Everyone’s thinking it, but few are saying it. For former Obama aide Dr Christina Romer, however, she didn’t see any reason to censor herself Friday night on the Real Time with Bill Maher television program.
Romer, in fact, was downright crude while appearing on the show, though albeit maybe a bit too honest.
Just shortly after Standard Poor’s announced the downgrade of the US credit rating on Friday night, Dr Romer, former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, taped an appearance on the late-night HBO program. When host Bill Maher asked her “how f**ked are we?” Romer got abrupt with the anchor.
Speaking with a smile, the 52-year-old former aide told Maher, “We are pretty darn f**ked.”
Romer had served on the Council until last September when she offered her resignation. Secretary Timothy Geithner is now the only top official on the economics team of President Barack Obama that has remained since his administration began in early 2009. Geithner confirmed over the weekend that, despite turmoil in Washington, he wishes to retain his position throughout this crisis.
Romer implied, however, that perhaps a little bit of the secretary had been rubbing off on her. Following her crude comment on Real Time, Romer blamed her flub on the fact that she’s “been hanging around Tim Geithner too long,” and adds that he swears “like a seventh-grade boy.”
Upon announcement of her resignation last year, President Obama spoke highly of Romer, saying in a statement that she “has provided extraordinary service to me and our country during a time of economic crisis and recovery.”
If that was a time of economic crisis, perhaps we are more than just darn f**ked.
Obama added then, “The challenges we faced demanded more of Christy than any of her predecessors, and I greatly valued and appreciated her skill, commitment and wise counsel.”