U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said the unemployment rate could rise for a couple of months before it goes down. “It’s possible you’re going to have a couple of months where it goes up,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show. “But what we expect to see … is an economy that’s gradually healing, of course we want to do what we can to reinforce that process.”
Geithner said Tuesday it would be “deeply irresponsible” for the Obama administration to support a wholesale extension of Bush era tax cuts, including breaks for the wealthy.
Geithner said in a nationally broadcast interview that President Obama strongly believes those reductions should be retained for the “95 percent” of taxpayers with individual incomes under $200,000 a year and families below $250,000.
And he disagreed with accusations the administration has been hostile to Wall Street and the business community.
Asked about former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan’s statement that he hadn’t seen such animosity between Washington and Wall Street in decades, Geithner said Obama had a deep obligation “to fix what was broken. There was nobody here or across the country that would argue that our system worked.”
“The business community always wants their taxes lowered,” Geithner said, calling that understandable.
He also said he would stay in his job as long as President Barack Obama wanted him there.
Timmy G knows businessrs cannot just cheat on taxes like he did and stay in business, face it the unemployment rate is at 17 to 20%.
Keep baling out your friends Timmy, and we will keep our own money in our own pockets.
Hope and change folks. For those of you who voted this gang in, enjoy.
we are represented by incopentent thieves and cheats. and they have no real experience in anything, but bs.
Ah yes, more blather from our genius never-had-a-private-sector-tax-cheating Treasury Secretary. Obama voters – hang your head in shame. This is your mess now.
Folks, this is what happens when you send community organizers to Washington.
Those of you who voted for this nonsense deserve the misery that comes with it. The rest of us, however, do not.
Next time, please think before you vote.
Geithner must not be listening to Obama who just stated the economy is improving. I wish that Obama, and all his minions would be on the same page for their lies.
It will take longer than 1 or 2 years to fix the mess Bush left behind and yes, I still have hope that Obama can make a difference.
Are you kidding me?? I’m not defending Obama by saying this: We could have elected Adam Smith into office and he wouldn’t have been able to correct the economic mess he inherited. This is the fault of previous administrations (including Clinton) and a bunch of greedy, borderline criminal bankers. To blame the current administration entirely is ludicrous. To take pot-shots on Geithner for his previous work experience may be fun, but it’s just a diversionary tactic. To assume he took the bailout steps to help his old buddies is ignorant (there are plenty of balanced accounts of those harrowing days leading up to the first bailouts, and to think the people involved – including Geithner – had anything in mind other than keep our economy out of the morgue is ignorant. Stop watching TV and read, for chrissakes.). Stop replying to every news account of the sick economy by saying “We told you so” or “this is what you wanted.” It doesn’t advance the argument! Offer solutions or ideas, not insults, not jibes.
Tom0942 I was a republican until Bush’s second four years. I voted for Obama and am damn proud of it. While I think he has spent way to much time, effort and political capital on trying to compromise with Republicans that are so polarized they have no desire to see him succeed even if it means the country goes down with him.
Perhaps Dem’s should have actually done as Faux news rhetoric says and shoved those policies down our throat.While I am sad to say it, we would probably be further along into recovery, have a better health care law and have more than a smattering of financial regulation that’s not going to change anything.
This administration with all its faults (and there are plenty) has done a lot more to bring this country back from the mess Bush made than any republican philosophy I heard or read would have. Think Mccain and would of done better? I will take a involved community organizer over an alzheimer’s patient and a crazy confused lying Alaskans any day of the week.
I can hear you now complaining that everything is blamed on Bush. “how long are we going to have to hear that”? My friends say the same thing. Well what was F’ed in eight years can’t be cleared in one and a half. When we find ourselves again and separate from the teabaggers to propose solid, moderate fiscally conservative policies again, I will return to voting Republican. Until then I guess I will remain an independent voter who reads and thinks for himself.
I am glad to see that the representatives for the “Party of No” are still at it. For eight plus years they drove the economy into a ditch and now, they are asking for the keys! Please keep telling them no, President Obama.
Um…..fire the White House and the Treasury for starts then get a team in charge who know how to run and administer business development.
