geithner laid out that time table as he unveiled options to overhaul the deeply troubled companies. darren gersh examines what a new government role in housing will mean for homebuyers and anyone making a living in real estate. >> reporter: the new direction for housing laid out by treasury secretary timothy geithner hinges on a government that is far more careful about who it helps and how. >> i think it is absolutely the case that the u.s. government provided too much support for housing, too strong incentives for investment in housing and we just took that too far. >> reporter: $150 billion too far. that's how much it's cost taxpayers to support the shaky mortgage giant's fannie mae and freddie mac. in a report today, the treasury laid out three options to reform the housing market to make sure another bail out never happens. they include strictly limiting the government's role in housing to guaranteeing mortgages for low and moderate income americans; supporting the mortgage market directly, but only in times of stress or providing so-called catastrophic insurance on mortgage se

welcome, secretary geithner. you have 5 minutes. your full written statement will be part of the record, but you may begin your testimony and welcome to the committee on ways and means. >> thank you, mr. chairman, kemp, ranking member levin and members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be you before to talk about the president's budget. the president's budget presents a comprehensive strategy to strengthen economic growth and expand exports with investments in education, innovation, and the nation's infrastructure. alongside these investments the budget presents a detailed, multiyear plan to cut spending and reduce deficits. our deficits are too high. they are unsustainable and left unaddressed, these deficits will hurt economic growth and make us weaker as a nation. we have to restore fiscal responsibility and go back to living within our means. the president's budget cuts the deficit he inherited in half as a share of the economy by the end of his first term. these cuts are phased over time so that we protect the recovery. in o

statewide, notices remained relatively flat. >>> timothy geithner today called for the private-sector to take a bigger role in finance. banks need to hold more capital against risks and people must have more equity in their homes. he also said the government must move away from financing and move toward more oversight. >> there's a very important role for the government not just in providing access to housing but in getting incentives better, oversight better. >> geithner called for mortgage reform and says the government needs to wind down freddie mac and fannie mae. >>> general motors paid some of its workers a bonus today. they will get performance bonuses of as much as 15% of their pay. chrysler says they will also give bonuses to their white collar staff. both companies took government bail outs during the recession. >>> almost 2 million baby monitors are being recalled after they were linked to the deaths of two infants. the summer infant monitors can present a strangulation hazard if the cord is placed too close to the cribs. 1.7million summer infant monitors were sold between

geithner for almost half an hour. you came away thinking what?was particularly understand his comments about community banks. we believe they are extremely important to the life blood of their communities. and one the disturbing thing that is we've heard from community banks recently is they are being asked to add another compliance officer to deal with the thousands of pages of new regulations are coming out. we want job growth, but i'm not sure that's the innovative. >> you are saying the administration's what? >> well, the bill that got passed by congress last year has already created 1500 pages of proposed regulations. we think it will be thousands of pages. and for the medium sized community bank in this country, they only have 37 employees. they are small businesses. to deal with that volume is becoming extremely hard. and, in fact, one the most disturbing things to me was we had a number of bankers tell me they have been in meetings with the regulators. they said if you are a bank, small bank, less than $500 million. that's 5,000 banks in

[applause] with that, welcome, secretary geithner. it's good to see you again and have you before the committee. it's been said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. but last year's election shows the american people were increasingly concerned about the power of deficits to destroy jobs sound dollar and ultimately their children and our country's future. unfortunately, the president's budget features too much of both. it could result in record high deficits while pushing the federal tax burden to over 20% of the economy, a level never sustain the nation's history. let me be clear mr. sick to become americans are not taxed too little. what america has under this administration is too little job creation. more alarming, taxing and spending is not the is the answer to what ails the economy. in 2009 we were promised spending $1 trillion on a stimulus plan would drive unemployment under 7% by now. instead, unemployment has remained at or above 9% for a record 21 months. stimulus advocates also promised 147 million jobs by now. we

