U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Wall Street’s high and mighty to pony up for the Obama administration’s new jobs program.
Addressing hedge fund managers at Institutional Investor and CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference in New York, Geithner defended the $450 billion program put forward by President Obama last week, saying it was “the responsible thing for government to do” to support growth in the short term. And he insisted that limiting tax deductions for high-income Americans was necessary to pay for the program.
“Nobody likes to see their taxes go up.,” Geithner said, but added, “we really think it makes sense to make modest changes in benefits that go to a small fraction of Americans.”
Geithner’s calm presentation, in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, drew little reaction from the crowd. But when Cramer asked him whether he was afraid of being fired, the audience roared with laughter when he responded, “I’ve been hoping.” Geithner recently agreed to stay on as Treasury secretary, at Obama’s urging, rather than return to his home in New York and a presumably richer private-sector job.
