Tim Geithner: “It would be better for the country for Congress to provide some certainty about how we are going to address these…”

What the President proposed in his budget is a series of detailed changes to our resources and our commitments that would reduce our deficits from 10 percent of GDP to around 3 percent of GDP, which is primary balance.

If those were embraced by the Congress tomorrow, there would be substantially more confidence around the world in the capacity of this political system in Washington.

It's critically important. I'll give you an example of how to--if the Congress extends those tax cuts that go to 2 percent of the most fortunate Americans in the country, we have to go borrow $1 trillion over 10 years.

When Timothy Geithner says today that he's willing to go over the cliff, he's saying it because, yes, it's posturing. But he's also saying it because he means it.