Congressional Leader Wants Summers and Geithner 's Heads on the Chopping Block

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Boehner dials up attack on Obama; calls for firing of White House economic team

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) blasted the Obama administration's economic policies in a speech Tuesday and called on the president to fire his top two economic lieutenants.

Boehner wants President Obama to ask for and accept the resignations of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, head of the National Economic Council. Firing his economic team is one of five actions Boehner argues the president should take to right the economy.

In his speech, Boehner criticized the administration's economic team for lacking private sector experience, saying employers and small businesses are "rightly frustrated" by the administration. "The lack of real-world, hands-on experience shows in the policies of this administration," Boehner said.

"Obama should ask for - and accept - the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council," he said. "Now, this is no substitute for a referendum on the president's job-killing agenda. That question will be put before the American people in due time. But we do not have the luxury of waiting months for the president to pick scapegoats for his failing 'stimulus' policies. We've tried 19 months of government-as-community organizer. It hasn't worked. Our fresh start needs to begin now."

Christina Romer, chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, resigned earlier this month, following Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag in July. Boehner said that other members of the administration's economic team should see "the writing on the wall."

Boehner, who is poised to become the new House Speaker if Republicans win back the lower chamber this fall, delivered the address at the City Club of Cleveland on Tuesday morning.

The weak economy is hurting Obama and congressional Democrats in the polls, and a run of poor economic news shows no signs of ending. Several analysts of Congressional races see dozens of seats now held by Democrats as in play.

The Commerce Department at the end of the week will release new figures expected to show the economy did not grow as much as once thought in the second quarter, and Democrats and the White House are bracing for a new monthly jobs report set for release next week.

Much of Boehner's speech focused on spending and taxes, which Congress is set to debate upon its return to Washington in September.

Boehner wants the president to extend the Bush tax cuts that expire this year and to offer an aggressive plan to cut spending.

Allowing the tax cuts approved in 2001 and 2003 to expire would hurt small businesses and hamper economic growth, according to Boehner. "Raising taxes on families and small businesses during a recession is a recipe for disaster, both for our economy and for the deficit. Period. End of story," he said.

On spending, Boehner said that Congress should agree to cut non-defense discretionary spending to 2008 levels when it returns to work.

He also said Obama should promise not to sign any "job-killing" bills approved by a lame-duck Congress after the mid-term elections. Boehner specifically mentioned climate change legislation already approved by the House, and a bill making it easier for unions to organize.

Boehner's fifth call for action was that Obama should call on Democratic leaders to work with Republicans to repeal a part of the healthcare law that requires businesses to file 1099 reporting forms with the IRS on all purchases over $600.

A central part of Boehner's argument is that the Obama administration's policies have helped the public sector at the expense of the private sector.

"Since February 2009, the private sector has lost millions of jobs while the federal government has grown by hundreds of thousands of workers," Boehner said. "We've seen not just more government jobs, but better-paying ones too. Federal employees now make on average more than double what private sector workers take in."

Boehner argues that this gap has more than doubled in Obama's first year in office even as private sector employees lost their jobs.

"It's just nonsense to think that taxpayers are subsidizing the fattened salaries and pensions of federal bureaucrats who are out there right now making it harder to create private sector jobs," Boehner said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/115529-boehner-to-call-on-obama-to-fire-geithner-summers

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I didn't read the article, but have been hearing about this...

One thing is for sure, Summers needs to be thrown out and put into jail. He's part of the reason we are in this mess to begin with. Him and Alan Greenspan helped put us here and now this jerk off is part of another administration? It's truly pathetic really...

As far as Geitner goes... Well, I have little faith in anyone who works for the treasury that was the president of any Federal Reserve branch....