Geithner on Spending Cuts to Come in Round Two

Check out the Super Committee graphic explainer here.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's op-ed for the Washington Post:

....The agreement sets up a powerful mechanism for agreement on tax reforms to strengthen growth, and entitlement reforms to strengthen programs such as Medicare. A congressional committee with fast-track authority will have a Nov. 23 deadline to recommend a balanced package of long-term reforms to produce $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction.

The agreement creates a strong incentive to compromise: If the committee fails to reach agreement or Congress fails to act on the recommendations, government spending will automatically be cut by $1.2 trillion. These across-the-board cuts, evenly weighted between the defense budget and domestic programs, would take effect in 2013.

These broad, automatic cuts, timed to coincide with the end of the Bush tax cuts, will make it harder for Congress to choose inaction over compromise.

The agreement removes the threat of default and lowers the prospect of using the debt limit as an instrument of coercion. It should not be possible for a small minority to threaten catastrophe if the rest of the government decides not to embrace an extreme agenda of austerity and the dismantling of programs for the elderly and the less fortunate. Read the rest at WaPo

Geithner: Short Term Plan Unacceptable

As seen on twitter:

Maybe Speaker Boehner should try this tack: "Do you love your country more than you hate President Obama?"

Watch this flashback on to a time when democrat and republican leaders got along for the good of the nation.

Today, Boehner is coming up with another plan, unilaterally, according to WaPo. If the republicans can force a short-term debt deal, that will mean further damage to our economy, therefore further damage to Obama, which is and has been the republican end goal from the get go. It's interesting that Boehner, one of the key negotiators, made room for Fox News Sunday, whose audience is the choir.
Watch Geithner. The problem for Boehner is he needs some democrats to support his plan because there are some House members who absolutely will NOT increase the debt ceiling. The bottom line: Geithner says the debt ceiling will be raised.

Geithner appeared on a series of political talk shows Sunday to insist that any deal must lift the legal limit on the nation’s borrowing long enough to remove the possibility of a default from the politically heated presidential campaign season.

“There’s nothing wrong with doing this in stages,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But what it cannot do is leave the threat of default hanging over the economy.”

Further raising tensions at the start of a critical day of negotiations, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated Sunday that Republicans could push forward with a plan this week, even without Democratic support.

That threat of unilateral action further muddles the ongoing talks among congressional leaders of both parties and the White House on a deal that could get support from all sides. More at WaPo

Understanding the Debt Ceiling

Tim Geithner on Meet the Press April 17

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Obama Administration's Plan to Wind Down Fannie and Freddie Mac

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Geithner Warns Republicans Against Politicizing the Fed

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the Obama administration would oppose any effort to strip the Federal Reserve of its mandate to pursue full employment and warned Republicans against politicizing the central bank.

“It is very important to keep politics out of monetary policy,” Geithner said in an interview airing on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” this weekend. “You want to be very careful not to take steps that hurt our credibility.” Bloomberg

On tax cuts:

Geithner, 49, declined to say what compromise the Obama administration would be willing to consider on extending Bush- era tax cuts, while ruling out making permanent the reductions for the wealthiest Americans.
“It is not responsible, and I could not recommend to the president in good conscience, that we go out and borrow $700 billion to make those high-end tax cuts permanent,” Geithner said.

He said he doesn’t think the tax cuts for the middle class will be allowed to expire in December, or that all of the tax cuts, including those for the wealthy, will be extended permanently.

On GM:

On General Motors Co., Geithner said the government would get back “a very substantial part” of its investment and all the money the Obama administration spent on bailing out the automaker. Taxpayers put about $13.4 billion into GM under former President George W. Bush and $36.1 billion under Obama. Read the whole interview at Bloomberg

TARP Myths

Timothy Geither writes on five TARP myths in WaPo. Here's No. 2:

2. The TARP was a gift for Wall Street that did nothing for Main Street.

Financial crises matter not because they hurt banks and bankers. They matter because they kill jobs, businesses and the value of retirement savings. To protect Main Street from the damage caused by a financial crisis, you must first put out the financial fire. That is precisely what the government did.