This is just another intentional set up by Timmy and crew to continue down the same beaten path when things do improve. Until these yahoo’s learn that you cannot spend beyond your means – the country and the economy will continue to flounder. It is being over-run intentionally by this administration by flooding the economy with debt. These guys know exactly what they are doing to set their agenda in spite of what is best for the US. I don’t give a damn if you are a Repub or Demo – figure it out – no money in piggy bank = BROKE!!!
Both parties fiscal policies are at fault. Seems that many people forget that and only want to blame the other side.
Until there is a massive tax cut AND a recognition that buying products from overseas markets is not better for our economy, things will stay the same. Why? Simply because we as citizens now pick up the taxes once absorbed by the production from that factory. Accept it people, the country will not get better until we realize that WE must produce what we buy. …. It’s Econ 101…but the Dems just can’t see beyond the new tax and that why this will wallow as long as the Great Depression. This is what happens when you have people from the academic world running things.
This isn’t the Bush Recession as they claim. It is the Obama Depression.
at least the democrats can take responsibility for their actions that led to this while republicans look at people and say whats the issue? i can’t think of another group of people that support each other so well. considering that most of the republicans make well below the 200K to get any benefits from the tax cuts. change always comes at a price. the country was left to the carpetbagger g.w for too long. could you imagine where we would be today if mccain were in office? i hate to think of the disaster
The president is responsible for good outcomes with the last administration responsible for bad outcomes. This man is a progressive egomaniac that must be stopped this November!
“Geithner said Obama had a deep obligation “to fix what was broken. There was nobody here or across the country that would argue that our system worked.”
Let’s think about this for a minute. “Fix what was broken”, exactly what does that mean? Let’s assume for a minute that this all started with Reagan. For 30+ years, the “system” was humming along quite nicely, and within the last 2 years, the system crashed. So what is the OA doing? Fixing the system or replacing the system?
If I’m not mistaken, the shockwave that brought the house down was sub-prime mortgage fiasco. The process of bundling mortgages together into tradable securities for the CDO/CDS market is flawed because it relies on the homeowner to be responsible for their collective debt. The failure of the sub-prime owner to be accountable for their collective debt exposed the securities as worthless pieces of paper.
Has the OA then banned the practice of bundling mortgage securities? Has the OA banned the practice of trading said securities in the CDO/CDS market? No & No. The OA simply (as I see it) has required the bank to provide an emergency “slush” fund to prevent them from experiencing another shock wave, and provided additional regulation to oversee compliance. It doesn’t really translate into a “fix”, but more of an intrusion.
How then is the business sector suppose to respond when the required surgery is given a band-aid application?
Economic policy is usually set by congress which has been controlled by Democrats since 2006. Blame Bush all you want but, Barny, the lisper, Frank and Chris, I met a low loan payment i couldn’t reuse, Dodd were the champions of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. You couldn’t reform those two agencies because the poor had to have access to home loans even though they could not afford them. Who donated most to the campaign of the Annoited One? It was Wall Street. They could not fail. Their shekals had to be paid back. There is plenty of blame to go around.
I am a Democrat. I will continue to vote as a Democrat. For anyone to say this is Obama’s fault is certifiable. We would have done much worse under McCain. Remember, the Republicans don’t give a damn about the middle class.
However, I would like to know what drugs Geithner is on because I want some to so I can make myself believe that all is good and getting better.
This administration does EVERYTHING backwards. Can that REALLY be accidental?
The simple-minded seem to forget one undeniable fact: there was economic GROWTH under George Bush….and unemployment was HALF (if not a third) of what it is now.
Since I am already OUTA of job and UNEMPLOYEMNT BENEFITS…I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO LOSE! I am already in a SHELTER…..I HAVE LOST EVERYTHING! and at 55 years old now….WHO IS GONNA HIRE ME!I am sick of Washington….and life…..
Obama promised jobs just to win the Presidental seat. We still have over 8 million out of jobs. Just a big lie. We need someone new in office that can fix America.
