AIG bailouts

Secretary Timothy Geithner drew sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike Wednesday for his role in the $180-billion-plus taxpayer bailout of insurance giant A.I.G. with some challenging his claim that he played no role in withholding information about AIG deals with business partners. When President Obama picked the then-New York Fed chief on November 24, 2008, "I withdrew from monetary policy decisions...and day to day management of the New York Fed," Geithner told a congressional panel.

But one member after another lit into Geithner, venting rising public frustration over bank bailouts and bonuses as Wall Street firms recovered from the recession but unemployment remains at 10 percent.Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., told Geithner: "It just stinks to the high heaven what happened here. The disclosure was not there at the proper time to tell the American people and tell this Congress what was going on."Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, told Geithner he was more beholden to banks than he was to taxpayers when he ran the New York Fed and cut him off abruptly when he tried to deny it

AIG eventually received an aid package from the government of more than $180 billion. At issue before the committee is the part of this money to repay banks that were its business partners, known as counterparties, and efforts by the government to cover up details of the payments. Geithner told Congress, he played no role in any of those decisions. I will take full responsibility for decisions I played A role in for AIG.I was not involved in decisions about what to disclose about the individual transactions or the names of counterparties. But I have enormous trust and confidence in the integrity and judgment of those who were."

The committee's top Republican said many people, including people of this committee, have a hard time believing Secretary Geithner entered into an absolute cone of silence," California Rep. Darrell Issa, In a particularly sharp exchange, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., told Geithner "Either you were in charge and did the wrong thing or you participated in the wrong thing."Recalling the early controversy over Geithner's failure to pay some personal income taxes, Mica said: "You gave lame excuses then, you are giving lame excuses now. Why shouldn't we ask for your resignation as secretary of the Treasury?"You have a right to your opinion," Geithner said.

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AIG bailouts

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