In the fall of 2008, the Bush administration injected nearly $250 billion into our largest financial institutions and provided a guarantee, for a fee, to help them continue to operate. Those emergency actions, taken at a time of grave danger for the U.S. economy, were absolutely essential. Without them we would have seen a broader collapse and losses of millions more jobs and trillions more dollars in income and savings.

Those initial investments, which came with limited conditions designed to protect taxpayers, helped stop the free fall of the financial system. But by the time President Obama took office, credit markets were still severely distressed and the economy was contracting at an accelerating rate.

So we shifted strategy to recapitalize the financial system with tough conditions and with private money, not public funds. And we focused resources directly on the victims of the crisis, rather than on the institutions that helped cause it. After inheriting nearly $300 billion in commitments, mostly to large companies, we directed resources toward lowering mortgage rates, reducing foreclosures and helping restart the credit markets for consumers and small businesses.

In addition to the nearly $300 billion in tax cuts in the Recovery Act for working Americans and businesses, the new initiatives on which we spent TARP funds were for broad-based programs to lower lending costs and mortgage payments. And where we inherited commitments to individual institutions -- such as AIG and auto companies -- we acted to ensure that those companies were fundamentally restructured so they could survive without government assistance and ultimately repay the taxpayer. More at WaPo

Oh, and TARP was started by GWB and championed by republicans:

5. The TARP was the centerpiece of a strategy by President Obama to assert more government control over the economy.

The TARP was created by a conservative Republican president, who was also forced by the crisis to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, lend billions to the automobile industry and guarantee money-market funds. And the TARP was championed by the same Republican congressional leaders who are in office today. They deserve more credit for the courage they showed than they seem willing to accept now.

Obama's Schedule Sept. 9

Tomorrow, Obama holds a news conference. No details on time yet. It will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov.

10:00 AM	The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing Oval Office Closed Press
10:30 AM	The President meets with senior advisors Oval Office Closed Press
1:30 PM	The President meets with Secretary of the Treasury Geithner Oval Office Closed Press

Geithner's Interview on GMA

Timothy Geithner says that it would be fiscally irresponsible to extend tax cuts to the wealthiest of 2% of Americans. Want to see how the wealthiest are hanging in there? Check this out.

Obama's Schedule July 27

In the morning, Obama has his usual briefings.
11 am eastern, Obama meets with republicans and democrats in Congress.
12 pm, he'll make a statement to the press, probably regarding the Senate vote on the Disclose Act. Live stream.
12:20 pm, Obama lunches with House members.
3:05 pm, Obama welcomes Warner Robins Softball champions.
4 pm, Obama meets with Timothy Geithner (treasury).
4:30 pm, Obama meets with Robert Gates (defense).
7 pm, Obama attends a DNC fundraiser in NYC.

Obama's Schedule July 22 2010

Obama gets an update on the oil spill yesterday

In the morning, Obama gets his regular briefings and meets with advisors.
11:25 am eastern, Obama speaks and signs the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act.
1 pm, Robert Gibbs holds the daily press briefing. Live stream here.
1:30 pm, Obama meets with Gen. Ray Odierno and Ambassador Christopher Hill.
3 pm, Obama meets with Timothy Geithner.

Obama to Announce Export Council

This is Obama's schedule for the day.
Obama will speak on a new export panel and the economy today at 11:25 am eastern.
At 12 pm, Obama and Biden get updated on the oil spill. Then they'll have lunch.
2 pm, Obama and Biden meets with Timothy Geithner.
3:30 pm, Obama and Biden meet with Hillary Clinton.
Here is a live stream of Obama's announcement of an export panel slated for 11:25 am:

Obama's Schedule July 1 2010

Obama meets with Timothy Geithner at 10 am eastern.

At 10:50 am, Obama speaks on immigration. It's being called a "major" speech. Watch it live here.

12:15 pm, Obama meets with business leaders.

1:30 pm, Thad Allen and Carol Browner join Robert Gibbs to update the press on the oil disaster.

3:05 pm, Obama and Biden meet with Harry Reid.

3:35 pm, Obama and Biden get briefed on the oil disaster.

4:20 pm, Obama welcomes Women's Professional Soccer champs to the White House.

5:35 pm, Obama and Biden meet again.

6:15 pm, Obama signs Iran sanctions bill.