geithner for being here and mr. chairman for this hearing. the biggest concern i've got is about the taxation, but i want to get in terms of the president's budget i want to touch on a couple of things. one, we are all interested in jobs because it cuts the deficit so we've got to do that. i think you agree with that. let me tell you the reality. i've had 1,000 employees four years ago, as we understand the middle market pretty well. mr. chairman i've dealt in these companies. let me give you my observations from there was a lack of credit for the small and medium-size business. i've seen you acknowledge that numerous times. so it is really compared to what it was four years ago you can get the credit, today they can talk about credit but unless you are going to put up half a million dollars cd for not going to get that line of credit. the second thing is health care. to me it is a big entitlement program for 32 million or 50 million people, but it doesn't do anything to bend the curve for small and medium-size business and i had one of our l

piece in the "washington post" post that i saw this morning basically saying that quote timothy geithner can't seem to talk enough these days from corporate tax reform, the treasury secretary chatted up chief executives, hab groups, republicans, democrat its all in the name of fixing a tax code that most everyone agrees could use a major overhaul. is this going to be part of the o kbama's big idea proposals for the next two years? >> yeah, i think it is definitely part. i mean you heard the president talking about that quite specifically in state of the union. i think it's important and we've got the most cockamamie tax system that we could have on the corporate side f you look at it we've got the highest rate in the world, effectively highest rate in the world. and yet we don't collect very much more money than any other country. you say well how is that possible. and the answer is because we have the narrowest base, the most exemptions, the most deductions. we have the greatest var yablt in tax rates across companies within the united states of anybody. where some people are paying the

. >> tim geithner has been one of the key players with ben bernanke, larry summers and henry paulson in stemming the tide of the financial crisis and turning the economy around. he also has been the architect of the financial reform proposals that became the dodd-frank bill and one of the pieces not included was what to do about the g.s.e.'s. today treasury has released a white paper crying their plans on that issue and we are just very delighted that you chose to come here to brookings to talk about it. let me ask you first of all if you would give us a sort of brief description of what the plan is and how it is going to be implemented. >> thank you, martin. nice to be here. you have good timing for the conference and i'm good you have g me a chance -- given me a chance to come p. we got a lot of things wrong in the housing market of the united states and it is a complex system and reform requires a careful strategy that includes a number of different elements. reform requires a careful strategy, includes a number of different elements. let me just lay out the basic pillars, basic f

geithner, for being here. two questions i want to highlight, one dealing with what some are calling the t.a.r.p. tax, you know, the tax being levied on institutions over 50 billion. i'm specifically interested in a couple things. one, why in one step we're saying all institutions above 50 billion whether they took t.a.r.p. or not. and then at the same time, we exempt out some entities that actually took t.a.r.p. and then i think the question that's begged is when the administration says we're making money on t.a.r.p., why would we need a tax to begin with? and then the other question deals with the budget really seeks to penalize those companies that utilize deferral. and for those of us that have companies in our state that are large multinationals, i guess my question would be how does that help create jobs? and more importantly, how does it help us become competitive in a world climate when for a company that may only have 10 or 12% overseas, we may be able to get the skin but if 70 to 80% of what they sell

assistant to the president and adviser to timothy geithner. on the consumer financial protection bureau she will speak about the impact of credit card regulation reform that went into affect your ago today. it set limits on when credit card companies can raise interest weights. we will have live coverage on russell senate office building -- c-span2. remarks from timothy geithner. he said the economy is getting stronger. unemployment remains high but businesses the starting to hire. the treasury secretary projected u.s. debt ceiling will be raised. was posted by atlantic magazine. >> miraculously seated next to me is the senator from utah, senator orrin hatch, ranking republican on the senate finance committee and a senator who spent 37 years or 31 -- 34 years in the senate. it is good to see you. thank you for being here. >> i heard a look for people with charm, with and charisma so i am happy to fill in. >> we are here to talk about the jobs of the future. what do you see right now? you represent the state of utah but you have been in washing

