Less Than AAA Rating? Never!

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the country’s debt rating is not at risk because of the trillions of dollars of government spending to shore up the economy.

Asked on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday whether the government would lose its triple AAA sovereign debt rating, Geithner said: “Absolutely not and that will never happen to this country.”

Geithner said there was less risk now that the economy would slip back into recession, a pattern known as a “double-dip” recession.

“We have much, much lower risk of that today than at any time over the last 12 months,” Geithner said.

The labor market which was under significant strain last year at this time is now on the cusp of creating a substantial number of new jobs. The unemployment rate is already beginning to reflect that turn falling from 10% in Dec to 9.7% in Jan.

“We had a huge shock to the American economy and we’re still living with the aftershocks,” Geithner said. “You’re seeing the first signs now of business starting to take some risks again.”

Geither went on to dismiss earlier comments by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) -- calling his assessment of the $787 billion stimulus package -- "Flat wrong!"

After winning the Massachusetts election, Brown was quoted as saying that the stimulus did not create or save any jobs.

"I don’t think there is any basis for that judgment," Geithner said.

The White House and independent economists (including our job charts here) have illustrated that the stimulus package has saved at least several million jobs and is on the verge of creating several million more by later this year.