Reuters

Readers of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks
know that I have not always treated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
kindly. I have excoriated him for engineering the debt-ceiling crisis in
2011 as a hostage-taking exercise, and then blowing up the talks
between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that could have
led to a grand bargain. Cantor himself recently took credit for the
latter in a profile written by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. He
told Lizza “that it was a ‘fair assessment’ that he talked Boehner out
of accepting Obama’s deal. He said he told Boehner that it would be
better, instead, to take the issues of taxes and spending to the voters
and ‘have it out’ with the Democrats in the election. Why give Obama an
enormous political victory, and potentially help him win reelection,
when they might be able to negotiate a more favorable deal with a new
Republican president? Boehner told Obama there was no deal. Instead of a
grand bargain, Cantor and the House Republicans made a grand bet.”

But I have to express some sympathy for Cantor now, as he experiences
the real and deep pain of trying to get his caucus–especially the
tea-party members he helped recruit in 2010 and encouraged in their
strident, antigovernment rhetoric–to accept a positive agenda of
conservative and market-driven policies as an alternative to those of
the Democrats and the Obama administration. Back in February, Cantor
gave a highly publicized address at the American Enterprise Institute
called “Making Life Work,” which offered a framework, with some
specifics, for that positive agenda–one that tried to separate areas
where government does not belong or does not do as good a job as the
private sector from those where government should play a role–and then
offered proposals for how to best assert that role in a free-enterprise
framework.

Subsequently, Cantor began to take pieces of that agenda to the House
floor–and with his most visible one, got burned, badly, by his caucus.
That was the plan to address the problem of those Americans with
preexisting health conditions who either lose their insurance or can’t
get it. There is an overwhelming public consensus that this is a problem
that needs fixing, and it is at the core of Obama’s health care law,
especially via an agreement with insurance companies that if coverage
were made universal, the preexisting-condition issue would be erased.

For Republicans, who uniformly and vociferously opposed the
Affordable Care Act, finding an alternative way to deal with preexisting
conditions has been difficult. But Cantor offered an idea called the
Helping Sick Americans Now Act to at least ameliorate the transition
phase, proposing to take money out of the Prevention and Public Health
Fund and put it in an existing high-risk pool that is currently
inadequately funded. While conservatives have lashed out at the
preventive-health program, calling it a “slush fund,” it is, in my view,
one of the more constructive elements of “Obamacare”–we know that
preventive care can both help people and save a lot of money down the
road. Nonetheless, at least Cantor was trying to do something aimed at
solving a big problem–and without a positive agenda on the part of the
minority, it becomes impossible to find compromises that can help
implement key programs or solve problems.

What Cantor learned, to his chagrin, is that solving problems, much
less finding compromises, is not on the agenda of a majority of his
House Republican colleagues. They rebuffed him, instead insisting on yet
another vote to repeal Obamacare, the only health policy most of them
want to pursue.

Cantor is facing serious headwinds on another plank in his agenda:
education. In his speech at AEI, Cantor said, “Suppose colleges provided
prospective students with reliable information on the unemployment rate
and potential earnings by major. What if parents had access to clear
and understandable breakdowns between academic studies and amenities?
Armed with this knowledge, families and students could make better
decisions about where to go to school and how to budget their tuition
dollars. Students would actually have a better chance of graduating
within four years and getting a job.” Cantor endorsed a bill to provide
information and transparency drafted by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and
Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But that idea is getting nowhere, it appears, in the
relevant House committee, thanks to opposition by key GOP members on the
panel.

The push for the umpteenth vote on repealing Obamacare shows the stark reality here, something The Washington Post‘s
Greg Sargent has written eloquently about: Many, maybe most, House
Republicans have no interest in policy other than reflexively opposing
everything Obama proposes or endorses and jumping into investigations of
real or purported scandals. Call them the Nihilist Caucus. And now that
we have the triple play of Benghazi, the IRS, and the Justice
Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, they can focus
all of their attention and energies on the scandal front; already, a
full third of House committees have jumped on the bandwagons, and we can
expect more ahead. That means any appetite for policymaking, even the
limited appetite we have seen so far, will evaporate.

The dilemma here for Cantor, Boehner, and others who see that a
failure to come up with real ideas and alternative policies is a killer
for Republicans at the polls is that the movement they exploited to win
the House in 2010 has no interest in the future of the Republican Party.
A fascinating new paper by William and Mary political scientist Ron
Rapoport and colleagues, emanating from a massive survey of more than
11,000 tea-party activists, shows that they do not identify deeply as
Republicans, don’t care nearly as much about winning elections as they
do in taking ideologically pure positions, and are far removed in their
views from establishment, conservative Republicans. These activists
dominate the constituencies and provide the base support for the House
Republicans who disdain Cantor’s efforts to craft policies. They aren’t
going way, and neither will the nihilism they represent.