Fourth of July Wall Street Reform

House and Senate have finally agreed on financial reforms and have come up with a bill that is expected to be on Obama's desk by the Fourth of July:

Congress early Friday moved to the brink of passing a landmark overhaul of Wall Street, which would hand President Barack Obama a major victory ahead of the midterm elections.

A 43-member conference of House and Senate lawmakers finished the bill just after 5:30 a.m., after a marathon, all-night session of dealmaking, lobbying and scores of votes. The 2,000-page bill aims to prevent taxpayer-funded bailouts and revamp regulation of mortgages, credit cards, broad financial system risks and the $600 trillion derivatives market.
....
Frank, chairman of the conference committee, said the bill was tougher in the end than he once thought was possible to pass through Congress.

"You hate to have the kind of pain people had during the crisis, but it redoubled our resolve," Frank said. "We have done something that has been badly needed and sorely needed for some time," Dodd said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the bill, "represents the most sweeping set of financial reforms since those that followed the Great Depression."
Read more at The HIll

McChrystal Arrives at the White House

Stan snuck into the White House and the meeting began at about 9:51 am eastern, according to Politico. Gen. Barry McCaffrey said on the Today Show that there are 10 people who could easily step into Stan's shoes, without missing a beat, which is good to hear. If there are 10 people, then someone more deserving should take over.

Hamid Karzai is hoping his pal doesn't get fired. You can imagine the boyish jokes that those two have made about the administration. Stan and Karzai's chummy relationship explains why Karzai has been difficult to deal with.

Obama should find out from Stan why it is folks like Stan don't think Obama is the real president. How did McChrystal feel so free to say what he did? Was it the alcohol?
Right after meeting with Stan, Obama will meet with his Af-Pak advisers (see Obama's schedule today here). Notice that McChrystal is on the list. Perhaps he's there to apologize to all:

Vice President Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense
Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff
General James Jones, National Security Advisor
Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor
John Brennan, Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor
Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
David Gompert, Acting Director of National Intelligence
Leon Panetta, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Rajiv Shah, Administrator, USAID
James Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State
Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Doug Lute, Coordinator for Afghanistan and Pakistan
John Tien, Senior Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan
General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command
General Stanley McChrystal, Commander, International Security Assistance Force and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Ambassador Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)

Stan's arrival

Obama's Father's Day Speech June 21 Video

Obama: "If I could be anything in life, I would be a good father." He also said of all the jobs he's had, the most important one is being Sasha and Malia's dad.

Obama Meets With Deepwater Family Members

Obama has a lot of meetings slated for today.

At 10:30 am eastern, Obama will get an update on the BP oil disaster.

At 11:15 am, Obama will meet with republican and democrat Congress members.

At 1:30 pm, Obama will meet with the family members who lost loved ones on the oil rig explosion.

At 2:30 pm, Obama meets with Arlen Specter.

at 3 pm, Obama meets with Timothy Geithner.

At 3:45 pm, Obama will meet with business leaders on energy reform.

Obama's Schedule May 20

Obama and Geithner

Obama has a meeting with his advisers in the morning, as he usually does, and then at 3 pm, he and Biden are scheduled to meet with Timothy Geithner. That is all for Obama's public schedule tomorrow.
What might they be discussing? Geithner is headed to China next week. The SEC also released its preliminary findings on the market plunge May 6. I haven't read it yet, but you can here.

Geithner: Fannie, Freddie and Housing Finance Market Up Next

In an interview with Bloomberg's Al Hunt, Timothy Geithner calls the Wall Street reform bill "a very strong bill." He says it's close to done. Geithner said as soon as this bill is passed, the Obama administration will start legislation to reform Fannie and Freddie and the housing finance market, which is why the Senate defeated John McCain, Richard Shelby and Judd Gregg's Fannie and Freddie amendment.

Geithner said the SEC will release a report on Monday with the initial findings of the cause of the recent market plunge.

Geithner is headed to China next week.

Obama's Schedule May 10

At 10 am eastern, Obama will announce Elena Kagan as his choice for Supreme Court Justice. Look for a live stream at msnbc.com or cbsnews.com.
At 1:30 pm eastern, Gibbs will hold his daily press briefing with Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry.
At 2:30 pm, Obama will meet on oil cleanup efforts.
At 4 pm, Obama meets with Timothy Geithner.
At 4:30 pm, Obama meets with Steven Chu.