For those who think it’s Bush II’s fault for the economy, remember that it was Congress that created Fannie and Freddie, which supported and created the bubble that burst, the two entities now sucking $145 BILLION out of the treasury. Congress has been controlled by DEMOCRATS for 6 years, and they had significant influence even when Republicans were in control.
Geithner and the rest of the Obama crowd haven’t learned their history. High spending, higher debt, higher taxes, the threat of more regulation, and the regular belittling of political opposition has created uncertainty as well as disincentives to hire. What will probably happen is that unemployment will go higher than he predicts and hold there until these idiots realize they created the problem with anti-business central planning.
Want to fix things? Start by voting out Congress, especially the idiots from Illinois.
Where are the jobs to keep America strong? America is going backwards. You work and when you get close to retirement, you just lose everything that you worked for because there are not jobs that are available for people over 50. What is wrong with this system??????
The people in congress right now just want to keep spending and increase the deficit. We need to spend where it counts! November 2, 2010 lets clean house. Vote them all out!
Anne,…this is the aftermath of the Bush depression,…the one Obama inherited. Stop watching Fox and think for yourself
man, Obama, Geitner and their crew are a bunch of idiots!! Hello! Of course, the business community wants to keep taxes lower – where do you think the jobs come from??? They know what they are doing is going to hurt jobs even more so they are setting people up. They love to use “the wealthy” when they are all millionaires themselves!!! Look where King Obama goes on vacation – Hawaii and up to the northeast with the elite – give me a break.
The top 1% is paying more than ten times the federal income taxes than the bottom 50%! Keep tax the rich to death and they’ll take their Toys and Money and go else where. And to the People that keep blaming Bush for everything …. Please explain to me exactly what he did that caused all this… What policy… What law…
Personally I feel that most problem Americans experience are because we offer in entitlements far more than we have the money to offer, and that problem is not changing for the better anytime soon.
Also, what moron cannot see that an indivdual in Indiana making $199,000 a years should be given a continued tax break, but a family of 5 living in NYC pulling in $251,000 should pony up more.
There is no “May” about it!! The Wall Street Takeover, along with the kick in of the Health Care mandates, will throw us into a deeper recession than we’re in now!!
rdog
Geithner says unemployement may go up more before it starts to go down. Aren’t these the same clowns who told us that if you pass the stimulus plan that unemployment won’t go above 8%? Face it, Obama and his minions have no clue!
Ever-climbing unemployment but wait, there is a silver lining. Just consider all of the millions upon millions of jobs Mr. Obama has “saved.” Why, there are some 120 million people still working in this country and it just seems evident from his comments that Mr. Obama has saved ALL of those jobs. “Jobs created” is a bit tougher, granted, but every person still working should send a thank-you card to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
New Deal ideas dont work when labor unions run the show. Any intelligent person knows this, the stimulus was not a “jobs bill” it was a union bailout – much like the auto bailout and the bank bailout…
Of course you dont see this because you’re either dumb or dont want to because you’re partisan and politics is a game to you.
Obama and his ilk are very evil people and you’re just a sheep…
Tim should do the economy and President Obama a favor and add 1 to the ranks of the unemployment…..himself!!!!!!!!!!!
Even JFK knows Geithner is wrong. Time to clean house – the Democrats have been in charge of the purse strings since 2006 (not 2008 as they’d have you believe):
“Tax reduction thus sets off a process that can bring gains for everyone, gains won by marshalling resources that would otherwise stand idle—workers without jobs and farm and factory capacity without markets. Yet many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the financial soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit. Let me make clear why, in today’s economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit—why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues.”
—President John F. Kennedy,
Economic Report of the President,
January 1963
Bush comes in, economy booming with a budget surplus, Bush goes out, economy tanking, budget deficit at an all time record. We have a war with the WRONG country still sucking money out of the economy, We have NOT attained our objectives in any theater, jobs are still fleeing overseas, BUT!! The big corporations are still making money hand over fist. Its hard to remember your original objective was draining the swamp when you are up to your *** in alligators!!
@ Paul— please read up on the subject of the “budget surplus” that many on the left and democrats like to brag about. It’s a shell game.
also meant to include, the government is not in the business of making money. If there was a ’surplus’ that means that the government TOOK too much of OUR money to begin with.