Geithner Wants Debt Ceiling "Done and Clean" in July

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509104576330202219718070.html

NEW YORK--Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he wanted a vote to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling "done and clean" by July, weeks before the government could potentially default on its debts on Aug. 2.

Mr. Geithner also said Republican leaders have told him privately they won't "monkey around" with the issue. The remarks came during a series of back-to-back appearances in New York where he offered an unusually candid take on everything from the political challenges facing Washington to his future in it.

"We're the United States of America," Mr. Geithner said at his first stop, at the Harvard Club in New York, when asked about the possibility of whether the U.S. government would default on its debts. "You've got to be kidding."

Mr. Geithner's statements, and the confidence he exuded when making them, were a departure from the fragile state of talks between the White House and House Republicans on raising the ceiling by Aug. 2, when Mr. Geithner believes his agency will run out of options to prevent a default.

*end of excerpt*, eta: added missing sentence fragment