Posted on 11/19/2009 10:27:30 PM PST by STARWISE
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is taking fire from both sides of the aisle, as liberals and conservatives are now pushing for him to resign.
In a tense exchange before the Joint Economic Committee this morning, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) asked Geithner to resign over his handling of the economy, AIG bonuses and stimulus spending.
“Conservatives agree that as point person you’ve failed," Brady said. "Liberals are growing in that consensus as well … will you step down from your post?”
One of the "liberals" Brady was referring to is Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who said on MSNBC Wednesday there is "a growing consensus" that Geithner needs to be replaced.
But Geithner got testy when Brady went through a litany of economic woes including unemployment and the deficit.
“I agree with almost nothing of what you said and almost nothing of what you said represents a fair and accurate perception of where this economy is today," Geithner said. " ... You [Republicans] gave this president an economy falling off the cliff."
Brady wasn't done: “Mr. secretary, the public has lost all conf in your ability to do the job … conservatives agree, liberals agree that it’s time for a fresh start.”
~~~~
Members of the oversight committee spent most of the morning trying to figure out inaccuracies in the reports, including claims that incorrectly listed congressional districts.
Over at the Joint Economic Committee, tensions ran high between Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Texas GOP Rep. Kevin Brady, who at one point asked whether Geithner believed the country’s economy was improving “because the stimulus has created several quadrillion new jobs; is that right?”
Geithner returned the derision, saying in part: “I take responsibility for anything I am part of doing. I’ll be happy to do that. What I can’t take responsibility is, is for the legacy of crises you’ve bequeathed this country.”
~~~~
Democrat Wants Geithner To Resign Too
Excerpt:
Oregon Democratic representative Peter DeFazio spoke with the Wall Street Journal today and said Geithner needs to get lost, the same thing Republican Kevin Brady said to the secretary's face earlier today.
WSJ: Why do you think Geithner should resign?
Rep. DeFazio: “I just do not feel that his orientation is other than Wall Street, and has not been other than Wall Street, and will not be other than Wall Street. And quite frankly all the gambling on Wall Street is doing nothing to put people back to work in America and rebuild our economy.”
~~~~~
Talk about testy, Geithner's arrogance is stunning. And of course, it's Bush's fault. DeFazio will definitely be getting the evil eye now with Rahm .. they'll be after him with the long knives.
"Don't think we're not keeping score, brother."
That's what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.
~~PING!
When will 0-bama and his appointees stop blaming Bush for their failures foreign and domestic? Answer: Not yet.
Giethner slam the previous administration for the problem we have today. For not dealing with climate, health and education, then we wouldn’t have the problem we have now. He seem clueless as to why the economy collapsed and its not to do with climate, health, education, but what HE is responsible for
Geithner can’t please anyone.
Never, because the MSM and the DUmmies will never get over Bush. If they were to accept that all the eeeevil Bush did can be gotten over, that will "send the wrong message".
We are dealing with people whose emotional development never got beyond the stage where they hold on to greivances from the schoolyard. These are people who will be in their fifties and still holding grudges against the football team members who laughed at them in the schoolyard.
They have to hold on to their villains. Without them, they have no sense of self as the anti-Bush people.
When Obama leaves office, and gives his farewell to the nation on TV from the Oval Office, he will, I guarantee you, include the words "We inherited..." That's the beginning and the end of all his excuses--"Unlike any other president, I didn't get a perfect country to lead, I was left this mess!"
It's his mindset, and he could no more change it than you or I could suddenly decide we were socialists.
Kind of like the children who paint their hair green and orange to rebel against their parents, only to grow up doing the exact oposite their parents wanted them to do, even though they know they are harming themselves.
GOP did make one mistake. They fail to heed an old Asian saying about business men. It goes like this “The merchant class is vital to the kingdom because they generate substantial wealth. However merchant class are capable of being wicked and greedy. They can corrupt officals and cheat the people. A wise ruler always keep an eye on them. If they are caught, they must be punished, but punished in a way not to discourage their ability to make money.” The problem with our current financial meltdown is stupid government policies, but also the failure to enforce existing SEC laws while the mortgage bankers underwrote liar loans and bundled them off as AAA investments to unsuspecting investors, pension funds and foreign banks. No one care because these firms were making money. Any regulator who sounded an alarm was struck down by a Congressmen or cabinet member who received a phone call from Wall Street about a troublesome regulator. In the end the Wall Street bankers with government enablement took on highly leveraged and risky investments that eventually will implode leaving the taxpayers holding the bag for bailouts. Obama was suppose to bring change and hold Wall Street accountable, but he gets 2 to 1 in campaign donations from Wall Street bankers and his Dept of Treasury is fill former employees from Wall Street who want a good career after they leave government in the private sector. Between Obama indecision and Wall Street infiltration of Congress, nothing will happen to enforce current or future regs and within our life time we will go thru the same financial bubble and crisis. Hopefully our nation will survive because we barely survived this one.
“Talk about testy, Geithner’s arrogance is stunning.”
and....weak, whiny, and unprepared.
Hmm.....?
INDONESIAN GO HOME
Put Glen Beck on it, he will get rid of him.
Wah! Where’s my wambulance? It was Bush’s fault. =.=
Geithner gets taken out back to the woodshed:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024990.php
BURGESS: Secretary Geithner, you were referencing in your answer to an earlier question about when the financial catastrophe started in September, October of last year, if I understood you correctly, you said that this country did not have the tools to manage that panic. But the inference that I took from that was that there were countries overseas that did have such tools.
Now, I recall a phone call with your predecessor in late October of 2008, when it became public that the United States was pumping monies into the central bank in Europe, and other places. And I suggested that was not the correct thing to be doing. And he said, if the United States is not helping these countries, then they will collapse.