Article source: http://theatlantic.feedsportal.com/c/34375/f/625835/s/2c061af2/l/0L0Stheatlantic0N0Cpolitics0Carchive0C20A130C0A50Csympathy0Efor0Ea0Ethwarted0Eeric0Ecantor0C2759460C/story01.htm

Readers of “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks” know that I have not always treated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor kindly. I have excoriated him for engineering the debt-ceiling crisis in 2011 as a hostage-taking exercise, and then blowing up the talks between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that could have led to a grand bargain. Cantor himself recently took credit for the latter in a profile written by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. He told Lizza “that it was a ‘fair assessment’ that he talked Boehner out of accepting Obama’s deal. He said he told Boehner that it would be better, instead, to take the issues of taxes and spending to the voters and ‘have it out’ with the Democrats in the election. Why give Obama an enormous political victory, and potentially help him win reelection, when they might be able to negotiate a more favorable deal with a new Republican president? Boehner told Obama there was no deal. Instead of a grand bargain, Cantor and the House Republicans made a grand bet.”

But I have to express some sympathy for Cantor now, as he experiences the real and deep pain of trying to get his caucus—especially the tea-party members he helped recruit in 2010 and encouraged in their strident, antigovernment rhetoric—to accept a positive agenda of conservative and market-driven policies as an alternative to those of the Democrats and the Obama administration. Back in February, Cantor gave a highly publicized address at the American Enterprise Institute called “Making Life Work,” which offered a framework, with some specifics, for that positive agenda—one that tried to separate areas where government does not belong or does not do as good a job as the private sector from those where government should play a role—and then offered proposals for how to best assert that role in a free-enterprise framework.

Subsequently, Cantor began to take pieces of that agenda to the House floor—and with his most visible one, got burned, badly, by his caucus. That was the plan to address the problem of those Americans with preexisting health conditions who either lose their insurance or can’t get it. There is an overwhelming public consensus that this is a problem that needs fixing, and it is at the core of Obama’s health care law, especially via an agreement with insurance companies that if coverage were made universal, the preexisting-condition issue would be erased.

For Republicans, who uniformly and vociferously opposed the Affordable Care Act, finding an alternative way to deal with preexisting conditions has been difficult. But Cantor offered an idea called the Helping Sick Americans Now Act to at least ameliorate the transition phase, proposing to take money out of the Prevention and Public Health Fund and put it in an existing high-risk pool that is currently inadequately funded. While conservatives have lashed out at the preventive-health program, calling it a “slush fund,” it is, in my view, one of the more constructive elements of “Obamacare”—we know that preventive care can both help people and save a lot of money down the road. Nonetheless, at least Cantor was trying to do something aimed at solving a big problem—and without a positive agenda on the part of the minority, it becomes impossible to find compromises that can help implement key programs or solve problems.

What Cantor learned, to his chagrin, is that solving problems, much less finding compromises, is not on the agenda of a majority of his House Republican colleagues. They rebuffed him, instead insisting on yet another vote to repeal Obamacare, the only health policy most of them want to pursue.

Cantor is facing serious headwinds on another plank in his agenda: education. In his speech at AEI, Cantor said, “Suppose colleges provided prospective students with reliable information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major. What if parents had access to clear and understandable breakdowns between academic studies and amenities? Armed with this knowledge, families and students could make better decisions about where to go to school and how to budget their tuition dollars. Students would actually have a better chance of graduating within four years and getting a job.” Cantor endorsed a bill to provide information and transparency drafted by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But that idea is getting nowhere, it appears, in the relevant House committee, thanks to opposition by key GOP members on the panel.

The push for the umpteenth vote on repealing Obamacare shows the stark reality here, something The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has written eloquently about: Many, maybe most, House Republicans have no interest in policy other than reflexively opposing everything Obama proposes or endorses and jumping into investigations of real or purported scandals. Call them the Nihilist Caucus. And now that we have the triple play of Benghazi, the IRS, and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, they can focus all of their attention and energies on the scandal front; already, a full third of House committees have jumped on the bandwagons, and we can expect more ahead. That means any appetite for policymaking, even the limited appetite we have seen so far, will evaporate.

