Debt Talks Survived Breakdowns With Geithner Set to Calm Markets
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In the Oval Office two days before a threatened debt default, President Barack Obama and his advisers confronted a question they’d been striving to avoid: what should Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner say, and when, to calm financial markets if a tentative agreement imploded?
Obama had just hung up with Republican House Speaker John Boehner on July 31 and learned they were at another impasse. This time it was over defense spending cuts, and Boehner wasn’t sure he could get enough Republican votes to pass the plan.