Geithner pushes for tax on banks

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on lawmakers to create a financial industry tax to recover losses incurred in bailing out banks.

Geithner pushed for the tax proposed by President Barack Obama in January that would raise $90 billion over 10 years.

In remarks prepared for the Senate Committee on Finance, Geithner said, "Enacting this fee now will make it clear to the American people that they will not have to shoulder the direct costs of protecting the economy from future financial failures."

He said the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed in October 2008 mandated the government recover costs of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. He also said, "The cost of this economic crisis has been enormous, hitting Americans harder than any downturn since the Great Depression."

He said the fee would be applied to any financial firm with over $50 billion in assets that was eligible for TARP funding.

That "excludes over 99 percent of U.S. banks" and uses a fee structure designed to "limit the risk of any adverse impact on lending," he said.