Geithner takes beating in hearing on Obama budget

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had such a tough day pitching the Obama budget on Capitol Hill that even staunch opponents seemed to take pity on him.

Republican senators were careful to throw some token praise at Geithner even as they ripped the administration’s 2010 budget proposal at a hearing.

And Democrats waited until the embattled secretary left the room before signaling that President Barack Obama’s major budget initiatives, including nationalized health care and global warming fees, will be too hard to pass without changes.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who is chairman of the Budget Committee, had a friendly chat with Geithner at the dais after the conclusion of the two-hour grilling. Geithner exited the hearing room, then Conrad leveled with reporters.

“This is not going to be easy,” Conrad said, in reference to the $3.6 trillion budget plan. “There are so many crises we are dealing with — the housing crisis, the financial crisis, two wars.”

Conrad said he has been beset by senators on the floor of the chamber, and they have not been heaping praise on Obama’s budget plan. In fact, they are lodging threats.

“There are so many things in it where I have colleagues coming up to me and saying, ‘If this is in, I’m out,’ ” Conrad confessed. “And I’ve heard that on both sides.”

Conrad, who will be a chief architect of whatever compromise is crafted, has already made public his belief that the budget in its present form does not have enough support to pass the Senate, where it is difficult to stroll down any corridor without hearing either a Democratic or Republican declaring their firm opposition to one of its provisions.

One of the biggest nonstarters for a group of senators in both parties is Obama’s “cap and trade” proposal, which would require polluters such as coal power plants and manufacturing companies to pay for their carbon emissions. Such a plan would cause much higher energy prices, particularly in regions that derive most of their power from coal-fired plants.

Conrad is also skeptical about Obama’s plan to fund a major health care reform initiative in an effort to stave off massive costs that will burden the government in future years.

“Is this really a move to save money or is it just going to cost more money?” Conrad said.

At the hearing, Republicans were less delicate, declaring the budget some kind of economic fantasy plan that would bankrupt the country.

“The argument that this budget doesn’t have tax increases is, I think, an Alice in Wonderland view of the budget,” said the top Republican on the committee, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who nearly took a job as Obama’s commerce secretary.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told Geithner to “get out of the campaign mode. I know you have responsibilities to the administration, but it sounds a lot like David Axelrod to me rather than a fundamental appraisal” of the economy.

Geithner seemed unfazed by the criticism and told the panel, “We share more in common than you believe.”