dcdecoder:

How would Tim Geithner spice up House hearings on the budget? Bourbon.

Yesterday’s House Budget Committee’s grilling of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was perhaps one of the most loopy, confrontational and outright funny battles between House Republicans and administration officials .

As you can see in the video above, Geithner wore a smirk - impish or insolent, depending on your point of view - at many moments during the hearing. You can watch the entire thing on CSPAN’s archive here. But in case you don’t have three hours to burn this long holiday weekend, here are a few of the key exchanges.

• House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan: “I don’t see how you can square [Press Secretary Jay] Carney, [OMB Director Jacob] Lew, and the President’s comment that we’re not adding to the debt.  Your own table shows the debt going from $13 trillion to $26 trillion.  How can you say you’re not adding to the debt?” 
  
  Tim Geithner: “No…No… I’m just making a point about math and economics.”  

• Geither: “If you want to bludgeon me into admitting there is no tax reform proposal in here … I confess, we are not giving it you.”

• Geithner clocked Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R., Kan.) for what the Treasury Secretary deemed an “adolescent perspective” on the economy. In response, Huelskamp’s people cut the video you see at the top of this post.

Whatever you think about Geithner’s appearance, perhaps we can all agree with Wall Street Journal scribe Damian Paletta:

Geithner has testified before Congress many times, but today in the House - as far as political theater - is one of the best. on cspan3

— Damian Paletta (@damianpaletta) February 16, 2012

— David Grant / @DW_Grant