November 19, 2009 10:55 AM

Democrat DeFazio: Fire Tim Geithner

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Obama's Cabinet
(US Congress)
Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat pushing for a new tax on Wall Street transactions, is calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to lose his job.

Dubbing White House economic adviser Larry Summers "an adviser from Wall Street" and Geithner – who he calls "Timmy" – "a Treasury Secretary from Wall Street," DeFazio suggested on MSNBC that the two men don't prioritize the best interests of average Americans.

"We think it is time, maybe, that we turn our focus to Main Street -- we reclaim some of the unspent [TARP] funds, we reclaim some of the funds that are being paid back, which will not be paid back in full, and we use it to put people back to work," he said, adding that Geithner and Summers "don't like that idea."

"They want to keep the TARP money either to continue to bail out Wall Street if there are future problems, or maybe…to pay down the deficit," he said. "That's absurd."

Asked if Geithner should stay in his job, DeFazio said no.

"Especially if you look back at the AIG scandal and Goldman [Sachs] and others who got their bets paid off in full," he said. "Instead of saying 'you bet, you lost,' they got paid back in full through AIG. We channeled the money through them."

"Geithner would not answer my question when I said, 'Were those naked credit default swaps by Goldman or were they a counterparty?' He said 'I will not answer that question," added DeFazio.

DeFazio said the Congressional Progressive Caucus is considering asking President Obama to remove Geithner.

The president is "being failed by his economic team," he said. "Their total orientation is Wall Street, not Main Street."


Add a Comment
by TheNewEstablishmint November 25, 2009 8:57 PM EST
Keith McCullough, CEO of Research Edge, calls for Tim Geithner to be fired this morning on Bloomberg TV. http://www.bloomberg.com/avp/avp.htm?N=video&T=McCullough%20Interview%20on%20Dollar%2C%20Gold%2C%20Tim%20Geithner%20&clipSRC=mms://media2.bloomberg.com/cache/vQj1CvEPDRY8.asf
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by greencpa November 20, 2009 12:50 AM EST
U.S. Democrats are advocating international cooperation and coordination, partly in their view to fix eight Bush years of bullying the world behavior. I have been saying for months, that the financial-transaction tax along with financial reform has moved to the G20 and IMF stage. That President Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders do not want the U.S. to act first and unilaterally on these matters, as that would indicate they are trying to cut the line again. It?s Republicans that usually show little care about what Europe, the IMF and the UN say and go it alone. It?s crucial to President Obama?s strategies to take a different path; one of global consensus?Read the full blog here http://www.greencompany.com/blog/index.php
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by John_272 November 19, 2009 1:48 PM EST
Yes, Geithner should go.
http://www.not-hud-compliant.spaces.live.com
http://www.hudincomeexclusions.wordpress.com.
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