So, which is it?
Were we the savior of those countries that, according to the current president, didn’t even like us that much until he took office? Were we the savior of those banks and those countries? Or were we, in fact, incapable of dealing with the problem?
And was that money, in fact, going to foreign banks at that time, in October of last year? This was widely reported in the press.
GEITHNER: Congressman, there is no country that came into this crisis with the tools to manage it effectively. And the basic failure I described here was a common failure.
One thing you saw around the world was...
BURGESS: Well, let me ask you a question. Then how did George Bush cause those countries to be unprepared for a financial crisis?
Glass-Steagall has come up this morning. If I recall, Glass- Steagall was repealed — that bill was signed by Bill Clinton...
GEITHNER: You’re right about that.
BURGESS: ... not George Bush.
GEITHNER: You’re absolutely... BURGESS: And I frankly don’t understand. If that’s such a good protection, this president’s been in office for 10 months. Where’s the signed legislation reinstating Glass-Steagall? What...
GEITHNER: Actually, I would not support reinstating Glass-Steagall. And I don’t actually believe that the end of Glass-Steagall played a significant role in the cause of this crisis.
But...
BURGESS: Well, that’s not being stated to this committee. Let me move on, because my time is going to be limited. I do hope we’ll be able to submit some of our questions in writing... because this is a critical hearing, and time is limited.
All right. We’ve got the TARP. It’s supposed to expire. Why won’t we let it die a natural death, rather than letting it painfully linger and absorbing tax dollars?
GEITHNER: We are working to put the TARP out of its misery. And no one will be happier than I am...
BURGESS: Well, according to my figures...
GEITHNER: .. to see that program terminated and unwound. And I want to point out that, we are moving very aggressively to close down and terminate the programs that defined TARP at the beginning of the crisis. Now...
BURGESS: Well, it looks like the money is going out with little or no oversight...
GEITHNER: No, that’s absolutely not true.
BURGESS: Well...
GEITHNER: The Congress established three separate oversight committees...
BURGESS: Your own special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program has got several concerns about it. Why not just stop spending on the TARP funds? And why not repeal the program? We don’t need it anymore. The American people never liked it. Let’s just do away with it.
GEITHNER: Let me just point out the disagreement between what your colleague said and I think what most people across the country understand and believe, which is that, if you look at what’s happening in housing, if you look at what’s happening to small businesses, this economy still faces tremendous financial challenges.
BURGESS: What’s happening in small businesses is people are frightened to add jobs, because they don’t know what we’re going to do to them in health care. They don’t know what we’re going to do to them in financial regulation. They’re scared of what we might do with energy prices in the future with cap and trade. Small business — medium sized business is frightened at jobs right now.
I could help the president and his panel. He doesn’t need another program. We don’t need another stimulus. We need to provide some tax relief and then get the heck out of the way, and the American economy will recover as it has always done.
GEITHNER: That broad philosophy helped produce the worst financial crisis and the worst recession we’d seen in generations. We had a pretty good test of that philosophy — a pretty good test of those policies that did not serve the country well. Now...
BURGESS: Mr. Geithner, when I came here in 2003, we were in a jobless recovery. Tax relief was passed in May of 2003, and as a consequence by July of that year, we were adding jobs at a significant rate. It seems to have worked fairly well.
woo hoo! There needs to be a chorus not just a do-et!
Thanks for the ping. We really need to push back hard on this attempt of the democrats to ‘blame Bush’ for the financial collapse. THEY are at fault here with the Community Reinvestment Act and for blocking reforms that could have mitigated the systemic risk. Also, if people will only look at which point it all started to unravel, it was after the dems took back power in 2006. President Bush basically had what is considered full employment for most of his terms. All one has to do is look at their own money situation. Under President Bush, my husband and I were finally able to start saving and investing after years of economic persecution under Clinton. Our salaries went up..not down. My guess is that this is a common experience among the ‘producers’ in society. Now we are wondering whether we will ever be able to recoup our losses under Obama and the democrats. The prospects of such look pretty grim indeed. There will be little or no bonuses this year. Every year since 2003, our bonuses have increased and in some years, increased dramatically. Our bonuses were part of our salary in effect...so now we are looking at a reduced income and an increased tax burden under Obama and the democrats. IT’S ECONOMIC PERSECUTION!
I actually heard a few democrats yesterday at a hearing on capitol hill claiming that entitlements in the porkulus bill have ‘stimulated’ the economy. What complete and utter BS. Taking money away from the segment of society that produces ‘wealth’(jobs) and giving it to another segment of society that produces nothing, does not ‘stimulate’ anything but dependence. One democrat congresscritter tried to make an argument that the people that had unemployment benefits were stimulating the economy by being able to buy groceries and pay their rents. What they fail to understand is that the money that they have stolen from the American people to pay entitlements could have produced actual jobs for these people and truly ‘stimulated’ the economy. Yet no Republican leader pushed back during the hearing. The democrats have them completely cowed in this regard. They are so afraid of being called ‘heartless’..yet it is the democrat’s culture of dependence and corruption that is truly heartless. People need jobs..not hand-outs!!
WHERE ARE THE JOBS?
(sorry for the rant). These people are destroying our country and our future.
Narcissists never let go....
....”tried to make an argument that the people that had unemployment benefits were stimulating the economy by being able to buy groceries and pay their rents..”
~~~~
Just another example of the insanity. They’re bent on
persuading the serfs they’re creating that up is down
and down is up ... that Mother Government is nirvana ..
all in the deceitful mission to expand and retain their
power. It’s a sick ad campaign.
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