geithner. i appreciate it.ink it is important as we have these long-term discussions, a lot of times we hear christian -- questions in the last couple of visitors we have had where there has been a complete disregard for the economic crisis that we just went through and i think this budget as much as i don't like a lot of it, does make the kind of investments that we need to be competitive, the tax rates as you stated earlier are not the only indicator for growth. it is quality of workforce, this infrastructure. it is all of these other things. i just want to say i think you guys have done with a horrible economic situation over the past couple of years, have done a pretty good job and i can imagine having to do this without dealing with the politics that the president and you and the administration have to consistently deal with. and i think if we look back to the number of jobs that were being lost in january of the month the president got sworn in, to look at the direction of the country and look what the st

next, but tim geithner is interviewed by a journalist to be woodruff. the treasury secretary talks about the u.s. debt ceiling and give us a preview of the president's budget. we will also hear from utah senator. this forum was hosted by atlantic magazine. >> welcome to this town hall. finding work and finding our way. i am judy woodruff. there is no issue americans care more about than the economy. in fact, in a recent poll, 63% of those surveyed said is extremely important that president and congress to deal with the economy in the next year. unemployment is next. more than half of all of those surveyed, 54%, said that is extremely important for the white house and congress to deal with the issue. they are a topic around the country. president obama paid a visit to the u.s. chamber of commerce this week and urged businesses to begin hiring. >> if i have one message, of my messages now's the time to invest in america. now was the time to invest in america. [applause] today, american companies have nearly $2 trillion at set -- sitting on their balance s

the fed dictator as we pointed out last week only ben bernanke he only hank paulson only timothy geithner these are the men who can protect you from chaos and the disaster we ourselves have created and one of the use to protect you with the dollar it's a it's a cult worshipping the dollar as if the dollar was somehow more valuable than gold or silver that's a cult i mean this guy is like that help common cold guy who got everybody to get into a knapsack and drink the whatever from all the higher kool-aid and blow out to a common orbiting he's a psychopath but you can see across the board that most human beings most citizens who watch the news that listen to their leaders believe that only the dollar is good and strong and you see that we've covered this before we've looked at comments in progressive blogs for example who like mock and laugh at people who talk about the goaltenders anything to protect you. oh my me have you just been reincarnated as a flea or something that should not be allowed to be reincarnated that's just love my first coma is i let's get the choice come out of the not

bush memorial library. >> treasury secretary timothy geithner unveils the obama administration plans for the future of the home mortgage companies fannie mae and freddie mac. speaking at a forum hosted by the brookings institution in washington, d.c., he talked about the future of fannie and freddie over the next five-seven years and reducing the government's role in the housing market in the future. the administration offers -- also proposes requiring a 10% down payment on home mortgages. this is about 30 minutes. >> 10 needs no introduction. he has been one of the key players with ben bernanke and larry summers and henry paulson in stemming the tide of this financial crisis and starting to turn the economy around. he also has been the architect of financial reform proposals that became the dodd-frank bill, and one of the piece is not included in that was what to do about the gses. today, they have released a white paper describing their plans on that issue. we're very delighted that you chose to come here to brookings to talk about it. let me ask you first of all if you would give

conversations] for remarks from elizabeth warren, assistant to the president and treasury secretary timothy geithner. >> it really is a treat to be here today. at our first conference any conference that fittingly is about data and measuring the effect of a new set of rules on part of the credit industry. one year ago today many provisions of the credit card accountability and disclosure act took effect. we come together on this anniversary to mark the event but our primary goal is to analyze and discuss the impact of the card act. at the consumer protection bureau, we are determined any actions we take will be grounded in a deep understanding of the market we are overseeing. our organization reflects this commitment. search and ruleriding are brought together in a single position in the new bureau comprising five expert teams in specific market areas. the card market team was the first to get underway and this conference represents the kind of work we plan to do on an ongoing basis. one year after the card act took effect it is appropriate to ask whether it had its attended effect and how the credi

