Geithner Asked To Resign-Refuses

Filed under: Economy, Politics — Cato Uticensis @ 9:02 PM Journal Home Page

One thing is clear: the Obama administration fails to accept responsibility for their decisions, and they love to blame Bush!

I know a whole of them who need to resign, starting from the top down! Not a one of them have the common sense to do what is right.

Echoing comments made by a Democratic lawmaker Wednesday night, two Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee today called for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to resign.

Two Republicans call for the treasury secretary’s resignation during hearing.

“It’s been a year since the president was elected,” the panel’s ranking Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, said at a hearing this morning featuring Geithner. “It’s appropriate for the American people to assess how well the administration’s economic policies are working. They are not. They have failed.”

“Unemployment has skyrocketed far past the White House’s projections and promises. America continues to shed jobs: More than 2.8 million since the stimulus was enacted,” Brady said. “We’ve had a series of embarrassing investigations about all the wild stimulus claims, the latest fake jobs from fake congressional districts. …

Replied Geithner, “I agree with almost nothing in what you said, and I think that almost nothing in what you said represents a fair and accurate perception of where this economy is today.”

Geithner said it is “a great privilege to serve this president.” He reminded lawmakers of the dire economic situation that the Obama administration inherited in January.

“You gave this president an economy falling off the cliff, values of American savings cut almost in half, millions of Americans out of work,” Geithner said.

“It’s just a basic fact: A year ago this economy was falling at a rate of 6 percent a year. We were losing between half a million and three-quarters of a million jobs and that process was accelerating, not slowing, until the president of the United States came and took office.”

“Mr. Secretary, the public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job,” Brady responded. “Conservatives agree, Democrats agree that it really is time for a fresh start, and I would urge you to consider it.”

…Later in the hearing another Texas Republican also called for Geithner to go.

“I don’t think that you should be fired,” Rep. Michael Burgess told the Treasury boss. “I thought you never should have been hired.”

“My constituents – they’re not just anxious, they are mad,” Burgess continued. “They are fighting mad about what’s happened in the economy, They are fighting mad about the stimulus.

“They’re fighting mad about how many jobs we created in Arizona’s ninth district – you know a member of Congress from Arizona’s ninth district? They won’t have a ninth district until after redistricting next year. They only have eight right now. This kind of nonsense is what the American people are seeing and that’s why they’re so upset,” Burgess said.