Reply #5: Geithner blasts Bush policies for debt

[ozymandius]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration's "misguided" policies are to blame for huge U.S. budget deficits, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner charged on Wednesday as he sought to build an election-year case for ending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

With congressional elections looming in November, Geithner sought to regain the high ground on the issue of who bears responsibility for record budget gaps and to counter Republican labeling of Democrats as tax-and-spend, bailout-happy liberals.

Geithner said extending the Bush-era tax cuts for top income earners, as Republicans want, would force more borrowing to cover lost revenues and crimp more-effective remedies for boosting economic growth and hiring.

"Borrowing to finance tax cuts for the top 2 percent would be a $700 billion fiscal mistake," Geithner said. "It's not the prescription the economy needs now, and the country can't afford it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100804/pl_nm/us_usa_treasury_geithner_tax

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It is quite possible that most people who frequent here would agree that continuing the Bush era cuts would be a massive mistake. The cartoon frames the issue nicely.