Timothy Geithner: Keep or Fire?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Poll question: Timothy Geithner: Keep or Fire?

Timothy Geithner: Keep him or Fire him?

(There is no 'other' option for binary questions.)

I have no firm opinion and will thus not cast a vote, but am curious as to the DU take.

[TheKentuckian]

1. Fire but I'm unsure if it would be better than counter-productive right now (nt)

[Cant trust em]

2. I was on the fence for a while, but now the evidence has stacked up...

to the point where I can't draw any other conclusion.

Geithner must go.

on edit: The timing needs to be worked out somehow, but I do think that he needs to be shown the door.

[optimator]

3. prosecute and punish this criminal

he BELONGS in prison

[ProSense]

9. What crime did he commit? n/t

[Craftsman]

11. Tax evasion, he claims a honest mistake but I doubt I would be treated the same

[sad sally]

39. His personal tax "problems" might be the reason he isn't exactly

pushing President Obama's campaign promise to raise taxes of those making more than $250,000. If the tax rates were rolled back to the 1990's rate, the additional revenues collected would pay for health care for all and then some. Might even be able to start paying the staggering war bills that keep adding up, and help keep Medicare/Medicaid solvent.

But a person with questionable tax-paying history and buddies who are zillionaires won't rock the boat by suggesting that more taxes need to be paid by those who get money by creating toxic paper.

He shouldn't have ever been become Secretary, but since I seriously doubt the campaign promises to increase taxes on the wealthy were made in good faith, there won't be any changes. Us suckers will just have to buck up and eat less and not get sick - ha!

[saracat]

17. Trust some to claim to "not know".

[ProSense]

23. Trust some to be hanging on to delusions. n/t

[saracat]

24. That would not be me. I have no illusions about any politicians.

Unlike some, I do not "trust" most of them to do the right thing and represent anyone but themselves.

[TheKentuckian]

36. I'm not all into that. I just think the dude is completely a creature of Wall St. thinking

Its not so much he is soooooo freaking awful as much as he is just unable to even imagine doing what is needed to keep the buzzards at bay. In a stable and growing type of time he might even be very good but in times like ours the robberbarons and moneychangers need to have a chokehold put on them.

[pscot]

4. Theguy is nothing but a fucking mole

for Goldman and the Banksters.

[quantass]

5. Great Poll to find the lurking Freepers....who in their right mind would want to keep him. nt

[insanity]

16. I'm not a freeper and I want to keep him

The economy is recovering, he's done his job right so far.

We're never going to get an ideal leftist, especially not one qualified to run the Treasury, so I'll take someone who is actually doing a decent job getting us back on track.

[geek tragedy]

27. Bullshit. A lurking Freeper would want a Democratic president's

cabinet secretary fired.

Only on DU could your twisted logic be found--supporting Obama's admin is a sign of a Freeper my ass.

[earth mom]

6. Fire his a$$ like yesterday!

:grr:

[high density]

7. I expect DU would be outraged by nearly anybody who is qualified to hold the position NM

[vaberella]

8. Why suddenly is there a significant push against Geithner?!

Has there been news?!

[ProSense]

10. More people acknowledging that the economy is recovering. n/t

[vaberella]

29. Ahhh..understood. I thought some scandal broke out. He did a good job on the economy. n/t

[OhioBlue]

35. Personally, I was never crazy about him.

I haven't kept up on the news.. but after watching "Capitalism, a Love Story" I like Geithner even less b/c of the Goldman Sachs ties.... I'm thinking he is just way too entrenched to think about recovery in the way that it helps our neighbors.

[vaberella]

37. Huh...I don't now. He's done a good job so far in recovering the economy.n/t

[taught_me_patience]

42. This little diddy came out several days ago

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/10/another_way_aigs_bailout_gave_taxpayers_a_raw_deal.php

He should not be fired... he should be placed in jail.

[depakid]

12. How about "never have hired or confirmed in the first place."

[saracat]

18. +1 Agree. But then the WH would have to assume responsibility for a bad choice.

