Geithner's Tattered Credibility

George Scaggs


With the debate over the nation's debt ceiling reaching a boiling point, the Obama administration has stepped up its misinformation game, trotting out Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to cover point.

Geithner made the Sunday morning circuit this past weekend, persisting in the ruse that a failure to raise Washington's borrowing authority will result in an inability to pay certain bills.  In reference to Congress, he informed Chris Wallace of Fox Sunday, "We're almost at the edge.  I never thought they would take it this close to the edge and let politics get in a way of demonstrating -- well, will we pay our bills on time?"

Continuing, the Treasury Secretary warned us specifically that "[t]here are millions and millions of Americans that depend on those checks coming on time -- not just people from the military, but people who get Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. And we cannot put those payments at risk and we do not have the ability to limit the damage on them if Congress fails to act in time."

This statement is an outright fabrication.  Garnering information directly from the U.S. Treasury's own Daily Treasury Statements,  one will find that the federal government generates more than enough revenue to pay in full each and every specific item enumerated by Mr. Geithner.

Tragically, though not unpredictably, similar fabrications can be found embedded in the U.S. Treasury Department's own website, where a document insists that without raising the U.S. Government's debt limit, "the government would have to stop, limit, or delay payments on a broad range of legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and many other commitments."

When "official" sources of information such as U.S. Government websites become nothing more than tools of manipulation used for the sake of political expediency, a standard of tyranny would appear to have been met.

So determined are Obama and Geithner to continue Washington's reckless spending pattern that lying via official proclamation is regarded as just another political weapon, with unnecessarily scaring citizens and spooking world financial markets just a little more collateral damage.

Incompetence is one thing; utter disrespect for the truth is quite another.  One thing is for sure: until we start holding those in the highest reaches of government accountable by punishing inappropriate behavior, we should expect more of the same horrible results that have become a regular feature of American life.