secretary geithner. >>> it is with great pleasure that i introduce alan greenspan. as you know, alan became chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve in 1987 and served in that position until 2006. we had an extraordinary amount of stable, relatively inflation-free growth during that period. he is now at greenspan and associates. i can attest that he is still extremely active in economics and economic research. he gave a paper at the brookings panel recently. i had the bridge of talking to hem regularly and hearing what he is working on. he's very much still part of the world of economics and macro. alan, welcome. >> thank you very much, martin. you didn't say of's been around here 40 years being one of the very early numbers of the brookings pnel on economic activity. >> i apologize for not saying that. >> all i can tell you is if you go into one session today versus what the sessions were 40 years ago, you realized how little we learned. you haven't been coming often enough. that's the problem. >> while the rest of the seminar is devoted to the str

eastern on c-span. >> secretary of the treasury timothy geithner cause president obama's 2012 budget the first step in addressing the deficit problem. these the to the house ways and means committee. this portion runs 1.5 hours. >> we recently received a letter from prominent economist which stated that the affordable care act contains is essentially every cost- containment provision that policy analysts have considered effective in reducing the rate of medical spending. could you comment on how you feel the affordable care act will relate in restraining health care costs? >> thank you for asking that question. what these reforms do over time is changed the incentives for how americans use health care and is set in motion what we believe are the most powerful sets of ideas out there for reducing the rate of growth in health care costs over time. as i said earlier, we rely on the cbo to make these judgments for us. in their judgment, these reforms over time will reduce our long-term deficit by reducing the rate of growth in costs. as the president made clear, we want to build on those

on c-span 3, treasury secretary tim geithner will be speaking at the brookings institution about fannie mae and freddie mac at 9:30 a.m. eastern. >> in about 45 minutes, we will talk with house intelligence committee chairman mikeog

. >> tim geithner says the president's budget includes strategies to export and open u.s. markets around the world. >>> and the tunnel parge to get ready to dig from the oakland side soon. so far they tunneled about 9500 feet, or a fourth through the hillside. the project began a year ago, and when it is done it will add two more lanes to the tunnel. >>> one of the concerns today about the weather is all of the big waves driven by high winds and high tides, the senator is live now along the marin county coast where the waves are moving. >> reporter: that is right, frank, this is rodeo cove, where we've seen the 12-foot swells. they died down in the last minutes. of course the water temperatures are 52 degrees, winds are about 20, gusting to about 20-30. right now, and also this is nearing a full moon. so there was an impressive high tide, and possibly a problem this morning. this is 30 high, and what i noticed right away is how close to the highway it is getting. along san francisco's ocean beach, big waves pounded the base of the green highway, shutting down one lane with

later in the day, on c-span 3, treasury secretary tim geithner will be back on capitol hill for a second day to testify about the president paz budget. live coverage from the house budget committee at 2:00 eastern. >> the cspan networks, we provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history available on television, radio, online and on social media networking sites and find our content any time through the cspan video library and we take cspan on the road with local content vehicle bringing our resources to your community. it is washington your way, the cspan networks, now available in more than 100 million homes, created by cable and provided as a public service. >> "washington journal" is next. the house gavel's beckham this morning. they will start today with members beaches and continued debate on additional spending for 2011. live house coverage on c-span. coming up, more about the federal budget. this hour, joined by the chairman of the american conservative union. then house budget committee member, a democrat from wisconsin. later, russell wheele

i think what secretary geithner, in terms of that response, is saying, is that the problem is that any target we sat, we do not know what we can meet. i think clearly it is because housing prices are still falling, unemployment is not getting any better. how do you set targets for successful loan modifications when the economy is still incomplete disarray? that is a tough one. so on that one, i wish he could set targets. he can still do it. but what targets would they set? >> mr. grossman, do you have another point of view on that? >> i would say the entire policy making on this side of the issue shares your frustration with the lack of transparency. it is made it difficult for many people to make positive contributions. >> dr. sanders, mr. grossman, one of the concerns with the loan modification program being run by bankruptcy courts is the judge's directly or indirectly might force a cramdown on loan mortgages. cramdown is a reduction of principal. because most mortgages are held by the federal government, taxpayers will ultimately be left holding the bag and the national debt and th

