December 04, 2009

Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her strongest endorsement yet of a global financial transaction fee Thursday after raising the issue directly with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a conversation this week.Geithner was widely seen as opposing such a levy when it was proposed by Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, at a meeting of G-20 finance ministers last month in Scotland. But after their phone conversation Wednesday, Pelosi told colleagues that the secretary indicated he was more open to some such fee than had been reported.

Pelosi didn’t reveal her conversation with Geithner at her weekly press conference Thursday, but several sources confirmed the details to POLITICO based on her discussions of the matter in a Democratic leadership meeting this week.There has been growing pressure from liberals in Congress for President Barack Obama to be more aggressive in tapping into Wall Street’s wealth to help finance Main Street job-creation programs.