Two Republican lawmakers criticized the Obama administration for pushing forward with health-care legislation when the economy continues to struggle, but they both stopped short of calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s resignation.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas) made headlines last week when he said at a congressional hearing that Geithner should step down. Geithner defended himself and the actions taken by the Obama administration aimed at improving the economy.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether Geithner should resign, said, “I’m not here to call for anybody’s resignation today.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R., Texas) said Brady “was right to bring it up,” but she didn’t go as far as to say Geithner should resign.

“I think we are going in the wrong direction,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think the president, the Congress, and Mr. Geithner are all responsible for going in the wrong direction.”

Democrats on Sunday rushed to Geithner’s defense.

“When times get tough, what happens?” asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on “Meet the Press.” “Somebody has to point a finger. Tim Geithner isn’t responsible for the entirety of what’s out there today. And its nonsense to think that he is. It really makes me very angry.”

Lawmakers from both parties on Sunday said more needed to be done to improve the economy and combat rising unemployment, but differed over what specific measures should be taken.

Several Democrats said the White House needed to step up efforts to help businesses obtain credit and to focus more on economic issues.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether the White House was more in sync with average Americans or with Wall Street, said the White House’s advisers were “mixed.”

He said he approached Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at a meeting last week and told him, “We need more focus on manufacturing. We need an economic policy.”

Asked if the White House needed to do a better job on the economy, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) said, “Sure — I think we all need to do a better job.”

Several Republicans criticized the White House for focusing on health care while the economy continued to struggle.

“Rather than passing this job-killing health-care bill, why don’t we concentrate on getting the economy in better shape,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on CNN. He suggested Congress “repeal the balance of the stimulus package” as one way of improving the deficit, saying it hasn’t been effective in improving the unemployment rate.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that one reason lawmakers wanted to wrap up debate on the health-care overhaul this year is so they could focus their attention on the economy and jobs early in 2010.

In case all the groups trying to get Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s attention were wondering — yes, she’s noticed. Groups involved in the health-care debate, realizing Ms. Lincoln is a crucial swing vote, have been blitzing her home state of Arkansas with ads pressuring her one way or another. Speaking on the Senate floor Saturday afternoon, Ms. Lincoln cited an estimate that $3.3 million has been spent so far, mostly by out-of-state groups.

The senator repeatedly mentioned the pressure, and each time insisted it would have no effect on her. She used the ads to assert her independence, saying she would bow neither to right-wing groups nor to “liberals out of state.” But she seemed taken aback by the rancor of the debate, noting the “unbelievable type of threats” she was receiving.

Ms. Lincoln said she would vote to proceed on the bill, a critical boost for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.). But she said she would oppose the bill in its current form if it came to a final vote because she doesn’t like its inclusion of a government-run health plan. While the public plan is supposed to be self-supporting, Ms. Lincoln predicted it would lead to a “future government bailout,” and she cited the government bailouts of General Motors and others in asserting that government is already too big.

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said she’ll vote to move ahead with the Senate health bill, but has three conditions before she agrees to vote yes on the final bill. Those conditions are important, because Ms. Landrieu is one of the Democratic swing votes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) needs to win final passage. Here they are:

• 1) More tax credits for small business to buy health insurance. The issue is a consistent theme for Ms. Landrieu, who is chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee. The bill already includes some credits at a cost of $27 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• 2) Measures to prevent sharp health premium increases between now and the time the bill goes into effect. Ms. Landrieu noted that several years would pass between passage of the bill and 2014, when many of its provisions take effect including the introduction of insurance exchanges where people could comparison-shop for plans.
• 3) “A better and bipartisan solution” to the question of a government-run, health-insurance plan sought by liberal Democrats. The current bill includes the public plan, with an option for states not to participate. But Ms. Landrieu indicated she preferred a proposal by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, under which the public plan would be triggered only if other steps didn’t make coverage affordable.

Will she get what she wants? Mr. Reid can probably offer something on the first two conditions, but the third one is tougher because many Senate Democrats insist the public plan must be part of the bill from the start.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) with Club for Growth's Chris Chocola and Dr. Bernadine Healy, ex-director of National Institutes of Health; roundtable of Fox News' Brit Hume, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and NPR's Mara Liasson.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.),  Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Race for the Cure's Nancy Brinker and NBC's Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) Friday refused a request from Dow Jones to release his personal tax returns.

