Geithner: Never thought GOP ‘would take it this close to the edge’

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Replay
By David Edwards

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Sunday that time was running out to get a deal in place to raise the debt ceiling before a possible U.S. default on Aug. 2.

“The two key things are we take default off the table, the threat of default off the table through the election and we put in place a framework of tough reforms that forces Congress to act relatively soon,” Geithner told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

The Treasury secretary pointed out that President Barack Obama will veto a short term deal because it “makes no sense.”

“We started the process seven months ago,” he said. “We are running out of runway. I never thought they would take it this close to the edge and let politics get in the way of demonstrating we will pay our bills on time. It has taken us six seven months. The idea that we’re going to spend another seven months lifting the cloud of default from the American economy, it seems irresponsible approach. It would be bad for the economy. We don’t think that makes sense.”

Watch this video from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast July 24, 2011

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/07/geithner-never-thought-gop-would-take-it-this-close-to-the-edge/

[EFerrari]

1. Has Geithner ever been right about anything?

He's a poster boy for failing upward.

[Greybnk48]

6. LOL! That was going to be my exact comment! n/t

[EFerrari]

16. LOL. I wonder outside of DU, how many people could pick him

out of a line up. :)

[scarletwoman]

20. I'd be happy just to have him *in* a lineup.

[Ruby the Liberal]

23. DUzy!!

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

26. LOL

[bemildred]

9. +1. nt

[QC]

24. It's good to be born into the nobility, isn't it?

If Geithner had had to make it on smarts and talent, he would be managing a dirty book store somewhere.

[EFerrari]

27. He'd have to know how to make change.

[QC]

31. True, not to mention restocking the merchandise.

That would have him stumped for sure.

[QC]

30. wrong place

[ThomWV]

2. With every episode they grow a little more insane. What comes next?

It is just a matter of time until they destroy this country. Their attack is incessant.

[fredamae]

3. Geithner: You can Stop at "Never Thought"-nuff said

right there. You (Washington DC) are so far behind the public on Everything! We TRIED to Tell you these are Dangerous RW Radicals!

[DCBob]

Actually Geitner was good today on Fox News Sunday.

Wallace tried his best to trip him up but Timmy had all the "right" answers... given the situation.

[Make7]

4. Didn't it only take four months to write the Constitution? ( n/t )

[Major Hogwash]

8. Yeah, but that was before the Gettysburg Address at Baltimore's train station in 1825.

The Gettysburg Address was a very important mailing address where a speech about trains running on time was given by one of our Founding Fathers, Ben Franklin. He was congratulating the people of the city of Baltimore for getting one of the first electric train stations built west of the Mississippi River. The speech was given just before World War I broke out between the Axis powers, that the United States was the leader of, and Mexico, who was stealing our electricity because of our broken borders. Many of our Founding Fathers were there to hear that speech including George Washington, George Bernhard Shaw, and Grover Cleveland.

History according to Michelle Bachmann.

[BeFree]

5. Geithner: Whaaaaaa!

This time they are not using a condom!!

[Major Hogwash]

7. Sounds like Johnny Carson -- "Who knew?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

[Nay]

10. Then you, Tim, are a fucking idiot. Did you grow up in a barn? For 30

years the Republicans have taken everything to the edge of madness, and just now you've noticed?

[mazzarro]

18. So, if I may read between the lines

Geithner presumed that rethugs were never going to push this to the edge and thus he saw a semi protracted and engineered negotiation as a way of hoodwinking liberals into accepting deep cuts in the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while they pseudo-negotiate raising the debt-ceiling. But alas - the Teabaggers got better idea and double-crossed the hell out of Geithner and Obama. Now they - Geithner and Obama - are floundering trying to recover as much as they possibly can.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Naive or full of it

I say the latter. This is playing out as planned.

[snappyturtle]

12. ...."playing out as planned." Scary, isn't it? nt

[BeyondGeography]

21. Unnecessary, too

A collective failure by Obama and the Dems, and probably not in that order. They had the ability to deal with this in the last Congress (with the pending expiration of the Bush tax cuts) and punted. So here we are.

[snappyturtle]

32. Absolutely! nt

[kiranon]

34. Agree completely. n/t

[pa28]

13. Geithner was nice enough to provide Republicans with the date of August 2nd.

Who could have predicted they would use it to pressure us?

:eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. I never thought a Democratic president would put SS and Medicare in the "negotiations".

But, Geithner probably did.

[PA Democrat]

15. He never thought Wall Street would either.

[Overseas]

17. Cuz Gee Golly, McConnell only said defeating Obama was his main objective.

And golly they can do that without crashing the economy-- they found other ways to defeat Gore and Kerry.

[dgibby]

19. Does anyone really believe that Obama will let the US default

over a short term deal?

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Telling. If you idiots would get your head out of the DC echo chamber once in a while

Good Lord. We have been saying this for MONTHS now. On BOTH sides of the aisle.

Clueless, clueless, clueless.

[Renew Deal]

25. I knew they would take it to the edge because they made a promise they couldn't keep.

They had no choice but to raise the debt ceiling.

[scarletwoman]

28. So, this was one of those "unknown unknowns", eh, Timmy?

The Political Class in DC absolutely nauseates me.

sw

[theaocp]

29. Well, he used to be a Republican, so

he probably thought they'd react like *he* would, as a reasonable Republican. I ask again, WHY is he still employed?

[Octafish]

33. Yah. Especially after all the trillions he helped them steal.

AIG, for instance, alone was $234 Billion.

[WinkyDink]

35. "No one could have imagined......"