treasury secretary, tim geithner, and federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke, are meeting with their foreign counterparts to try to prevent a future financial crisis. >>> and two passenger jetliners were hit by lightning. but both landed safely in boston. one landed around 9:20 last night after the pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit. a second jetblue flight also landed safely just about half an hour later. also in boston. there were no injuries in either of those incidents. >>> in pakistan, about 200 people staged a demonstration against a u.s. diplomat under arrest there in pakistan, for killing two pakistanis last month. the demonstrators demanded that the american official, raymond davis, be hanged. the u.s. says davis shot the men in self-defense when they tried to rob him. and they say under international law, he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution. >>> and protests in haiti, in form of exiled president jean-bertrand aristide. thousands of demonstrators marched in port-au-prince, demanding his return. aristide's backers are threatening to disrupt the runoff election. arist

treasury secretary timothy geithner summed up the challenge. >> we need to wind down nanny and freddy and substantially reduce the government's footprint in the housing markets. and that's a process has to happen good allly because they are now the dominant source of housing finance and we want to be careful that that process happened in a way that doesn't interveer with or impede the process of repairing the housing market that still has a long way to go. >> holman: many republicans want to abolish fannie and freddie. they blame the companies for fostering reckless lending that triggered the financial meltdown in 2008. texas congressman randy neugebauer. >> the american taxpayers are tired of bailing out all of these entities. they're ready for congress to take quick action on freddie and fannie and show them a plan on how we are going to get taxpayers off the hook and at the same token not having americans making other americans house payments. and so the quicker we can get the private markets active again, i think the quirk of the solution for freddie and fannie will become very mo

we're going to start off with a great treat, which is to welcome treasury secretary tim geithner. tim, of course, needs no introduction. as you know, he has been one of the key players with ben bernanke, larry smors, henry paulson in stemming the tide of this financial crisis and starting to turn the economy around. he also has been the architect of the financial reform proposals that bames became the dodd-frank bill. and one of the pieces not included was what to do about the g.s.e.'s. so now today treasury released a white paper describing their plans on that issue. and we are just very delighted that you chose to come here to brookings to talk about it. so let me ask you, first of all, if you would give us a sort of brief description of what the plan is and how is it going to be implemented. >> thank you. nice to be at brookings. you guys have good timing today. i'm glad you've given me a chance to come in at the beginning. so we have done a lot of things wrong in the housing market in the united states. and it is a complex system. and reform requires a careful strategy that in

secretary geithner. [applause] >> we are having technical trouble with the program you are watching. we approach -- we apologize and are working to correct the problem. we hope to return to the program shortly. >> new york congressman steve israel, the chairman of the -- >> virginia republican gov. bob mcdonnell. >> it is with great pleasure that i introduce alan greenspan. as you know, allan became chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve until 2006 and had an extraordinary amount stable and relatively inflation-free growth during that time. he is now and greenspan and assess its and i can attest that he is still extremely active in the economics and research. he gave a paper at the brookings bell recently. i have had the privilege of talking to him regularly and hear what he is working on. he is very much still part of the world of economics and macroeconomics. welcome. [applause] welcome. >> thank you very much, martin. you didn't say of's been around here 40 years being one of the ve

geithner content and intent to the c-span video library.us. bringing resources to your community. washington your way -- the washington networks. available in more than 100 million homes. created by cable provided as a public service. here's what's ahead on this president's day. up next, the recent the medal of freedom surmounting honoring bill russell as well as others. then in the diversity in the u.s. court system. later, a discussion on presidential leadership. right now, president obama and first lady michelle obama helped to celebrate 15 medal of freedom recipients. from last week at the white house, this is just over 40 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and mrs. michelle obama. ["hail to the chief"] >> thank you so much, everyone. fees be seated. welcome to the white house. some of the have been here before. -- some ofyou have been here before. this is one of the things that i most look forward to every year. it is a chance to meet with, and more importantly honor, the most extraordinary people in a

