Geithner pushes back: Budget a ‘comprehensive plan’

The White House’s budget plan for fiscal 2012 has taken heat from Republicans, some Democrats and parts of the news media, with more than a few sources saying the president had “punted” with his proposals. 

Republicans on the Senate Finance panel, like many other lawmakers in their party, were highly critical of the budget’s proposals on taxing and spending. The administration has said that its budget would lower deficits by $1.1 trillion over a decade, through a mixture of two-thirds spending cuts and one-third tax increases.

Geithner is currently in the midst of a string of Capitol Hill appearances to discuss the budget. He appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday – where he also heard some Republican criticism about the budget – and is set to appear before the House Budget Committee later on Wednesday.

For her part, Snowe, who voted for the stimulus package roughly two years ago, said that measure had not worked as well as planned, noting the long string of months where unemployment stood above 9 percent. 

But when the Maine senator said she thought that area needed more presidential leadership and a “master plan,” Geithner stood his ground – saying in effect that the executive branch could propose policies, but that it was up to Congress to legislate.

And, while acknowledging that the unemployment rate would continue to go down slowly, Geithner also told Snowe that he thought she was “a little dark and pessimistic about what’s happening in the economy.”

Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), meanwhile, contrasted the tax proposals contained in the budget with those suggested by the president’s fiscal commission, which he served on with several other members of the finance panel. Crapo is also reportedly part of a bipartisan group of senators trying to craft legislation from the debt panel’s recommendations.

The Idaho senator said that, unlike the debt commission, the president’s budget raised taxes without putting any of the revenue toward lowering tax rates. Geithner responded that some of the proposals would go toward patching the Alternative Minimum Tax so it doesn’t hit more middle-income families, but also reiterated the administration’s desire to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on fundamental corporate tax reform. 

And in his opening statement, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told the story of a former Navy man who took offense to the notion that the government was spending like drunken sailors – arguing that drunken sailors have to quit spending when their pockets are empty.

“Mr. Chairman and Mr. Secretary, maybe we do owe those drunken sailors an apology,” Hatch said in his prepared remarks. “Unlike the drunken sailor’s budget, the President’s budget doesn’t cut the government off from its spending spree.”

Still, Hatch shared some warm words with Geithner, saying he liked him personally and wanted him to go down in history as a successful Treasury secretary.  

But the senator also suggested that Geithner “weigh in heavier” within the administration and help it “get real about spending and taxing and government.”