Geithner jabs at GOP for socialist 'myth' about Obama

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner jabbed at Republicans on Tuesday evening for creating a "political myth" that President Obama is a socialist.

The top remaining member of the president's economic team defended the administration's record, asserting that even fiscal conservatives had much to be happy with in Obama's performance during almost two years in office.

"It is a great political myth," Geithner said Tuesday evening on the Charlie Rose show when asked if Obama's agenda resembles European-style socialism.

"The president's opponents were very effective in creating an alternative reality," the Treasury secretary added. "And they're still running on that. But it's a complete myth."

Republicans have warned that the policies sought by Obama and congressional Democrats — from the $787 billion stimulus to healthcare reform to other spending initiatives — have led the U.S. government down the path toward socialism. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) new book, for instance, lays out a path to "stopping Obama's secular-socialist machine."

Geithner also made a pitch to fiscal conservatives on behalf of the administration.

"If you were a conservative Republican, look at what we did to get the government out of the financial sector as quickly as possible," he said. "If you are a fiscal conservative, look at what we did to return hundreds of billions of dollars of unused authority to the American people, to the Congress to deal with our future challenges."

Geithner has generally avoided throwing such barbed political words Republicans' ways, despite the GOP's occasional attacks toward him. Several top Republicans have called, at different times over the past 20 months, for Geithner's resignation as Treasury secretary.

As things stand, he's the last major remaining figure in Obama's economic team. Christina Romer resigned from her position as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers and Peter Orszag left as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lawrence Summers, the chairman of the National Economic Council, will leave the White House later this fall.