The Spectacle Blog
President Obama’s economic policies “were incredibly effective,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday, crediting the president with having prevented a depression.
While admitting it is “still a very tough economy out there,” Geithner said the administration is “making a lot of progress” and said “the broad indicators are pretty encouraging.”
Interviewed on ABC’s This Week, Geithner was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the gloomy forecasts from economists such as New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, who called the current recovery “anemic, subpar, below trend, below potential.”
Geithner suggested Obama could not be blamed for that, saying “if he’d had more support from his opponents in Congress, then we could have got more things passed that would have put more people back to work more quickly.”
During the first two years of Obama’s presidency, Democrats controlled the House of Representatives and had a nearly veto-proof majority in the Senate. During that period, Congress passed the president’s $800 billion economic stimulus package, the Affordable Care Act healthcare bill, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill and other key elements of Obama’s economic agenda. Geithner credited the president’s policies with spurring growth.
“The actions the president took, at considerable political cost at that time — as you know, he had no support for them from the Republicans — were incredibly effective in preventing a great depression, getting growth restarted again very, very quickly,” Geithner said.
The Treasury secretary also dismissed as “a ridiculous argument” the claims this week by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that women had suffered as a result of the Obama administration’s economic policies.
“The president’s policies are making the economy stronger,” Geithner told Stephanopoulos. “And the alternatives proposed by his opposition would be devastating, not just to the safety net but to investments in education. They would be damaging to the economy.”
Geithner also appeared Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press as well as on the CBS program Face the Nation, where he called Romney’s argument “misleading,” and told host Bob Schieffer, “It’s a meaningless way to look at the basic contours of the economy in that period of time, again because it starts artificially at a time when the president came into office and the crisis was still building momentum.”
In an e-mail to CBS, Romney campaign spokewoman Andrea Saul said: “If they move the starting point to the beginning of their so-called recovery, they will find women have benefited from less than one-eighth of the meager job creation. … The President should stop making excuses for his failures — he is entitled to his own spin but not his own facts.”
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Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 12:29PM
Tiny Tim is one of the many, many reasons why 11/4/12 is critical to this nation. He, like his boss, IS A GD LIAR and anyone with two ounces of common sense knows it. The non-stimulus of $800 billions was a political payoff to labor unions [Detroit's and each/every governmental entity represented by unions], welfarecare $16 trillion [to the snot nosers stealing seniors' Medicare], Solyndra's $500 million[to the gooney bird environmentalists], etc. Oh, lets not forget Keystone Pipeline's elimination with now $5/gallon gasoline or maybe AFFORDABLE HOUSING Democratic policies since 1977's CRA that has destroyed our housing market. Oh sure Tiny Tim, what other BS are you going to brainwash us with next? Geithner, Obama, Biden, Sharpton, Jackson, Jones, Garrett, Fluke, Rosen, Michelle-My-Belle, etc............they're all BS ARTISTS!!!!!!!!!
The American Hitman| 4.15.12 @ 12:44PM
Mitt has both supported the stimulus and opposed it. Which one are you voting for?
Stan Redmond| 4.15.12 @ 1:26PM
The Anybody but Obama Romney. We don't have a choice.
Jack in Wi.| 4.15.12 @ 1:26PM
Bush, Obama, and Romney are all bankster, and warmonger owned. For that treason expect at least 4 more years of war, decline, and depression.
Stan Redmond| 4.15.12 @ 1:34PM
Obama has stated his desire to end America as we knew her and is taking us as fast as possible to a socialist welfare monarchy. I'll still go with Romney.
beebop2| 4.15.12 @ 4:40PM
Anyone who tries to tell you that Romney is the same as 0bama is a troll.
Oldefarte| 4.16.12 @ 12:41PM
Or maybe STUPID!!!!
Dai Alanye | 4.16.12 @ 2:05PM
Few of us know STUPID!!!! as well as elderly flatus.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.16.12 @ 10:13AM
Yawn
RJ| 4.15.12 @ 12:43PM
What's next? Is the Obama Administration going to claim credit for preventing an invasion from Mars? No amount of spin is going to change reality.
Stan Redmond| 4.15.12 @ 1:29PM
This coming from a guy that cheats on his taxes and admits there is no plan from the administration to control the deficit or cut spending. This from the guy who has overseen the most massive amount of deficit spending since...EVER. This from the guy tha supports policies that have more people out of work than the population of Germany.
