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Sitting down with CNBC, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner explained how the Obama Administration saw a way to correct the nation’s fiscal problems. He argued that “if you don’t try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don’t ask, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to — the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security.”

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says we need a radical proposal to "change America's culture of poverty," and put children to work. He advocates allowing kids as young as nine to replace school janitors. Gingrich thinks this approach would not only teach good work ethic to children in poor communities, but also help them earn a wage for their families.

President-elect Obama's ambitious and optimistic recovery plan has both cheerleaders and critics. We're looking at the plan from both sides. The Takeaway talks to Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Senior Fellow at The Hudson Institute and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, and James Galbraith, professor and economist at the University of Texas, Austin and author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too, about their take on the economic stimulus plan.

NY Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-6th), a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, discusses Congress' response to the financial crisis. Then, David Leonhardt, economic columnist for the New York Times, and Diana Furchtgott-Roth, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, update the latest.