Tim Geithner: “The Budget Committee deals in hallucinations, and the Appropriations Committee deals in facts.”

Absolutely. Yes, again, we see there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans.

I do not believe there is a credible argument to make that uncertainty about our fiscal deficits or uncertainty about the design of regulation in Washington today is having a material adverse effect on the American economy today.

If Congress were to choose to try to defer everything... that would be very damaging to the interests of the country.

You cannot govern a country if you commit never to raise taxes on anybody, because things change, wars happen, crises happen.