. >> on congress tax reform, secretary geithner this morning said he was looking for consensus on thathere any timetable on when that needs to get done and will that be part of a conversation with entitlement reforms or will that be separate? >> that another timetable for you. the president said it's important to simplify and lower the tax rate and a ready nature way for corporations to make america all part of the school and making america competitive, growing the economy and the 21st century. but i don't have a timetable and i think these are separate issues, but the conversations will occur in the same general time frame. that day. thank you, guys. [inaudible conversations] >> better than i could've ever imagined. [inaudible conversations] >> now in the house, members are continuing work on the continuing resolution to keep the federal government fund it after march 4th. we spoke to a capitol hill reporter for more on the measure. >> joining us to talk about this is that john shaw of market international. john, thanks for joining us. well is the house is turning its attention this a

later in the day, also on c- span3, treasury secretary timothy geithner will be back on capitol hill to testify his rigid about his budget. the president has called for additional spending to call for the -- to pay for the wall street regulation bill passed last year. live it 2:00 eastern. >> the c-span networks -- providing coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books, and american history. it is all available to you on television, radio, online, and on social media networking sites. view our content anytime at the c-span video library. we take you on the road with our digital content vehicle. it is washington your way. the c-span networks -- now available in more than 100 million homes, created by cable, provided as a public service. >> a scientific report on the 2001 anthrax mailings cast doubts on some of the fbi's conclusion. the review said that federal investigators overstated the strength of the scientific evidence against the maryland scientists blame for the mailing. bruce ivins committed suicide in july 2008 before charges were filed against him. the review was d

. >> i've been listening to timothy geithner lay out this plan. the idea is reduce the government footprint in the housing market. the government has sunk billions of taxpayer dollars into these companies into helping the housing market since the financial meltdown occurred and the idea here is backing away it from that and getting out of the housing market so private industry, the private sector can take over and naturally help bring things back to good good. >> what will this mean for mortgages in 30-year fixed rate above 5% in ten months. let's say i'm refinancing or thinking about buying a house. what does it say? it means mortgages could continue to become more expensive. that really has little to do, if nothing to do, with this movement in fannie and freddie. you can see mortgage rates become more expensive for people and also become harder to obtain for people. >> overall, this housing market got the country into a huge, huge mess over the last couple of years. jobs are still first and foremost on people's minds right now. you have jobless

in a recent financial times article, secretary geithner talked about the difficulty of designating non-bank financial lens detentions as systemic he said, and i will quote, it depends too much on the state of the world of the time you want people to get judgment about what is systemic and what's not until you know the nature of the shock, in def quote. i find the secretary's comments interesting given his strong support of dodd-frank. if it is impossible to know what firms are systemic until the crisis occurs, the financial stability oversight council will have a very difficult time objectively selecting systemic banks and nonbanks behind the regulation. mr. chairman, as a member of the council, what is your view on whether the firms can be designated as a systemic without creating some type of arbitrary process? >> senator, it is a difficult problem. as you say, you have different types of firms respond to different types of shocks. it's also true that an individual industry with small firms might be subject to the broad shot as we saw with the money market mutual funds for example. that b

secretary tim geithner road letter where he outlined some of the questions if it were not raised. it is good that people seem to appreciate that. it would have a huge, long lasting ramifications for the united states economy, for our ability funding the obligation to our seniors, for contracts the government rights to people for goods and services as well as things that we think for the most part are unthinkable. everyone has rejected it as a thought. >> this is a time of historic transformation in the middle east. we are now seeing unrest spread to significant oil producers. in the case of libya, certainly. we do not know what the next step is. the beginning was limited to areas that are relatively minor in oil production. is there concern -- how great is your concern about the impact of these events on oil prices or the impact of oil prices on the american recovery? >> that is something we are obviously monitoring very closely. the national security visit -- national security situation in the impact would have on oil markets and our economy. the american economy is a less oil-in

