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EAMON JAVERS
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday defended the administration's bid to create a bipartisan commission to address the nation's soaring budget deficit.
In an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper on "This Week," Geithner rejected the idea that a need for a commission means the nation's political system is fundamentally broken and unable to address difficult issues.
"I am very confident in our ability as a country to bring people together and make sure we are solving these challenges and these problems," Geithner said. "We've done it in the past, it is completely within our capacity to do as a country."
And the Treasury secretary ducked a question about whether he'd take tax increases off the table for any deficit fighting commission. "For this to work, you've got to bring people together to step back from politics, day-to-day politics, and to bring fresh ideas to solve these kind of problems," Geithner said in an answer to Tapper's question. "We're deeply serious about doing this."
President Barack Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year.
Geithner also ducked a question from Tapper on whether he feels any personal responsibility for the "deficit of trust" Americans' have in Washington.
"Let me just say that I feel very proud for the actions we took to help to stem the damage caused by this crisis," Geithner said.
