Bloomberg: Geithner is ‘kind of guy I’d want’

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose
city is headquarters to much of the troubled financial industry, voiced support
for embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday.

“The first thing to do is put the right people in charge, and I think Tim
Geithner is exactly the kind of guy I’d want in there,” Bloomberg said of the
Obama administration’s efforts to revive the credit market during an appearance
on “Meet the Press.”

{mosads}Bloomberg appeared alongside Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to discuss the trio’s efforts to lobby the
administration for an investment in overhauling American infrastructure.

Rendell called for changes to the tax code to lure private investors into a
partnership with the government to engineer products like a high speed rail system,
better dams and levies, and similar projects.

“There are so many innovative ways to use the tax code to get private investors
involved in this,” he asserted. “The American people aren’t against spending;
they’re against spending they can’t see.”

Schwarzenegger said that one option for financing infrastructure projects would
be a fuel tax of some sort.

“I think one has to look at it,” he said of the taxes. “But I think the
important thing is that there is a willingness among the people to pay for it.”

Each of the men offered their own words of advice for the president on
leadership, as well.

“He is the leader of the free world and people listen to every word he says,
and he’s got to focus on that,” Bloomberg said. “What he should go out there
and say is, ‘I’ve been elected to lead from the front and not from the back,’
and then do that.”