Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the Obama administration’s economic record and dismissed a call for his resignation from the senior House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.

Geithner blamed the policies of the Republican party and President George W. Bush for the financial crisis that pushed the nation into the deepest recession since the 1930s.

Republicans “gave this president an economy falling off the cliff,” Geithner told Representative Kevin Brady of Texas as the two men interrupted each other during a hearing today. “I can’t take responsibility for the legacy of crises you bequeathed the country.”

Gearing up for next year’s elections, Republicans are training their sights on Geithner, an architect of the Wall Street bailout as Treasury secretary and in his previous job as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A report issued earlier this week critical of Geithner’s handling of the rescue of insurer American International Group Inc. has also prompted calls for him to quit.

Today, the Treasury chief fired back, saying that by “any measure” of consumer or investor confidence, the economy is “substantially stronger today than when the president took office” in January.

The “worst financial crisis in generations” happened after “almost a decade, certainly eight years, of basic neglect of basic public goods, in health care, in education, in public infrastructure, in how we use energy,” Geithner said.

Economic Management

Brady told Geithner that a growing number of liberal Democrats as well as conservative Republicans think that he is handling the economy poorly.

“For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?” Brady asked. “The public has lost all confidence in your ability to the do the job, and it is reflecting on your president.”

Another Republican on the panel, Representative Michael Burgess of Texas, told Geithner that he disagreed with Brady.

“I don’t think you should be fired,” Burgess told Geithner. “I thought you should have never been hired.”

Democrats on the panel defended Geithner.

“It just amazes me how there are some people here who are trying to pretend, and I think consciously and intentionally pretending, that the economic circumstances that we’re confronting, all of them, mysteriously materialized over the course of the last nine months or so, which is totally, completely false,” said Representative Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat.

White House Comment

The White House stepped in to defend the Treasury chief later in the day. “Secretary Geithner has helped steer the American economy back from the brink, and is now leading the effort on financial reform,” White House spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said in an e-mailed statement. “His focus today -- and ours -- is on economic recovery and addressing the challenges the American people face every day.”

Earlier this week, former Republican congressman Rob Simmons, seeking a U.S. Senate seat from Connecticut, called on Geithner to resign over his role in the AIG bailout.

Simmons, who is bidding to challenge Democratic incumbent Christopher Dodd in the 2010 election, cited the report issued Nov. 16 by the watchdog of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that faulted the New York Fed -- with Geithner at its helm -- for making “limited efforts” to protect taxpayer funds during last year’s rescue of AIG.

Dodd chairs the Senate Banking Committee, which is considering legislation to toughen oversight of the U.S. financial system.

In today’s hearing, Geithner also told lawmakers that the Treasury wants to end the TARP as soon as possible.

“We are working to put TARP out of its misery,” he said.

The Obama administration is moving “aggressively” to shut down “the programs that defined TARP at the beginning of the crisis,” he said.

The department has already completed its guarantee for money-market mutual funds and it has ceased making capital injections into large banks.

To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net; Rebecca Christie in Washington at Rchristie4@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: November 19, 2009 17:51 EST