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House Republican Leader John Boehner said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should shut down the financial bailout program and use the $300 billion left in the fund to pay off government debt.

Boehner criticized plans by House Democrats to use some of the unspent money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to finance new job-creation programs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said yesterday legislation is being written to use some TARP funds to help local communities and small businesses.

“What we ought to do with that money is use it to reduce the budget deficit,” Boehner said in an interview taped for Bloomberg Television. He said he didn’t see “any reason to use that money” to finance “a bill that is doing nothing but grow the size of government.”

The $700 billion TARP program, created by Congress in 2008, is set to expire at year’s end. The law authorizes Geithner to extend it another nine months if he believes it is still necessary.

In Senate testimony Dec. 2, Geithner left open the possibility of extending parts of the TARP program. He said the administration expected to return “a very substantial” part of the rescue money.

‘Actively Looking’

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday the Obama administration was “actively looking at” ways to use TARP funds to spur job creation.

The $300 billion that remains in the fund includes $71 billion repaid by some banks as of Nov. 12, according to Treasury Department figures.

Bank of America Corp. said earlier this week it plans to repay the $45 billion it borrowed from the fund.

Pelosi, in her comments yesterday, said TARP funds would be “appropriately used” to pay for new jobs promotion programs because “the more jobs we create the more money comes back into the public till” as tax revenue that will “reduce the deficit paydayloans.”

Boehner said in the Bloomberg interview that in his view, none of the money was used the way Geithner and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told lawmakers it would be spent to buy troubled assets.

“There really hasn’t been the kind of transparency and accountability that many of us thought we were getting when we passed the bill,” Boehner said.

Resignation Issue

Boehner, 60, declined to join a call by Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, for Geithner’s resignation. Brady, a member of the Joint Economic Committee, criticized Geithner’s handling of the economy when he asked Geithner to resign at a Nov. 19 congressional hearing.

“There are a lot of questions that need to be answered before we get to that point,” Boehner said.

Boehner, of Ohio, said “more scrutiny” also is needed of Geithner’s role in the rescue of American International Group Inc. when the treasury secretary was president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank during last year’s financial crisis.

The Republican leader termed “appropriate” the reappointment of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who participated in the financial rescue of Wall Street last year, because “changing a Fed chairman in the midst of this serious recession would probably be a mistake.”

The Senate Banking Committee is reviewing Bernanke’s appointment by President Barack Obama to another term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The full Senate must vote to confirm him for the job.

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Filed under: money by TheDoor