200K Per Job: Timothy Geithner Says White House Jobs Plan Is Still a Bargain
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
$200K Per Job? Timothy Geithner Says White House Jobs
Plan Is Still a Bargain
By: BEN FORER, ABC News
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn't dispute a Harvard
economist's estimate that each job in the White House's jobs plan
would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to
measure the bill's worth.
And he also pointed out, in an interview today with ABC News'
David Muir, that there is no other option on the table for getting
the economy moving and putting more people back to work.
"You've got to think about the costs of the alternatives,"
Geithner said when asked about Harvard economist Martin Feldstein's
calculation that each job created by President Obama's American
Jobs Act would cost taxpayers about $200,000.
"If government does nothing, it does nothing now because they're
scared by politics or they want to debate what's perfect, then
there will be fewer Americans back to work, the economy will be
weaker," he said.
"We can borrow money for 10 years as the government of the
United States because people have confidence in this country at
less than 2 percent," he said. "The responsible path now is to take
advantage of the unique position we're in as a country. People have
a lot of confidence in us. Let's take advantage of that now to do
things that help growth in the short-term."
Geithner told Muir he believes there is a "very good chance" the
Jobs Act will pass because the proposals have seen bipartisan
support in the past and the cost of inaction is far too high.
"If the alternative plan is for Washington to do nothing, that's
unacceptable," Geithner said. "If the alternative plan is to sit
there and say we're going to cut our way out of this by just
cutting spending, that would make the economy weaker. Or we're
going to sit here and just complain about regulation. ... That will
not do anything to help the average family now still suffering so
much from the crisis."
At the same time as Geithner is trying to help spur the U.S.
economy, he is pushing European leaders to act quickly in the face
of a looming crisis.
After a generation of high government spending, Greece is on the
brink of bankruptcy and if it collapses it could take down other
European economies and leave American banks with $41 billion in
losses.
In the last week, the average American's 401k has lost $7,000
because of Europe's instability.
"It hurts people very directly and very quickly when stock
prices fall and the value of their pensions fall," Geithner said.
"[Greece] borrowed a lot and they spent too much. ... [I]t's going
to take them years and years to dig their way out of that. ... I
think they have time. But not very much time."
Even in the face of a stagnant economy at home, Geithner said
there are signs that things are turning around.
"If you talk to companies around the country like I do, you'll
see that something -- something very promising is starting to
happen right now," he said. "Companies are starting to relook at
where they produce, American companies, companies that moved things
to Mexico and China decades and years ago are starting to rethink
it.
"With all our challenges as a country, most companies that have
the opportunity to produce or to compete around the world, they'll
still say it's better to be in a company headquartered in America
and we still have the strongest fundamentals," he said.