Geithner Denies He's Leaving Treasury

The Daily Beast reports:

Tim Geithner denied on Thursday that he had decided to leave his position as the nation's Treasury secretary "for the foreseeable future."

Earlier today, Bloomberg News reported that Geithner would leave the Obama administration after Congress forged a deal on the debt limit, in part because his son has decided to finish high school in New York.

Yet sharing a stage with former President Bill Clinton at the CGI jobs summit in Chicago, Geithner said that report was untrue.

"I live for this work," he told Clinton. "I’m going to be doing it for the foreseeable future. My son is going back to New York, and Ill be commuting."

Geithner is the last remaining senior member of Obama's original economic team. Early into the president's term, there were rumors that he would step down amid complaints over his close ties to the banking industry. A career public servant, Geithner frequently worked with various investment banks during his previous job at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, but his supporters say that put him in a unique position to create consensus and implement the right policies during the chaos of the financial crisis.

Despite the heated partisan battle over extending the debt limit, Geithner expressed optimism that an agreement would soon be made.

"They'll do the right thing," he said, adding that over the next five to 10 years, "America will be stronger, better and more confident."

Clinton agreed. "I think it’s a mistake to bet against America," he said.