promising start and a good dialogue to be had between members of congress and even treasury secretary geithnero seems to be saying, we need to start looking at tax reform. not necessarily to raise revenue. i am sure the budget proposal would need to be modified accordingly, because that is of the administration's, but if we could question that out and simplify, we could make a lot of progress. host: another tweet -- guest: the $345 billion tax gap is largely the product of individuals under reporting income or overtaking reductions. what happens is we tend to focus solely on the corporate side of the tax system, not realizing it is just as indecipherable for individuals. we look at ge, which filed a tax return of 24,000 pages, certainly the longest in history, but individuals in middle-class situations may end up filing their 1040 long form and end up with 40 pages. that is becoming so indecipherable that even tax preparers are having a hard time keeping up. host: next phone call. you are on with pete sepp. caller: i agree that it is not just the upper class and rich that gets loopholes. it is

in the case of the u.s., as tim geithner said, there is a challenge in creating jobs and breaking theve of the debt and deficit that overhangs the company -- the country. in europe, the focus is on issues related to sovereign debt and trying to navigate through that. for all, there is the concern of keeping one's eye on the fundamental growth and how this relates to what you have written a lot about. >> thank you. a powerful agenda for the world. may i turn to you, christine lagarde for your perspective on what you see of the situation in france and the rose son -- bureau zone bureaueuro zone? -- euro zone? >> let me give you three numbers on the euro zone. let's not forget that the deficit numbers were the same between the imf and the commission. that is the deficit relative to gdp. concerning that, it was about 84%. the growth will be between 1.6% and 1.7%. when you constantly bashe this, the numbers are not relative to other numbers in other parts of the world. having said that, growth is picking up but it is not picking up at a fast speed. but not find that particularly stressing.

geithner was in charge of the federal reserve bank in new york. we looked at hud, we looked at the role of the office of comptroller of currency and thes office of terrorist supervision. so -- thrift supervision. and i think you will find that we found, without regard to party, without regard to publicw sector/private sector that this crisis was avoidable both in failures in the regulation and in corporate risk management.s >> thank you. the gentle lady from new york. f >> did mr. thomas want to respondsome. >> oh. tha 30 seconds. [laughter]e >> sure. >> well,le it's hard to get -- >> look, warren buffett came before us in new york and said he didn't think housing prices would go down the way they did. people who were supposed to bere gurus in this said they weren't aware of it. you have to read a clever book s by michael lewis if you haven't, "the big short," because he winds up writing a book about ce those three or four people who actually made money on it. i asked him, what about john paulson? he said, he's been around for a long time. he was

promising start and a good dialogue to be had between members of congress and even treasury secretary geithner, who seems to be saying, we need to start looking at tax reform. not necessarily to raise revenue. i am sure the budget proposal would need to be modified accordingly, because that is of the administration's, but if we could question that out and simplify, we could make a lot of progress. host: another tweet -- guest: the $345 billion tax gap is largely the product of individuals under reporting income or overtaking reductions. what happens is we tend to focus solely on the corporate side of the tax system, not realizing it is just as indecipherable for individuals. we look at ge, which filed a tax return of 24,000 pages, certainly the longest in history, but individuals in middle-class situations may end up filing their 1040 long form and end up with 40 pages. that is becoming so indecipherable that even tax preparers are having a hard time keeping up. host: next phone call. you are on with pete sepp. caller: i agree that it is not just the upper class and rich that gets loopholes. i

you have seen, as a result of some meetings we had, discussions that secretary geithner and others havead -- i think we are in the midst of this process and hearing from stakeholders about their ideas. >> i know tactics are changing all the time. what is our policy toward egypt right now? that our policy toward egypt is we watch, and we are strongly encouraging the process of meaningful change transpiring, resulting in a more open, more transparent society, more responsive government, one that the united states can continue to partner with, one that results in -- a process that results in free and fair elections, and one that is democratically elected. >> not as good of an ally as it has been. is that a policy failure? >> i do not think it makes a lot of sense to get into electro hypothetical. our focus is to fold -- twofold. 1, to continue to speak out against the violence. i think we will continue to see more of this. i know you are probably more aware of this because these are your colleagues that are coming back who we saw were targeted and beaten last week. obviously, those type of

