authentic progressives and the only way we can do that is to unite before it's too late and then reach out to disaffected Democrats who are disgusted with their Party.
Geithner is the sacrifice they hope will appease the angry mob. Like a hunk of red meat thrown to the dogs.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
I think Team Obama is too afraid to can any of these banking industry stooges for fear of offending the almighty banks.
Geithner has always seemed more like a Wall Street lap dog than a government official representing all Americans. Surprise, surprise, for once the Republicans are right. Obama made a bad choice. I hope he's learned.
repubs are hypocrites because they are trying tag geithner for the TARP funds and bailouts that George Bush, paulson and the republicans were responsible for
unfortunately, geithner also was apparently in it from the beginning and has proven to so far do very little that helps main street and very much that helps wall street
so i wouldn't miss him much
They should have stuck with their guts from the beginning. When a candidate for secretary of the treasury refuses to pay taxes, it means he thinks he (and his buddies) are above the law, and he's too arrogant for the post. When his reply to the criticism is "I forgot", he's too stupid.
However this is more likely just a manifestation of the pendulum effect. When the R's f*** up the economy, the electorate says, "we need to vote D's!" then the D's come in and do the exact same thing, to the opposite response.
I wonder if this means 2012 will bring in a republican president and whether his reappointment of Hank Paulson will be met with the cheers from those critical of Geithner.
Geithner should go. We'll see if Obama has the balls. But let's all be clear. It was obvious from Day 1 that Geithner and Summers were bad news. One really didn't need to know any details (except the resume) to know this was someone who didn't do his job as NY Fed Chair.
Let's see if he goes as fast as Van Jones. (or Dennis Ross...someone who also should never should have had the job he got and finally that was made obvious) Obama is seriously lacking in operatonal smarts. I thought the way he ran his campaign might mean some skill there but
clearly his own goals are far more important than the country's.
Probably more important than Geithner going is who his replacement is.
Looking at the double standards Obama had on Van Jones and Geithner, Obama is "bold" for the corporate interests and given his past appearances on the media "boldly" and shamelessly defending Geithner, I seriously doubt he'll change course. He's very well trained to stay the Dubya course where it doesn't count. Maybe Obama will cave in if the Republicans win big in one or both chambers and threaten to impeach him. I can't see what else it would take.
I saw a recent picture of Obama, he looked gaunt and gray. I think Obama is more weak than he is evil, and realizes deep down that he not serving the interests of those who elected him. He probably also realizes that he must get rid of those whom he appointed to high positions as advisers and such, but lacks the will or courage to do so. Therefore, he is currently in horrible conflict. If he doesn't make some radical changes soon, I believe it will destroy him, both mentally and politically.
I assume that this is a tongue-in-cheek description of this administration. :)
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
I agree with your assessment. He is weak. I also think he has been threatened by one or some of the ruling oligarchs to confirm to their game plan (which is a still unfolding corporatist/fascist coup d'etat) or else. They hold too many of the reins of real power now and the CIA, NSA, Pentagon and their legions of contractors are bloated with their stooges and enforcers.
Geithner should have never been hired in the first place. He worked for both the Bush and Obama administrations so it does not matter whether Republicans or Democrats call for Geithner's resignation. It's just a lousy dumbshow. Let's work on building a new party and use Geithner against both the Republicans and Democrats. I'm currently working on helping out the Green Party out here in El Paso and hope to make the Green Party make it throughout Texas. I recommend you do the same for your state. Don't just fire Geithner. Fire this entire administration and prevent future Bush/Obama type administrations.
"Don't just fire Geithner. Fire this entire administration and prevent future Bush/Obama type administrations."
I agree !
JWVerez, I live in East Texas. Maybe we can work together and meet in the middle!
Texas is one huge state but I like that spirit of striving to get together no matter what. The hurdles to overcoming third party ballot stipulations are bigger than the state itself. I know East Texas is pretty conservative but I hear that there is room for Greens. County by county, we must not give up. Glad to meet you.
Poor Geitner. After all he's done for the Republicans and their rich banker friends. How ungrateful.
"Now that we've used you for what you got, we don't want nothing to do with you. Hit the road, Jack!"
(LOL)
I think the general sentiment of the public, watching the exchange is to dismiss both as posturing politicians, to see niether as representing their interests, to see the blame game as pointless when both are complicit. The right hates Obama but the left dislikes him too. The center will not hold. Obama is in real trouble but I don't think the Republicans will have an easy time of it either. The public as a whole is disgusted with our elected leaders Democrat or Republican. This should be the time for a third party movement.