[depakid]

20. The tax problems were an easy way out..

Took Daschle out (thankfully).

[saracat]

21. yeah but twice would look bad.Really bad.Who could excuse the same story twice?

And they actually shouldn't.

[AnneD]

22. Never should have hired in the first place....

Too cozy with those intent on dismanteling the economy in the first place. Recovery my ass-the books are still being cooked. Rubin, Summers, and Geithner-different heads of the same hydra.

[depakid]

26. He was a failed regulator at the NY Fed

Just like Mary Shapiro at FINRA (who now heads the SEC).

[SIMPLYB1980]

13. Keep. nt

[rhombus]

14. I was rooting for Obama to pick Volcker

But when I read that Volcker was opposed to the auto bailouts, I had second thoughts. Without the auto bailout, we'd be looking at 11% national unemployment by now.

[leveymg]

15. And, take the Fed Chairman and the Fat Man with you.

Clean 'em out and then turn the fire hose on Wall Street.

[opihimoimoi]

19. It took a long time and a lotta mispending to get us into this fucking predicament

and its gonna take a long time to fix the SOB EconomyEnvironment/and General Social Well Being

So far this Nation is moving upward...however slow, but growing/healing.

The GOPiacs still mumble incoherently as they experience a drastic decline in support/numbers...they show signs of a defeated Bully....angry and making tons of noise....

[optimator]

25. how did CITIgroup pass the so called "Stress Test"

the answer to that question is all anyone needs to know regarding Timothy Geithner

[geek tragedy]

28. Keep for a number of reasons.

1. Good luck getting anyone better through the Senate. A vacancy at Treasury would paralyze the agency. Geithner hasn't been a world-beater, but he's not the devil incarnate either.

2. A lot of the really bad stuff went through before Obama took office.

3. He doesn't have a great hand to play--he doesn't have the budget or authority from Congress to do a whole lot against Wall Street, and if he did try to move against Wall Street our "Democratically controlled Congress" would stomp all over him. You could put Alan Grayson in that spot and he wouldn't wind up doing much more. He'd say more, but the banks would ignore him.

4. The economy has stopped its free-fall under Obama. Like it or not, Geithner is part of that team.

[Sebastian Doyle]

30. Fire all the Wall Street /"Federal" reserve whores (no offense to sex workers)

We need a completely new economic team. It was rumored back in the 90's that Hillary Clinton tried to contact the ghost of Eleanor Roosevelt. If that's true, maybe she knows how to get in touch with FDR, so he can tell Obama who to hire.

Because that's what we need right now. REAL economic recovery, not another Goddamn Sucks swindle bubble.

[Vidar]

31. Geithner & the Goldman Sachs executives belong in jail, not in power.

[Canuckistanian]

32. Insiders should never be hired for important posts

And Geitner is FAR too cosy with the parties he's supposed to be regulating.

Same thing goes for Bernanke and Summers.

You can't hope for impartiality with dedicated insiders who have obvious conflicts of interest.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

33. Can his fucking ass

:grr:

[fujiyama]

34. Probably the worst cabinet choice this administration has had

It made no sense whatsoever to have one of the main engineers of the original bailout being in charge of the entire treasury department - a man that was sitting there in NY the entire time for several years, with a history at Goldman that too...and of course on top of that, he was a tax evader. The IRS chases after the middle class for small deductions and ass holes like him can say "oops, honest mistake". Fuck him.

[polichick]

38. To be fair, the president should rethink quite a few corporate appointees. nt

[Kitsune]

40. Th... there are people who think he's doing a good job? He created this mess!

And he has no intentions of fixing the basic structural problems that caused it!

[Dr Robert]

41. Geithner will remain. Obama pays no attention to reactionary bitter enders.

[Impedimentus]

43. Geithner ...

...son of Paulson. Everything for BIG money, nothing for the rest of us. The same is true for Summers and Bernanke.