A Democratic senator said on Monday that she's "not sure" why Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner still has his job, calling his financial reform plans "appalling."
Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said that Geithner's plans left banks the same loopholes and encouraged the same risks that led to last year's economic meltdown.
Ratigan asked Cantwell, "Knowing two massive exemptions in the piece of legislation the Secretary endorsed yesterday on 'Meet the Press' ... why does Tim Geithner still have a job?"
"I'm not sure," Cantwell responded, "because David Gregory had him almost -- trying to get a straight answer out of him. What the Treasury Secretary basically said was, yes, banks should take more risks and we should continue the loopholes and that is really appalling because, right now, we know that lack of transparency has caused this problem with the U.S. economy and Wall Street is continuing, one year later, continuing the same kind of loopholes. And so if the Treasury Secretary doesn't come down hard against these loopholes and advocate for closing them, then we're going to have a tough time closing them in Congress. So the Treasury Secretary is dodging the issue."
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A member of the Senate Finance Committee, Cantwell wrote about the dangerous lack of regulation on Wall Street for the Huffington Post on Friday.