conversations with secretary geithner have continued to happen. this is not a process that is not going to take a matter of days or weeks but months, if not years. so i think this is a long process that will involve stake holders at all levels with both political parties weighing in on their ideas about how we meet the goal of reforming the way corporate taxes are done, lowering that wait but keeping it deficit neutral. >> going back to egypt, you have praised the egyptian army. many of the current and previous leaders, three of the men in the charge of the transition in egypt, do you trust they will lead the transition to a fair and free election? >> two things, one, i think we have rightly given some praise to the actions that haven't been taken, that many fear might be taken with an army deployed and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of protestors. i think it's important also that we have -- we talk about today and we have talked about this previously about continued restraint and adherence to nonviolence and assurance that anything involv

in the case of the u.s., as tim geithner said, there is a challenge in creating jobs and breaking thewave of the debt and deficit that overhangs the company -- the country. in europe, the focus is on issues related to sovereign debt and trying to navigate through that. for all, there is the concern of keeping one's eye on the fundamental growth and how this relates to what you have written a lot about. >> thank you. a powerful agenda for the world. may i turn to you, christine lagarde for your perspective on what you see of the situation in france and the rose son -- bureau zone bureaueuro zone? -- euro zone? >> let me give you three numbers on the euro zone. let's not forget that the deficit numbers were the same between the imf and the commission. that is the deficit relative to gdp. concerning that, it was about 84%. the growth will be between 1.6% and 1.7%. when you constantly bash this, the numbers are not relative to other numbers in other parts of the world. having said that, growth is picking up but it is not picking up at a fast speed. but not find that particularly stressing

meeting different from others was we agreed in certain areas to work together and work with timothy geithner on establishing a set of principles. they are back again. tax cuts are coming in. there is a schedule. there is a work plan in. the people on the hill agreed we should get principal the established and there will be a negotiation but you have to start someplace. this is the first time in the last two years when it comes to corporate taxes, being competitive, there is a i would argue real work underway. teams at the table negotiating and putting something together. that is a sign of progress. we have lots of statistics on why we are not competitive. the other thing that came up on trade, they asked us to help them make the case. they get it. every time you look at where we have an existing fda, service is better, manufacturing is better, that is the data. these are the facts. we are just saying, make the argument that let us compete. we are fine. the data says the u.s. is better off based on these facts. clearly it is not the perception of the average american. very difficult in a high

have you seen secretary timothy geithner's comments? >> we have just begun to look at the issue of whether or not you could reprivatize -- 3 prioritize -- reprioritive these. there would be some difficulties from an operational point of view. you would have to differentiate between social security payments purses interest payments to individuals holding savings bonds -- vs interest payments. >> some of these proposals would actually allow the credit of the u.s. to extend to some of our foreign creditors but not to u.s. businesses and american citizens. let me ask you a quick question on the fiscal policy, because i think we all agree the congress should act now to put in place a plan to get our deficit under control. we need to come up with a plan to put this country on a sustainable path. as you indicated, you reference the bipartisan commission in your remarks. the authors of that plan observed in order to avoid shocking become a, the commission recommends waiting until 2012 to begin enacting spending cuts. let me ask you this, if he

of gdp. >> you know, so the administration, the president's thinking we just heard from secretary geithner that yes, there's a deficit, and yes, it needs to be addressed, you we have to worry about the jobs of the future. to do that, we need to invest in education, in medical research, in infrastructure, some of the things that are going to make it possible for jobs to be created down the line. you say that's not as important as getting the debt? >> i'm not saying that at all. that is important. we do invest a lot of money. do we do it efficiently? do we do it well? >> do we do it in ways that encourage small businesses where 70% of jobs are created? the president said he's going to reduce corporate tax rates. not many pay the full 35% because we have tax expenditures where they get certain breaks in certain areas, and they want to do away with the tax expenditures. well, i think we can reduce the rates. the g-7, largest countries in the world, most productive, they are about 28% tax rate. we're at 35%. the g20 is 18. we're at 25. we need to do things, everything from expanding h1b visas,