George S. May Business Blog

Connie Mack calls Timothy Geithner a “disaster”, demands resignation

Connie Mack, an outspoken Florida Republican Representative, called for newly appointed Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner to be fired Wednesday. Connie Mack is the first member of Capitol Hill to call for his dismissal.

Connie Mack, in a written statement, said:

“Quite simply, the Timothy Geithner experience has been a disaster. The Treasury Department is in disarray. Taxpayer dollars are being wasted. America’s economy hangs in the balance. America needs and deserves a treasury secretary who can truly lead us forward.” 

Connie Mack called on Geithner, the former New York Federal Reserve chief, to either resign or be fired, and said President Obama should nominate a new secretary with “the experience and leadership skills America deserves.”

Well, Mr. Connie Mack, who might that be? Does Henry Paulson have a brother? He did a stellar job.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama has “complete confidence” in Geithner, as lawmakers began to question why the Treasury Department didn’t do more to prevent American International Group from paying $165 million in bonuses even after receiving more than $170 billion in federal bailout money. 

President Obama echoed those remarks during questioning from the press this morning:

“I have complete confidence in Tim Geithner… Understand, Tim Geithner did not draft these contracts with AIG. There has never been a Secretary of the Treasury, other than maybe Alexander Hamilton right after the Revolutionary War, that has had to deal with the multiplicity of issues that Secretary Tim Geithner has had to deal with, all at the same time. He is doing so with intelligence and diligence. Nobody is working harder than this guy.”

As you can probably tell, is doesn’t seem that Mr. Geithner will be going anywhere anytime soon.

The administration, at first, claimed Geithner found out about the bonuses last Tuesday. However, in questioning Wednesday, Obama revealed that they may have had a hunch earlier as he side stepped the question [of whether he wished he would have found out about the bonuses earlier]: “Rather than go into the details of finding it out, ultimately I’m responsible. I’m the President of the United States.”

Connie Mack also suggested that he was more involved: 

“Before Timothy Geithner became secretary of the Treasury, he was working hand-in-hand with AIG and other financial institutions to provide them hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money as one of the key architects of the financial sector bailout,” he said. “I’ve had serious concerns about Secretary Geithner from the moment he was nominated. In the months since, he has shown us time and again why he was the wrong choice for this critical post.” 

While Connie Mack is correct, in that, Geithner oversaw negotiations within AIG while heading the Fed, his call for Tim Geithner’s removal is a bit much. Frankly, I am getting quite irked at the way people are so quick to point the finger and call people within the White House “failures” for not cleaning up a mess immediately. Where was Mack when Paulson was groveling to Congress?

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