Last week, two members of Congress finally stood up for Main Street over the K Street/Big Government lobbyist cabal. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Congressman Michael Burgess (R-TX), in a congressional hearing, called for the resignation of former New York Fed Chair, and now Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner.
Brady and Burgess join countless Americans from across the political spectrum who have zeroed in on key problems that Geithner has created within the Obama Administration. A full 42 percent of Americans rated Geithner performance as poor in a recent Rasmussen Poll, with only 20 percent rating him as “good.”
Geithner’s problems begin during confirmation hearings, when Americans learned that he had failed to pay taxes over three years. The future Treasury Secretary’s excuse for violating tax laws was to blame it on Turbo Tax.
Not long after his wobbly confirmation, Geithner laid out a new Public-Private Investment Plan, which would buy up bad assets, putting the taxpayer on the hook for, at least, $1.1 trillion dollars of debt from the real estate markets. And he did so without seeking Congressional advice, nor allowing congressional consent.
According to Geithner, the Public-Private Plan, was supposed to work like the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), removing much of the risk and restoring confidence in the market. But most economists agree that what is more likely to happen is that the plan will become insolvent, like FHA, causing taxes and debt to rise or more money to be printed.
And now, in a new report from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, it has been revealed that Timothy Geithner helped implement a deal with American International Group (AIG) to buy all of its troubled derivatives for a full 100 cents on the dollar.
For anyone who has ever taken part of a private sector business deal, buying bad debt for 100 cents on the dollar is just simply bad math. But, like most of his colleagues, Treasury Secretary Geithner has fed at the government trough his entire career, having never held a job in the private sector financial community
What is more surprising to many is that Barack Obama has put his faith into career bureaucrat, who’s only other job was working at Kissinger Associates — which is connected to AIG.
As one advisor after another is forced to leave the Administration, the Obama White House is in a dire need of a tested, well-qualified appointee in the Treasury Department that has had experience making good business deals and keeping businesses afloat. Not one that’s only experience is taking the taxpayers’ money and forgetting to pay his own.
In short, Timothy Geithner must go.
