The freshmen, who said they were disappointed by President Barack Obama’s remarks at the White House on Wednesday, are even more skeptical of Geithner, who animates so much of their distaste for the president’s economic policies.

If Geithner wants to win them over, he must clear a high hurdle. Freshmen said he has been warning of an impending debt ceiling deadline for months, issuing at least four dates by which the debt ceiling needed to be raised. Two of those deadlines have since passed. The next, just before the House takes its August recess, raised some eyebrows in the conference.

“He pushed it to the day before we go to recess. If you can’t see a political thing there, ‘Oh, we happen to be OK until just before we go away,’” Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Wednesday. “It makes me wonder if that’s a real date.”…

“We all have to be mindful that there is somewhat of a Chicken Little aura about Secretary Geithner. If he’s going to describe economic catastrophes in specific dates, then he needs to be accurate when he does that,” says freshman Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.