Yeah. Credibility, thy name ain't Timmy Geitner.
Vern Crisler | 4.15.12 @ 1:30PM
Remember, when Mitt was governor of Massachussets his record of jobs growth was 47th out of 50 States. His record is not much better than Obama's.
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 2:14PM
Clint=Teflon93=TAH: I'm NOT supporting the stimulus that YOUR [MM's] boy @1600 proclamated. Go sell your 'NON-STICK EXCREMENT' to someone else!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 2:16PM
The Media Matters trio of morons is out in full force today, obviously. Forrest was right on!!!!
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 2:25PM
Jack: If your governor is defeated, you won;t have to worry anymore about those mean old bankers, SINCE YOUR SOCIALISTS WILL HAVE COMPLETELY TAKEN OVER THIS COUNTRY THANKS TO YOU. Your labor union goons [like your boy from Pa who prostituted himself to unions and who was a lobbyist pre-congress] will overun Wisconsin on their way to their scorched earth destruction of the US, if you and yours allow them to. Don't fret over bankers........worry about Scott Walker instead!!!!!!!
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 2:27PM
PS Jack: If you can't tell the difference between Bush and Romney versus Obama, then you need a new pair of reading glasses and a brain tranplant!!!!!!!
Dai Alanye | 4.16.12 @ 2:08PM
I realize that some consider oldefarte ignorant, but let us count our blessings -- at least he's polite.
richard mcenroe | 4.15.12 @ 2:37PM
Oh BTW, Romney disses stay-at-home-moms: http://huff.to/Id5SMG
This is a problem we're going to have with Governor Whitman McCain all the way down the line, folks; he's taken both sides on so many issues depending on what suited his immediate office that there is no way to believe what he is saying today is what he will do tomorrow.
beebop2| 4.15.12 @ 4:41PM
They only problem we are going to have is ignoring the trolls.
SWOhio| 4.15.12 @ 8:44PM
I believe that Reagan started out as a Democrat.
People change their minds on many things over time. I know I have.
The people who scare me are the ones like Obama who will never deviate from his plan to destroy this country.
Oldefarte| 4.16.12 @ 12:39PM
Are you serious???? 'Oh BTW, Romney disses stay-at-home-moms' Romney's wife IS a stay-at-home-mom! Where have you been for the last week? Do you know who Hilary Rosen is and what she said???????????????????????
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 2:39PM
TAH [Clint+Teflon]: I'm not a supporter of any politician and never have been. I will however place my bet on Romney over Obama, since the former is a CAPITALIST while the latter is a SOCIALIST. I'm hoping that a Romney presidency will use their extensive private sector/capitalistic experience [with the encouragement from numerous conservative Republicans in congress] to begin to downsize the government. Romney was governor of Mass., which is/has been controlled by liberal Democrats [Kennedys, Kerrys, Dukakas, Frank etc] and was constrained accordingly, just as was Clinton alternatively by conservatives in Arkansas [that just fired their football coach over morality issues]. Clinton came out of his liberal closet after Arkansas, just as I think Romney will do conservatively after Ma. We'll see, as you never can tell with politicians, BUT I'll gladly go with Romney versus Obama[since four more years of the latter will bring about the destruction of this country, period]!!!!!!!!
PattyMor| 4.15.12 @ 3:33PM
Well gee thanks little Timmy we rubes wouldn't know that things are going swimmingly swell until you told us. Psst don't look at all the people on welfare, food stamps, unemployment or scraping to make ends meet because food, fuel, clothing and tuition are skyrocketing.
Oldefarte| 4.15.12 @ 4:01PM
Clint=Teflon93=TAH wants you to sign up for this:
'.....Breitbart.com
MoveOn Recruits for '99% Spring' Training by Laura Rambeau Lee 1 day ago Moveon.org has launched a massive recruiting and training program across the country to prepare for a “99% Spring in America." Here is a link to several videos, including Van Jones being interviewed by Chris Hayes on MSNBC.
They are enlisting disaffected Americans to join together to take on the wealthiest 1% in the name of social and economic justice, stating, “You could be a part of a huge wave of progressive direct action this spring. Learn how to practice nonviolence in the spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. at a 99% Spring action training.” The email continues, “We're coming together from every corner of our movement to provide in-depth direct action training to 100,000 people from April 9 to 15. The goal is to pave the way for a 99% Spring filled with a huge wave of progressive direct action nationwide.”
