Treasury Sec tells “Meet the Press” things are “gradually getting better.”

Plus: Tells Tapper letting Bush tax cuts expire won’t have “a negative effect on growth.”

HALPERIN’S TAKE: Slowly but surely, Geithner has become a better TV performer than he was at the beginning of the term.  He’ll never be a dominating presence, but he moves the ball down the field (and not, as before, sometimes, backwards). Tonally, he actually performs the essential task of balancing optimism/realism on the economy better than most of his colleagues.