Geithner's testimony to Senate Finance panel

GEITHNER ON U.S. DEFICIT, ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS:

"It is absolutely critical to the efforts to get the economy back on track that we give the American people and investors around the world confidence that we're going to have the ability and the will, working with the Congress, to get our fiscal position back down over the next five years to a sustainable position, but also that we're willing to start to take on and find a consensus on a bipartisan basis for putting Social Security and Medicare on a more sustainable financial position longer term.

"I think we have to do both of those things together."

GEITHNER ON OBAMA'S ECONOMIC STABILIZATION PLAN:

"What the President is going to do is he's going to come before the Congress, we hope in the next few weeks, and lay out for the American people a comprehensive plan to help stabilize the core of our financial system so that the banks that are so critical to our economy are able to provide the credit necessary to get recovery going again.

"He's going to lay out a comprehensive plan for addressing the housing crisis in this country which has been so central to the recession and its basic causes. And he's going to lay out a broad set of programs to try to directly address the constraints that are now making it harder for small businesses, for students, for people who want to buy a car, for municipalities across the country to get access to credit."

GEITHNER APOLOGIZES FOR TAX MISTAKES:

"These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes. But they were unintentional. I should have been more careful. I take full responsibility for them. I have gone back and corrected these errors and paid what I owed. I want to apologize to the committee for putting you in the position of having to spend so much time on these issues when there is so much pressing business for the country."

FORMER FED CHAIRMAN PAUL VOLCKER ON RECESSION:

"We are in serious recession, with no end clearly in sight. The financial system is broken. It's a serious obstacle to recovery. There is no escape from the imperative need for the federal government to come to the rescue to right the economic and financial ship. Over time, several trillion dollars will be necessary to be committed in a combination of budgetary expenditure and various guarantees in insurance programs and extensions of credit by the Federal reserve. Obviously, commitments made of that magnitude raise very large questions, There are not only questions of avoiding waste of the taxpayer's money, as important as that is, there are also risks of undermining confidence in the dollar, raising fears of future inflation."

COMMITTEE REPUBLICAN CHARLES GRASSLEY ON TARP:

"His involvement in building and implementing the TARP gives him unique insight into how we have gotten to where we are today. To some he isn't merely the best choice, to some he is the only choice."

GRASSLEY ON GEITHNER'S PERSONAL TAX PROBLEMS:

"The tax gap is the difference between what taxpayers legally owe and what they actually pay. The nominee has been found to be a tax-gap participant. ... The nominee has offered many excuses that range from statements that he 'should have known' to explanations that 'if only his accountant had warned him he would have done the right thing.'

"We need to consider how much the nominee's tax history could reflect on a secretary of Treasury. A secretary would be in charge of the IRS if confirmed. ... How much does this troubled tax history reflect on his judgment as a decision-maker?"

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR MAX BAUCUS ON TAX ISSUES:

"These are disappointing mistakes, but after discussing them with Mr. Geithner, I believe them to be innocent mistakes. I believe that Mr. Geithner has sufficiently corrected the errors, and I know a man of Mr. Geithner's talent and dedication will be meticulous on these points in the future."

BAUCUS ON CONFIDENCE IN GEITHNER:

"I have confidence that he will address the important obligations that he will inherit with honesty and honor. And I have confidence that with the help of his unselfish performance America will overcome these troubled times and emerge with renewed strength."

GEITHNER ON ECONOMIC STIMULUS:

"Our test is to act with the strength, speed and care necessary to get our economy back on track, and to restore America's faith in our economic future. ... First, we must act quickly to provide substantial support for economic recovery and to get credit flowing again."

GEITHNER ON REFORMING TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM:

"We have to fundamentally reform this program to ensure that there is enough credit available to support recovery. We will do this with tough conditions to protect the taxpayer and the necessary transparency to allow the American people to see how and where their money is being spent and the results those investments are delivering."

GEITHNER ON ECONOMIC PRIORITIES:

"The strength of the recovery will depend critically on the investments and reforms we initiate now to expand access to health care and reduce its cost, to move toward energy independence, to sharpen and deepen the skills of American workers and to modernize our infrastructure."