Geithner says Obama economic plan will come in weeks

U.S. Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner told Congress President Barack Obama plans to propose a "comprehensive plan" for responding to the economic and financial crises within the next few weeks.

The plan will address the credit crunch and the collapse of the housing market, as well as global economic conditions that require a coordinated international response, Geithner told a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination Wednesday.

Obama "will come before the Congress in the next few weeks and lay out to the American people a comprehensive plan to help stabilize the core of the financial system so that banks, which are so critical to our economy, are able to provide the credit necessary to get recovery going again," Geithner said.

In addition to dealing with the housing crisis, the president's plan will seek to "directly address the constraints" that are making it harder for small businesses, students, auto buyers and local governments to get access to credit, Geithner said.

The Treasury nominee also urged Congress to pass a robust stimulus plan to revive the economy and pledged to overhaul the government's $700 billion bailout program.

"The ultimate costs of this crisis will be greater if we do not act with sufficient strength now," Geithner said in testimony at the hearing. "In a crisis of this magnitude, the most prudent course is the most forceful course."

Obama's economic team is pushing to complete a bank-rescue plan that can be twinned with a $825 billion stimulus package to alleviate the rapidly deepening financial crisis. While full details of the rescue haven't been settled yet, people familiar with the deliberations said the package is likely to include a $50 billion-plus program to stem foreclosures, fresh injections of capital into the banks and steps to deal with toxic assets clogging lenders' balance sheets.

Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, was also grilled by senators about his late payment of almost $50,000 in taxes. He said his tax errors were "careless" and unintentional, and apologized to the committee for the toll they have taken on his confirmation process.

"I should have been more careful. I take full responsibility for them," Geithner said.

Geithner, 47, is still likely to win confirmation as Obama's economic policy chief, lawmakers' public remarks indicate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, endorsed Geithner's candidacy, as have several of the panel's Republican members. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said he remains concerned about Geithner's "troubled tax history."

Baucus has scheduled a committee vote on the nomination for Thursday.