The Senate has confirmed Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary by a 60-to-34 vote. Democratic Senators Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin, Robert Byrd and independent Bernie Sanders all voted against Geithner, as did thirty Republicans. Part of the opposition to Geithner centered on his failure to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004. As Treasury Secretary, Geithner will oversee the Internal Revenue Service. Less than an hour after he won Senate confirmation, President Barack Obama came to the Treasury Department to participate in a swearing-in ceremony.

President Obama: “I came here tonight, because at this moment of challenge and crisis, Tim’s work and the work of the entire Treasury Department must begin at once. We cannot lose a day, because every day the economic picture is darkening here and across the globe.”

Tim Geithner vowed to move quickly to aid the distressed US economy.

Tim Geithner: “We are at a moment of maximum challenge for our economy and for our country, and our agenda, Mr. President, is to move quickly to help you do what the country asked you to do: to launch the programs that will bring economic recovery sooner, to make our economy more productive and more just in the opportunities it provides our citizens, to restore trust in our financial system with fundamental reform, to make our tax system better at rewarding work and investment, to restore confidence in America’s economic leadership around the world.”