They will be staging rallies across the country on Tax Day to demand that the 1% pay their fair share and plan on gathering en masse at shareholder meetings of several Wall Street banks, confronting “dirty energy polluters, and corporations that refuse to treat workers fairly."
With unemployment continuing at record highs, the environment is ripe for Progressive mischief. But there is a deeper issue here that needs to be addressed.....'
JP| 4.15.12 @ 4:12PM
The President and the Dems essientially have borrowed over the last 3 year $5 + trillion in order to get 2% GDP growth, and an unemployment roll the size of Germany (88 million).
Hard to run on that record. If only Mitt would emphasize those points.
Jim| 4.15.12 @ 4:30PM
As if further proof of Geithner's incompetence were needed.
MarkJ| 4.15.12 @ 4:38PM
I think this story finally, and irrefutably, confirms that Tiny Tim Geithner and "Baghdad Bob" are related. The apples definitely don't fall far from the tree, do they?
beebop2| 4.15.12 @ 4:44PM
Tim isn't staying around for round two. He's going to cut his losses and go back to investment banking.
2Anglico| 4.15.12 @ 6:34PM
Maybe Tim and Barry can go to work for Turbo Tax.
C Bowen | 4.15.12 @ 6:45PM
"If they move the starting point to the beginning of their so-called recovery, they will find women have benefited from less than one-eighth of the meager job creation. ... The President should stop making excuses for his failures -- he is entitled to his own spin but not his own facts."
This quote fuels The Other McCain with great hope?
What I know about Romney is that he wants 20 something white males to pay for insurance that covers birth control for women, and now he is apparently concerned that women are note benefiting enough from Obama's recovery.
Talk about the Stupid Party...
Paul McGrath| 4.15.12 @ 9:21PM
The Republicans must NOT play on the white/black, male/female, rich/poor, young/old turf created by the Democrats. It is a losing strategy.
Instead, Republicans must emphasize that their policies are good for all Americans, and the Republican presidential candidate better be able to articulate why.
The speech by Reagan reprinted by Goldstein the other day is a very good place to start.
alanstorm| 4.15.12 @ 11:21PM
So the slogan for Obama's re-election campaign is going to be "It could have been worse!"?
Gee. How inspirational.
Pete| 4.16.12 @ 10:35AM
"Aren't you glad I let you live today?" might be another good one. Only a complicit media, against all historical precedent and fact, would let that dunce make the "it could have been so much worse" claim and get away with it.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.16.12 @ 10:16AM
Heh, Geithner just wants to keep his job. Big surprise.
Dixie Pixie| 4.16.12 @ 11:04AM
Just for a moment let us assume “Tiny” Tim Geithner is telling the truth.
I know it is a stretch to assume any Obama administration official is even remotely capable of telling the truth, but stay with me.
Is Geithner right in that a Second Great Depression and the impoverishment of the Private Sector is what Obama and the Democrats wanted from the start?
Certainly the Public Sector, and with it Democratic Party and its supporters have raked in Trillions of dollars looted from the Private Sector.
The Public Sector Unions have greatly benefited from the over-inflation of the Federal Government.
The Banks and Wall Street are doing quite well as Main Street withers.
It is certainly true “Fly Over Country” has a lot fewer assets to work with and so are a lot less of an irritant to the Ruling Class with their desires for “Freedom”, “Prosperity” and “Limited Government”.
Is Geithner right and the state of the current economy the intended desire all along?
martin j smith| 4.16.12 @ 11:58AM
Do you really expect Geithner to call Obama a failure that he is ? If Obama's economic plan are working so well it must mean his plan to destroy our economy is on schedual. But if Geithner wants me to believe that the economy is actually improving then tell me--why the programs about Hunger in America ?
Mistral| 4.16.12 @ 1:24PM
I could not have put it better myself - "incredibly" - the active word!
JohnInFlorida| 4.17.12 @ 10:56AM
I guess that removes ALMOST ALL doubt there might have been about Geithner. The only doubt remaining is whether he is totally onboard for Obama's "fundamental transformation" of the USA or that he's just stupid.
jefferywilliams | 7.12.12 @ 7:28PM
There were some policies where Obama was totally failed. But he got attention in some policies too. No matter what Geithner and Romney have to say, what People has to say in next Presidential Election would be the important thing to remember in History.