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Exiting Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Congress’ failure to pass a debt ceiling bill has lead to the Treasury Department taking “extraordinary measures” to continue to pay the nation’s debts. Treasury Secretary Geithner has now written a letter to Congress saying his is running out of tricks.
From the Treasury Department:
Treasury currently expects to exhaust these extraordinary measures between mid-February and early March of this year. We will provide a more narrow range with a more targeted estimate at a later date. Any estimate, however, will be subject to a significant amount of uncertainty because we are entering the tax filing season, when the amounts and timing of tax payments and refunds are unpredictable. For this reason, Congress should act as early as possible to extend normal borrowing authority in order to avoid the risk of default and any interruption in payments.
If the extraordinary measures were allowed to expire without an increase in borrowing authority, Treasury would be left to fund the government solely with the cash we have on hand on any given day. As you know, cash would not be adequate to meet existing obligations for any meaningful length of time because the government is currently operating at a deficit…
Protecting the full faith and credit of the United States is the responsibility of Congress because only Congress can extend the nation’s borrowing authority. No Congress has ever failed to meet that responsibility. It must be understood that the nation’s creditworthiness is not a bargaining chip or a hostage that can be taken to advance any political agenda; it is an essential underpinning of our strength as a nation. Threatening to undermine our creditworthiness is no less irresponsible than threatening to undermine the rule of law, and no more legitimate than any other common demand for ransom.
Lines seem pretty set between the parties on a debt ceiling deal – Republicans want their cuts and Democrats won’t negotiate with hostage takers. We’ll see who folds rather soon.
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Obama will not fold. He will cut what he wants to cut and that will be that.
Why try to play up the kabuki?
If it’s all kabuki, it’s an odd form of kabuki. Even the press were calling Obama a self-defined coward yesterday.
If this is all a big lead up to a fold then he’s damaging what is left of his credibility and solidifying his public legacy as a horrendous negotiator for what private benefit? Or is there some secret enjoyment in cutting for cutting’s sake?
Get ready for the coming vote to chain CPI and slash medicare, oh lion-of-progressivism, Rep. Alan Grayson! You know where the YES box is. When you’ve done it, come and explain yourself here, why don’t you.
Any bookies around taking bets on which one???
I’ve got an idea which one “folds.” “Folds” isn’t really the best word though since what they’re actually doing is getting exactly what they want while putting the blame on Republicans. It’s worked like a charm for every issue so far.
Republicans want to negotiate a trade-off between the opposing desires of Republicans and Democrats. Democrats refuse to negotiate.
Don’t you just hate obstructionists?
republicans want to stop payment on items they’ve already bought, democrats want to obstruct that crime
don’t you just hate criminals who make believe they are trying to negotiate to cover up their crime?
I am betting he even had a phone call with the repukes going something like;
“I need to cut ss and the easiest method right now seems to me you guys have to make believe you will not raise the dept ceiling, would you mind helping me out here?”
My stars! You mean that Obama still had some sort of “credibility” left? Whodaguessed?
No offense intended. Your posts are great, but as I commented in another post this morning: I am so deeply cynical at this point, that I think I need to come up with a new word to define to my state of being.
I haven’t seen any “credibility” in Obama ever. He *always* folds. The end.
‘The Treasury Secretary, played by menacing, rodent faced Timothy Geithner, tells Congress to get a move on.’
So bloody what?
Obama let the cat out of the bag when he gave his reason for refusing to invoke executive measures to ensure the full faith and credit of the U.S. He wants to politically pin the responsibility on Congress rather than take all necessary measure to protect the nation’s credit. And then, when the debt limit is assuredly not raised and the situation has worsened, he will advocate the need for ultimate compromise, i.e. cuts to earned benefits.
And the samisens play on.
No, that is false.
Republicans in Congress reject their collective authority, and responsibility, in the first and second enumerated powers of Congress.
Republicans on the right are taking America back to 1786 when Congress did not have the power to tax to fund its spending and to pay its debts, the glorious days of Shays Rebellion.
The Republicans are debating the past 225 years of American history of legislation.
What will probably happen is Obama will END UP SHOOTING THE HOSTAGE to prevent the dastardly R’s from doing it first.
Therefore, both sides get what they want, while the hostage can’t object any more?
Not only those, but the 7th gives Congress power to draw from the Treasury for appropriations. Makes the Debt Ceiling legislation rather a moot point.
Excellent comments here today. I think everybody has a good point. How this will all end is anybody’s guess. I saw Obama’s press conference yesterday. Not at all impressed. I have no faith in this guy and as my dear colleague onit mentioned above, what credibility does he have? Yes, the repugs are despicable. Nothing new here. But, make no mistake about it, Obama is part of the problem, not, as he seems to think, part of the solution.