Shelby: Geithner "Wasted" Senate's Time
Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, on Wednesday lambasted Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new plan for using the second $350 billion in financial bailout money.
Speaking on CBS News' The Early Show, Shelby said the plan, presented in a speech and a Senate committee hearing yesterday afternoon, "was vague, indefinite, opaque at best."
"First of all, there was nothing specific in the plan. He had nothing really to say to the American people, the Congress, or to the banks. He basically admitted this," Shelby said. "He wasted about three or four hours of the Senate's time and we want to know where the specifics are. And he doesn't have them."
"They are in unchartered waters, but they've got to do better than this," Shelby added. "It sounds to me similar to what [former Treasury Secretary] Paulson did on TARP one, and that's unacceptable to the Congress, unacceptable to the American people. They want transparency, they want to know who is going to benefit from this. Are they going to benefit? Is it going to make the banking system work?"
"I think on both sides of the aisle in the Senate Banking Committee, people were appalled that he had really nothing to say," Shelby said.
You can watch the whole interview below:
