This week, as he had promised early in the summer, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack formally offered a measure of no confidence against U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Submitting his resolution on Thursday, Mack has been a vocal critic of Geithner and, as early as March 2009, called for his resignation.
A similar motion was launched in the Senate this week by freshman U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a favorite of the tea party movement and the son of current Republican presidential contender U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Rand Paul took to the floor of the Senate on Wednesday to call for the vote of no confidence.
I applaud Senator Pauls efforts to turn our economy around by calling for the end of Secretary Timothy Geithners disastrous and wasteful term at the Treasury Department, Mack said in a statement released on Thursday afternoon, before President Barack Obama addressed Congress and the nation on his jobs plan.
President Obama continues to ignore the American people on our nation's fiscal policy, and now the Congress has to make it clear that Geithner has to go, Mack continued. During his tenure as Treasury Secretary, Mr. Geithner has failed the American people by advocating for massive taxpayer bailouts and doomed stimulus plans. While promising to protect the U.S. economy, he has allowed the U.S. dollar to plummet in value, unemployment to hover above 9 percent, and our credit rating to drop for the first time in history.
Rand Paul introduced his measure -- which was blocked by the Democratic majority that controls the Senate -- on Wednesday.
"The current administration's gross mismanagement of the U.S. economy, at the helm of which has sat Secretary Geithner through financial debacle and decline, must end now," Paul said on the Senate floor.
In his speech on Wednesday, Paul took aim at Geithner, blaming his policies at the Federal Reserve and as Treasury secretary for the current economic climate. Paul ripped Geither for backing policies that he said added to the national debt and hurt the economy with massive federal spending from various bailouts and the federal stimulus.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
