mr. geithner. mr. geithner is a -- as a masters in international economics from johns hopkins university, director of policy development and review for the international monetary fund a. senior fellow, on the council of foreign relations. he's the u.s. treasury secretary, head of the internal revenue service. the specific tax violation he had was he failed to pay social security and medicare taxes on the i.m.f. earnings for tax years 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. total liability that he owed was approximately $43,200. now, so you understand what this is, the international monetary fund was paying him separately apart from other things he was doing. he has to be treated like he is self-employed. so he -- a self-employed person has to pay not only his share of payroll taxes, but he has to pay the employer's share of payroll taxes, too. because you are self-employed. self-employed people pay the employer's share of payroll taxes which payroll tax is basically social security and medicare, and they pay their

mr. geithner, there are consequences to doing that because now markets understand that you may at any point decide that anyone is large enough and that their debt should therefore be backed up by the u.s. taxpayer. >> well said, and no one feels more strongly about that, and that is why even in the midst of the steep crisis we propose sweeping reform that would give a better choice is in the future. i could not feel more strongly about that. >> thank you. i apologize to my fellow panelists. mr. atkins. >> no, it was a very fruitful discussion i thought. and i note next month we will be drawn into aig as a topic, and so i look forward to that as well. but i just wanted to turn back to i think part of the problem especially last year was predictability, transparency of the government's actions were. and also with respect to what balance sheets and other things work consisting of and that sort of made the marketplace itself on easy and i think that is part of the same thing i wanted to discuss now is the predictability of who gets what and who does what to whom and that is what i was trying to

mr. geithner, and others. mr. chairman and my colleagues, this is far too serious for us to take as another confirmation. for us to rush through by 11:45. we have yet to get to the bottom of what the problems are and how we are going change them. we may be on the verge of changing how the fed operates within this system, yet we want to move ahead with the nomination as quickly as we can before we consider it. we cannot have a federal reserve system that the americans no longer trust and that's where we are today. we cannot have a federal reserve that rating agencies are beginning to say that they no longer trust and we are on the verge of losing our good credit rating. ecan't rush through this when the rest of the world is looking at us and now doubting that we will continue to be the reserve currency. i hope that we can look past our normal partisan bickering. and look at this as people who are responsible for the well being of our whole country. millions of people have entrusted us with their economic well being

mr. geithner, and others. mr.rman and my colleagues, this is far too serious for us to take as another confirmation. for us to rush through by 11:45. we have yet to get to the bottom of what the problems are and how we are going change them. we may be on the verge of changing how the fed operates within this system, yet we want to move ahead with the nomination as quickly as we can before we consider it. we cannot have a federal reserve system that the americans no longer trust and that's where we are today. we cannot have a federal reserve that rating agencies are beginning to say that they no longer trust and we are on the verge of losing our good credit rating. ecan't rush through this when the rest of the world is looking at us and now doubting that we will continue to be the reserve currency. i hope that we can look past our normal partisan bickering. and look at this as people who are responsible for the well being of our whole country. millions of people have entrusted us with their economic well being and

with secretary of the treasury geithner is now called to order. welcome mr. secretary to your third appearance before the congressional oversight panel. we appreciate your being here and appreciate your commitment to coming every quarter. yesterday this panel released its monthly oversight report for december. it was a comprehensive assessment of t.a.r.p.'s accomplishments and an exploration of the place where t.a.r.p. has fallen short. you made it a busy news day by announcing at the same time that res ri will extend -- treasury will extend t.a.r.p. until october of next year. thus it seems between the two of us we have intensified a vigorous debate in congress about what direction the program should take going forward. as the starting place for our conversation, i want to note the conclusion of our report. t.a.r.p. was an important part of the government's rescue strategy. and it helped rescue the financial system from imminent collapse. the apocalyptic fears that we were all suffering 14 months ago have not come to pass. and for that we owe a great debt of

