Geithner o budžetu SAD-a

Timothy Geithner traži preko tri i pol milijarde dolara za pomoć američkom gospodarstvu.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared before the Senate Budget Committee Thursday to defend the Obama Adminstration's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint to skeptical Senators like Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions and New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg.

SOUNDBITE: U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions saying (English):

"This budget at its base is more taxes, more spending and more debt."

SOUNDBITE: U.S. Senator Judd Gregg saying (English):

"You said essentially that you're controlling spending. Well, you're not."

But on a day in which a Wall Street Journal survey of economists found that a majority of them gave Geithner a failing grade for his efforts to revive the world's largest economy, the Treasury Secretary said President Obama's priorities will have the effect of jump-starting the faltering economy.

SOUNDBITE: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying (English):

"We'll have different priorities, different judgments about what's gonna make the economy grow again. But there's very few economists who would not agree that addressing the growth in healthcare costs, improving educational outcomes, improving our infrastructure and moving us to a cleaner energy economy are not absolutely necessary conditions for improving the long-term growth potential of this economy."

Geithner's testimony comes a day before he meets with G20 Finance Ministers in Great Britain. Geithner has said he will tell his counterparts of the need to boost spending for as long as necessary to counter a severe financial crisis and what he calls a "deepening" global recession.

Jon Decker, Reuters.