August 3, 2011Will Geithner go?
Aside from avoiding a potential catastrophe and downgrade of the country’s credit rating, the debt ceiling deal President Obama signed Tuesday ended something else: The period that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was reportedly waiting out until leaving the administration.
Word of Geithner’s plans to leave the Treasury Department was reported at the end of June by Bloomberg, which cited three people who said he was considering an exit after Obama reached a deal with Republicans on raising the debt ceiling.
Geithner later said that he would stay on the job “for the foreseeable future.” The question is, how long is “foreseeable”? “Geithner hasn’t made a final decision and won’t do so until the debt-ceiling issue has been resolved, according to one of the people,” Bloomberg reported.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday, Geithner wrote that “Congress has reached a compromise to move toward restoring fiscal responsibility,” and that the deal is “the beginning of restoring fiscal sustainability.”
He added, “Lawmakers should return in September prepared to act to strengthen the economy and get more Americans back to work.”
Geithner made no mention of whether he plans to do so as well.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0811/tim_will_tell_317599ec-5b09-4b0a-aa02-839e0c9b196c.html