The dilemma here for Cantor, Boehner, and others who see that a failure to come up with real ideas and alternative policies is a killer for Republicans at the polls is that the movement they exploited to win the House in 2010 has no interest in the future of the Republican Party. A fascinating new paper by William and Mary political scientist Ron Rapoport and colleagues, emanating from a massive survey of more than 11,000 tea-party activists, shows that they do not identify deeply as Republicans, don’t care nearly as much about winning elections as they do in taking ideologically pure positions, and are far removed in their views from establishment, conservative Republicans. These activists dominate the constituencies and provide the base support for the House Republicans who disdain Cantor’s efforts to craft policies. They aren’t going way, and neither will the nihilism they represent.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/eric-cantor-caucus-thwarts-push-alternative-agenda-114511635.html

Readers of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks know that I have not always treated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor kindly. I have excoriated him for engineering the debt-ceiling crisis in 2011 as a hostage-taking exercise, and then blowing up the talks between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that could have led to a grand bargain. Cantor himself recently took credit for the latter in a profile written by Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. He told Lizza “that it was a ‘fair assessment’ that he talked Boehner out of accepting Obama’s deal. He said he told Boehner that it would be better, instead, to take the issues of taxes and spending to the voters and ‘have it out’ with the Democrats in the election. Why give Obama an enormous political victory, and potentially help him win reelection, when they might be able to negotiate a more favorable deal with a new Republican president? Boehner told Obama there was no deal. Instead of a grand bargain, Cantor and the House Republicans made a grand bet.”

But I have to express some sympathy for Cantor now, as he experiences the real and deep pain of trying to get his caucus—especially the tea-party members he helped recruit in 2010 and encouraged in their strident, antigovernment rhetoric—to accept a positive agenda of conservative and market-driven policies as an alternative to those of the Democrats and the Obama administration. Back in February, Cantor gave a highly publicized address at the American Enterprise Institute called “Making Life Work,” which offered a framework, with some specifics, for that positive agenda—one that tried to separate areas where government does not belong or does not do as good a job as the private sector from those where government should play a role—and then offered proposals for how to best assert that role in a free-enterprise framework.

Subsequently, Cantor began to take pieces of that agenda to the House floor—and with his most visible one, got burned, badly, by his caucus. That was the plan to address the problem of those Americans with preexisting health conditions who either lose their insurance or can’t get it. There is an overwhelming public consensus that this is a problem that needs fixing, and it is at the core of Obama’s health care law, especially via an agreement with insurance companies that if coverage were made universal, the preexisting-condition issue would be erased.

For Republicans, who uniformly and vociferously opposed the Affordable Care Act, finding an alternative way to deal with preexisting conditions has been difficult. But Cantor offered an idea called the Helping Sick Americans Now Act to at least ameliorate the transition phase, proposing to take money out of the Prevention and Public Health Fund and put it in an existing high-risk pool that is currently inadequately funded. While conservatives have lashed out at the preventive-health program, calling it a “slush fund,” it is, in my view, one of the more constructive elements of “Obamacare”—we know that preventive care can both help people and save a lot of money down the road. Nonetheless, at least Cantor was trying to do something aimed at solving a big problem—and without a positive agenda on the part of the minority, it becomes impossible to find compromises that can help implement key programs or solve problems.

What Cantor learned, to his chagrin, is that solving problems, much less finding compromises, is not on the agenda of a majority of his House Republican colleagues. They rebuffed him, instead insisting on yet another vote to repeal Obamacare, the only health policy most of them want to pursue.

Cantor is facing serious headwinds on another plank in his agenda: education. In his speech at AEI, Cantor said, “Suppose colleges provided prospective students with reliable information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major. What if parents had access to clear and understandable breakdowns between academic studies and amenities? Armed with this knowledge, families and students could make better decisions about where to go to school and how to budget their tuition dollars. Students would actually have a better chance of graduating within four years and getting a job.” Cantor endorsed a bill to provide information and transparency drafted by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. But that idea is getting nowhere, it appears, in the relevant House committee, thanks to opposition by key GOP members on the panel.

The push for the umpteenth vote on repealing Obamacare shows the stark reality here, something The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent has written eloquently about: Many, maybe most, House Republicans have no interest in policy other than reflexively opposing everything Obama proposes or endorses and jumping into investigations of real or purported scandals. Call them the Nihilist Caucus. And now that we have the triple play of Benghazi, the IRS, and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, they can focus all of their attention and energies on the scandal front; already, a full third of House committees have jumped on the bandwagons, and we can expect more ahead. That means any appetite for policymaking, even the limited appetite we have seen so far, will evaporate.

