economy as pank paulson and tim geithner who held the job under barack obama.t on friday on the sidelines of the aspen economic strategy group annual meeting. hank paulson, tim geithner, pleasure to have you on. >> good to be here. >> you've seen this fitch downgrade, first time in a decade i think. what do -- do you think it makes sense? >> we obviously had a lot of long island fiscal challenges and in time we're going to have to confront those challenges. and like any american, the world looks at our political system today and they wonder, is america going to be able to find the will to come together and do this in the sensible way. i think part of the problem is that it is still feeling remote and over the horizon, like any political system, it is hard to get people to focus on something that feels far away. they don't feel the cost of it today. >> this is the debt. >> exactly. but so there is nothing new in the fact that we're living with long-term fiscal challenges, it is a judgment about the capacity of the country's political system. we're a very fortuna

bush and tim geithner who held that job under barack obama. the sidelines of the aspen economic strategy group's annual meeting. >> hank paulson, tim geithner. pleasure to have you on. >> great to be here. >> jim, you've seen this fitch downgrade first time in a decade, i think. do you think it makes sense? >> i mean, we obviously have a lot of long term fiscal challenges, and in time, we will have to confront those challenges and like any american the world look at our political system today and they wonder. is america going to be able to fine the well to come together in the sense of a way. i think that pat of the problem is it still feel remote and over her horizon, like any political system the hard challenge is trying to get people to focus something that seems kind of far away and they don't feel the cost of it today. >> this is the debt index. >> exactly. there's nothing new in the fact that we're living with long-term pi fiscal challenges and ultimately it's the judgment of the capacity of a country's political system. we are very fort

of leadership housed in the treasury department hank paulson and with the federal reserve with tim geithner and so forth. and so i'm not telling you that i have this completely resolved. i'm just telling you that there is an interesting historical signature in 2006 that indicates that that leadership, regime change and i'm still trying to pass through exactly why is so i haven't solved it yet but you get more of that in the show brokaw. stay tuned. stay tuned. well, thank you for submitting your questions mr. secretary. you won't be surprised to know they're all for you. russell and i are not offended, because people can see us any time. but we want to start with this one. and it is a withdrawal from afghanistan was always going to be a difficult task. can you, sir, offer your views, the planning for the withdrawal that went on. you see it up to 2021 and the withdrawal under biden administration. well, my perception from the outside is that there really wasn't any planning. it seems to me that once president trump cut the deal with the taliban that the defense and state departments overseen

tim geithner was very angry, said it was wrong.his one says, you're a completely dysfunctional country, and we recognize that but all countries are dysfunctional. we're dysfunctional less than others >> are you buying the pushback that their model is actually on the mend why didn't you do this three years ago when things were even more tire? arguably, they say >> look, i think it's very easy to say that we are, as people are saying, that it's the worst we've been since we started as a nation i think they should take a look at that, like 1860, 1862 period, which is kind of perilous. not being facetious. there were times -- lincoln had a lot of fiscal responsibility, but if you want to go there, i think you can say, well, you made a big splash, fitch, thank you, but a week from now, we're not going to be talking about it maybe we won't be talking about it three days from now >> that's sort of the view there's a bunch of notes and reaction this morning. one of them is exactly as you said, that this is going to turn very political, and