Geithner Wins Treasury Job, Despite Tax Woes

Reuters recently posted an article today about Geithner being confirmed by the Senate despite his tax problems. A segment of the article can be read below, but the full article can be found here.

Senators were expected to set aside their misgivings about Timothy Geithner's past income tax errors and confirm the 47-year-old New York Federal Reserve Bank chief as Treasury secretary on Monday night.

With the economy in full-blown crisis, Geithner's experience in dealing with the past year's rapid-fire rescue efforts of key financial firms will trump the taint from his late payment of $34,000 in self-employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service that he will command.

Geithner will be President Barack Obama's top economic official for a crisis-management team that is already deeply involved in pushing a big package of spending and tax-cuts through Congress to lift the recession-mired economy.

He also will immediately face the question of whether the new administration should go back to Congress to seek money beyond the Treasury-run $700 billion financial rescue package to sop up bad assets sitting on bank balance sheets, perhaps in a government-run "bad bank."

Geithner Apologizes for Tax Mistakes

From USA Today:

The Senate Finance Committee just opened its confirmation hearing on the nomination of Timothy Geithner to be Treasury secretary.

As we noted earlier, Geithner is sure to face questions about why he failed to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes on some of his income for a few years.

Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., just opened the hearing by saying he thinks Geithner made "innocent mistakes," but that he expects to hear an explanation from the nominee.

Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky told Geithner his failure to pay the taxes fully until just before his selection by Obama was announced was "hard to explain to my constituents who pay these taxes on a regular basis."

Although the tax disclosures provided a bump in Geithner's confirmation process, he appeared to have wide support from both parties, especially given the severity of the downturn and the nominee's past experience in the financial system.

"You will be confirmed," Pat Roberts of Kansas told Geithner. Still, the senator said, his phones were "ringing off the hook" from people in Kansas complaining about the prospects of having a Treasury secretary who was careless in tending to his own tax liabilities.