Tim Geithner, pictured here counting to 100 billion in his head…
So what? Well, I guess it’s a pretty big deal. $100 bil in TARP funds buys a lot of golden parachute silk. From my pal Ed:
Maybe Tim Geithner didn’t commit tax evasion after all. Instead, he may just have a problem doing addition and subtraction. Earlier this week, Geithner assured people that the Treasury had $135 billion left in its TARP fund on ABC’s This Week: (Video at Hot Air)
ABC, though, thought that sounded wrong — and they were right. As George Stephanopolous reports, the tax-fumbling Treasury Secretary was just a little off:
On “This Week” Sunday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told me that there was about $135 billion left in the TARP fund, the government’s financial rescue package. But the Government Accountability Office, a non-partisan federal agency, reports that figure is closer to $32 billion, which is what ABC News and other independent analysts thought.
Well,I’ve told Caleb this before, but Geithner has me talking to myself. He seems like a disaster, at least in public, but the fact that Barack Obama is sticking by him makes me think there’s something I’m not seeing.
That’s not fandom talking. That’s experience. Obama made a lot of moves during the campaign that didn’t make sense until much later.
If he’s sticking with Geithner, despite the continued fallout, it follows that he has a good reason to do so. Maybe he needs him for the bowling team.
But I don’t think Geithner has the time to wait for his genius to be realized.
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Daily Dose 
Oh good grief–I hope to hell you’re right about that Tommy. I’m in no way an economist, so I hope Geithner is a diamond in the rough–othewise, we’re so screwed.
oh mannnnn,
ANOTHER reason for me to not be so sure about this guy!!
maybe the better question should be
WHY does Tim think that there is 135B left in the fund??
usually number people have figures stuck in their heads….so, why was this number in the back of his mind?
has there been some more unaccounting of funds???
Oh, that reminds me. I have to renew my subscription to Tiger Beat. Such a cool dude.
Well, Tommy, could it just be that the fabled Obama made a BIG MISTAKE?
Geithner, as governor of the NY Fed, was up to his EYEBALLS in all the Wall Street F***ups of 2008.
However, the curly headed savant does seem to be engagingly clueless. And shifty, too. That’s hard to pull off.
So there is definitely something there. Whether we need it, is another question.
Forgot to mention: GM will soon start manufacturing the Geithner combo blow drier/curler. More hot air than competing models, and the curls are to die for?
It will revive Industrial America!
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