Treasury Secretary Timothy Geith-ner returned to Capitol Hill last week to defend his day-old financial rescue plan. And again, his proposal was short on specifics and long on promises to collaborate with lawmakers on those details.

Americans need assurance that their federal government has a coherent plan to deal with gridlocked banks and an economy in free fall — and the resulting failing businesses, foreclosures and evaporating jobs. Against that backdrop, Geithner's two-day performance was a disappointing premiere.

To his credit, he seems focused on the right pressure points. He wants the federal government to spend up to $2 trillion to encourage consumer and business lending. He would institute a public-private partnership to help rid financial institutions of bad assets, and he promised a closer examination of several major banks to better determine the depth of their financial troubles.

Finally, it's a good thing that he would give attention to foreclosures.

But time is short, and no one knows how these programs would work — the same vexing problems that plagued his predecessor's rescue scramble last year. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson initially wanted the government to buy up troubled bank assets, but then shifted gears and gave troubled banks hundreds of billions of dollars, much of which apparently ended up in vaults or executive bonuses.

Meanwhile, business and consumer credit remained frozen.

Add to that minimal accountability, and the result has been six months of eroding public confidence in the government's rescue efforts. No one, not even Geithner, is saying that first-stage bailout was money well spent.

Without details this time, how can any of us know Washington isn't about to make the same mistakes, only with hundreds of billions or even trillions more dollars?

Frustrated by Geithner's vague answers, Kent Conrad, chairman of the Senate budget committee, advised him that "very soon, we're going to need you to give us a sense of what funds are needed."

Actually, Conrad should demand much more than just a dollar figure. The new treasury secretary is obligated to deliver specifics, and he needs to do it quickly, before this plan is declared dead on arrival.

People only get one chance to make a first impression. Tim Geithner's was far from reassuring.