[Lying tax cheat Tim] Geithner blasts Bush policies for debt

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 8/4/10 | Glenn Somerville and Kim Dixon

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration's "misguided" policies are to blame for huge U.S. budget deficits, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner charged on Wednesday as he sought to build an election-year case for ending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

With congressional elections looming in November, Geithner sought to regain the high ground on the issue of who bears responsibility for record budget gaps and to counter Republican labeling of Democrats as tax-and-spend, bailout-happy liberals.

Geithner said extending the Bush-era tax cuts for top income earners, as Republicans want, would force more borrowing to cover lost revenues and crimp more-effective remedies for boosting economic growth and hiring.

"Borrowing to finance tax cuts for the top 2 percent would be a $700 billion fiscal mistake," Geithner said. "It's not the prescription the economy needs now, and the country can't afford it."

With the economic recovery showing signs of slowing and unemployment at a lofty 9.5 percent, President Barack Obama's popularity has taken a heavy hit and Democrats on Capitol Hill are at risk of losing their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The U.S. budget gap, which hit a record $1.41 trillion in fiscal 2009 and is poised to grow wider this year, has unnerved many Americans. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 44 percent of registered voters rank the deficit as an extremely important issue in deciding how to vote.

[griswold3]

I’ve tried to follow Timmy’s math but I got lost.
Repeal the top 2% and get $37B in tax revenue or allow them to continue and it’s a $700B mistake?

[Eagles6]

Just heard that "commander zero's" mother worked for geitner's father at the ford foundation while she worked in indonesia.

Pretty incestuous.

[musicman]

[SlightOfTongue]

Oh, right, no tax extensions for hard-working Americans, just for weasels like Geithner, who's got a 'lifetime tax extension' on his last returns. That's fair, huh? Maybe in the Marxist Pig Book of Good Government and Ethical Practices, which would coincide with just plain old liberal ethics - Judicial Anarchy!!!!

[Bryan24]

I don’t think it has ever crossed Geitner’s mind that all of that tax money taken in is what pays those workers out in the real world.

You take all of that money out of the economy and give it to government. Who produces jobs more efficiently, the private sector or government?

These people, Barak Obama and Tim Geitner leading the charge, are utter fools.

[Vendome]

All right....

I hereby trademark Blame is on Bush™, BIOB™, Bushes Fault™, The Previous Administration™, Bush Administration™.

Now pay me my royalties!

[Vaduz]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner LOL what a goof.