Geithner signals new taxes among options to cut deficit

New taxes on Americans in order to bridge the massive budget deficit are among the range of options being considered by the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary TIm Geithner signaled Sunday.

Geithner said that the Obama administration is committed to bringing down the deficit once the economy has begun to recover, and that it is looking at a variety of ways to achieve that.

“Well, we’re going to have to look at  we’re going to have to do what’s necessary,” he said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“We’re not at the point yet where we’re going to make a judgment about what it’s going to take,” the Treasury secretary added when asked if new taxes were “on the table.”

“I think what the country needs to do is understand we’re going to have to do what it takes, we’re going to do what’s necessary,” he added.

New taxes on high earners are contained in the House healthcare reform bill, in order to finance that bill’s initiatives. Income tax cuts established early in the Bush administration, meanwhile, are set to expire in 2011.