Sen. Grassley, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has criticized several Obama administration nominees who failed to pay taxes or to pay them on time.

“Senator Grassley files the publicly available, extensive financial disclosure report required of him as a senator,” a Grassley spokeswoman said in response to a request to review his tax returns. “If he’s nominated and accepts a post for a Finance Committee jurisdiction position in an administration, he’ll abide by committee rules and practice, including submitting his tax returns for review by the chairman and ranking member,” the spokeswoman said.

Sen. Grassley said Friday the Obama administration has “lowered the bar” for tax compliance by federal officials, after committee staff inquiries this year revealed taxes went unpaid or were paid late by a string of nominees. “We do not need anyone so badly in the federal government that we allow them to live by their own set of rules,” Sen. Grassley said at a confirmation hearing for Lael Brainard, who is up for Treasury undersecretary for international affairs.

Dow Jones also asked Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) to release his personal tax returns. A spokesman for Baucus did not immediately respond Friday evening.

Strict privacy laws safeguard individual tax information, and tax returns of nominees who are subject to confirmation by the Finance panel are not released to the public. Instead, a select group of staffers have access to them for vetting purposes.

In some cases — including this year with regard to former Sen. Tom Daschle (D., S. D.) and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner — a bipartisan staff memorandum detailing specific tax irregularities is released to the public.

A five-page staff memo released Wednesday revealed Ms. Brainard paid property taxes late, questioned her claim of a home-office deduction, and detailed some glitches on tax forms for domestic employees. Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) came to Ms. Brainard’s aid, saying she had “a reputation for honesty and integrity.” But Sen. Conrad said it was “troubling that the staff found some discrepancies” in her answers to questions on her tax history.

Sen. Grassley lashed out at the Obama White House, saying nominees during previous administrations that had checkered tax histories often withdrew from consideration. He said he is frustrated that nominees like Mr. Geithner and Ms. Brainard have proceeded with support from Democrats, despite their documented tax problems. “I’m not sure if it’s worth our time, or our staffs time to be asking these questions anymore,” Sen. Grassley said.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who heads the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, which will investigate the deadly Ft. Hood shootings, calls them an act of terrorism.

Although some officials, including fellow Democrat President Obama in the early post-shooting hours, have urged caution in characterizing the shocking shootings that caused the deaths of 13 and wounding of 29 on the Texas Army base, Levin tells C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" program in a taped interview, "It sure looks like that."

Levin has already been briefed by investigators.

The Ticket has obtained video excerpts (see below) of the cable program to be broadcast Sunday at 7 a.m. Pacific time (10 a.m. Eastern).

Today the man accused of the Nov. 5 killings, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, will undergo a pretrial confinement hearing in Killeen, Texas, at his bedside in a heavily guarded hospital room.

The precise schedule for the unusual hearing is unannounced for security reasons, but prosecutors seek a judicial ruling that their existing pretrial confinement is appropriate. They have announced they will seek the death penalty in this case.

Hasan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, says he will argue that proceedings are moving too hastily.

On the C-SPAN video, Levin says the Armed Services Committee is undergoing briefings by military investigators and has two more scheduled. When they are completed, he says, he will schedule full Senate committee hearings on the military aspect of the deadly fusillade that broke out on the military base and shocked the nation with soldiers being killed allegedly by another soldier, a Muslim officer.

Americans themselves apparently have mixed feelings over characterizing the rampage as terrorism. A Fox News poll released Friday found that 49% of those interviewed preferred to describe the incident as "a killing spree" and that 44% thought "act of terrorism" was more accurate.

The older the respondent, the more likely he or she was to call it terrorism.

Forty-five percent believe the outburst involved the shooter mentally snapping, and 38% consider him a Muslim extremist protesting American foreign policies.

Levin said his committee would be careful in its hearing to avoid complicating either the military investigation or the upcoming prosecution. But he said he intends to pursue all leads, including such questions as why e-mails between Hasan and a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen were not taken more seriously by federal anti-terrorism investigators who knew of them before Nov. 5.

But even before those hearings, Levin added, "I'm not uncomfortable with thinking that's [terrorism] the likely outcome here and a likely accurate description."