mr. bernanke and geithner and ms. to treasury don't demanding they accept in exchange for money of the government's choosing. look forward to learning about mrs. bair's role in that meeting. meeting. this investigation occurred continued to reveal the unintended consequences and negative implications of the government's intervention in the private sector and hope the congress will apply these lessons as we debate the appropriate framework for our financial system as we move forward. with that, mr. chairman i thank you and yield back. >> thank you very much. we now move to our witness. we have with us today the chair of the federal deposit insurance corporation. madam chair, longstanding tradition with swear all of our witnesses in. if you would stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth if so answer in affirmative. >> i do. >> letted record reflect, you may be seated. let the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. you may begin wi

mr. geithner, and others. mr.chairman and my colleagues, this is far too serious for us to take as another confirmation. for us to rush through by 11:45. we have yet to get to the bottom of what the problems are and how we are going change them. we may be on the verge of changing how the fed operates within this system, yet we want to move ahead with the nomination as quickly as we can before we consider it. we cannot have a federal reserve system that the americans no longer trust and that's where we are today. we cannot have a federal reserve that rating agencies are beginning to say that they no longer trust and we are on the verge of losing our good credit rating. ecan't rush through this when the rest of the world is looking at us and now doubting that we will continue to be the reserve currency. i hope that we can look past our normal partisan bickering. and look at this as people who are responsible for the well being of our whole country. millions of people have entrusted us with their economic well being

mr. bernanke and geithner and ms. money of the government's choosing. look forward to learning about mrs. bair's role in that meeting. this investigation occurred to, continued to reveal the unintended consequences and negative implications of the government's intervention in the private sector and hope the congress will apply these lessons as we debate the appropriate framework for our financial system as we move forward. with that, mr. chairman i thank you and yield back. >> thank you very much. we now move to our witness. we have with us today the chair of the federal deposit insurance corporation. madam chair, longstanding tradition with swear all of our witnesses in. if you would stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth if so answer in affirmative. >> i do. >> letted record reflect, you may be seated. let the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. you may begin with your testimony. >> chairman towns, chairman kucinich, rank

mr. bernanke and geithner and ms. ir brought the ceos to treasury don't demanding they accept in exchange for money of the government's choosing. look forward to learning about mrs. bair's role in that meeting. this investigation occurred to, continued to reveal the unintended consequences and negative implications of the government's intervention in the private sector and hope the congress will apply these lessons as we debate the appropriate framework for our financial system as we move forward. with we have with us the chair of the federal deposit insurance corp. we must share every witness in, so please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? let the record reflect that the witness has answered in the affirmative. you may began with testimony. >> ranking members, and members of the committee. as requested by the committee, my testimony will focus on the fdic and their role -- >> do you want to pull the microphone? >> >> and please be closer. >> as

mr. neugebauer: i thank the gentleman. secretary geithner gave my colleagues on the other side of the aisle a christmas present yesterday he extended their revolving slush fund until october of next year. going down the road of rewarding bad behavior and punishing good behavior. the american people could see from the beginning this tarp money, this slush fund, they were told it was for energy purposes. now we're being told maybe the financial emergency is over. if it's over we ought to be giving that money back to the american people. or unfortunately, some of that money was borrowed. and we're boar throwing money from the chinese. but no, we're going to put that money back into a slush fund and now we're going to use it for whatever purposes our colleagues on the other side of the aisle decide to do wit. let me tell you, they're very good at it. if somebody to teach you how to spend, they can teach you how to spend. unfortunately, mr. president, and two of my colleagues on the other side oaf the aisle, we're spending money we don't have, we

mr. atkins for two minutes of remarks. >> all right. okay. thanks. thank you madam chairman. welcome secretary geithner. milton friedman once said that nothing is so permanent as the temporary government program. yesterday we learned what most of us had already suspected that t.a.r.p. will not die at the end of this year. the program is no longer, no longer can be considered a hastefully arranged effort to arrest the financial freefall. i can understand why a treasury secretary, any treasury secretary really would want to extend t.a.r.p.. why not. it's a free option at taxpayer expense and essentially a blank check to finance any macroeconomic stimulus initiative that the executive branch can imagine to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. by -- but now that last year's emergency has abated the rationale behind t.a.r.p. as a safl for financial markets in distress no longer supports treasury choice i believe to extend it. the previous congress reluctantly authorized t.a.r.p. in response to extraordinary financial panic. would kong today approve snarp i cannot imagine it. that was why it was exten