Mack Introduces Resolution of No Confidence in Treasury Secretary Geithner in U.S. House

Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL) today announced that he will be introducing  to the House a resolution for a vote of no confidence in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. This vote mirrors the Senate proposal by Sen. Rand Paul last night.

The measure points out Geithner’s mismanagement of the U.S. economy as the reason for the vote and Rep. Mack said, “Secretary Geithner repeatedly predicted that if the debt limit was not raised, the stock markets would crumble and our nation’s AAA Credit Rating would be reduced. Despite some Members’ very public objections, the Congress as a whole went along and raised the debt ceiling as Geithner demanded. Immediately after, the foremost global financial markets fell precipitously, andStandard and Poor’s reduced  America’s Credit Rating.  In short everything Secretary Geithner promised would not happen has happened because we raised the debt ceiling.  It’s time for a change and I commend Senator Paul for taking the legislative lead to invoke change in the Administration.”

The failed promise Geithner made that the nation’s credit rating would never be downgraded is being added onto a growing stack of failures:

• Promised more infrastructure spending would create jobs, the unemployment rate has hovered over 9%.
• Promised never to embrace a strategy to weaken the U.S. dollar, the dollar has hit an all time low in value.

His recent statements that the U.S. could just print money to pay off any debt shows a real disconnect with the American people. Using the printing press to create a deluge of cash to pay off mounting debt would certainly decrease the value of the greenback and create massive inflation. The price increases on food, clothing, electricity and other needs would likely push many U.S. families over a financial cliff.

Mack concluded: “Secretary’s Geithner’s management of our nation’s assets is as appalling as asking hard-working Americans to pay more in taxes when he didn’t pay his own.  The writing was on the wall when Secretary Geithner was nominated by President Obama.”

These resolutions are non-binding and will likely have no effect other than raising awareness of the Treasury’s failure to get a handle on the American economy. In 1950, Congress successfully passed a vote of no confidence against Secretary of State Dean Acheson over his failure to report to Congress on the Truman-Churchill talks. The successful vote did eventually pressure Truman to answer that no commitments to Britain had been made for troops.

What is not immediately clear is what is expected from the motion against Geithner. Sen. Paul had demanded that the Secretary resign, but with no ability to enforce such a motion, little action is expected.