The dilemma here for Cantor, Boehner, and others who see that a failure to come up with real ideas and alternative policies is a killer for Republicans at the polls is that the movement they exploited to win the House in 2010 has no interest in the future of the Republican Party. A fascinating new paper by William and Mary political scientist Ron Rapoport and colleagues, emanating from a massive survey of more than 11,000 tea-party activists, shows that they do not identify deeply as Republicans, don’t care nearly as much about winning elections as they do in taking ideologically pure positions, and are far removed in their views from establishment, conservative Republicans. These activists dominate the constituencies and provide the base support for the House Republicans who disdain Cantor’s efforts to craft policies. They aren’t going way, and neither will the nihilism they represent. 

Get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox. Sign up for National Journal’s morning alert, Wake-Up Call,
and afternoon newsletter, The Edge. Subscribe here.

Article source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/eric-cantor-s-caucus-thwarts-his-push-for-an-alternative-agenda-20130515

As we mentioned previously, there is no time like the present—and the past and future!—for Republicans to hold yet another symbolic vote to repeal Obamacare. “The 37th time won’t be the charm,” The New York Times reports in a deliciously undermine-y piece about the undertaking.

The repeal vote, which is likely to occur Thursday, will be at least the 43rd day since Republicans took over the House that they have devoted time to voting on the issue. To put that in perspective, they have held votes on only 281 days since taking power in January 2011. That means that since 2011, Republicans have spent no less than 15 percent of their time on the House floor on repeal in some way.

Frankly that figure seems . . . low. Let’s peer-review the Times’s math by tallying up the other ways Republicans have spent their time on the House floor.

25 percent: Watching C-SPAN on laptops to see if they’re in the shot.
10 percent: Glancing back at the entrance to see if Mitch McConnell has returned from the bathroom because they really have to use the bathroom but do not want to get stuck talking to Mitch McConnell.
1 percent: Filibustering (Rand Paul only).
29 percent: Rolling their eyes at Rand Paul (non–Rand Paul only).
10 percent: Trying to find a new angle to this whole “rape” thing. It can’t be just as simple as there’s “rape” and that’s it, right?
10: Drafting public apologies for insensitive comments on rape.

As always, do keep in mind that members of congress are paid a minimum of $174,000 a year.

*Treatment of fevers not covered if repeal is enacted.

Article source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/05/eric-cantor-s-got-a-fever-and-the-only-prescription-is-repealing-obamacare

It didn’t get a lot of attention. It
happened the same day as hearings on the Benghazi attacks and
the announcement of a verdict in the Jodi Arias trial. But House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor took a modest step forward last week
in his plan to broaden the Republican agenda beyond budget cuts.

In February, Cantor had given a speech titled “Making Life
Work,” in which he argued that the government should enact
conservative policies that would make a difference in people’s
daily lives. As an example, he said the government ought to make
it easier for employers to offer flextime to their workers.

On May 8, the House passed a bill to do just that. Under
the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, workers who get an hourly
wage must be paid 50 percent more for overtime work. They can’t
take their compensation in the form of an equivalent amount of
time off. The House bill, introduced by Alabama Republican
Martha Roby, would make it possible for them to get an hour and
a half off in the future in return for an hour of overtime
today.

Karen DeLoach, a bookkeeper from Montgomery, Alabama,
testified before Congress last month that a flextime option
would make it easier for her to help out her niece, who has
special needs, and to go on mission trips overseas with her
church. April is a busy time for her because of tax returns, and
she would like to be able to bank hours then for these purposes.

Almost all House Democrats disagree with DeLoach, and voted
against the flextime bill. They say it would erode the sacred
principle of the 40-hour work week and let unscrupulous
employers coerce workers into turning down overtime pay.

Republicans note that state employees have had the ability
to substitute comp time for overtime pay since 1985 and say it’s
time for private-sector workers to have the same options. The
Democratic retort is that private-sector workers are more
vulnerable to their employers because they don’t have civil-service protections and are less likely to be unionized.

A Caricature

The bill attempts to make up for this difference by
providing new safeguards for private-sector workers. The
legislation requires companies to comply with an employee’s
request to cash out his or her accumulated comp time within 30
days, which isn’t the usual practice in the government.

Republican rhetoric often exaggerates how hostile to
business Democrats are, but the way they approach issues like
this one forms the basis of the caricature. Offered a proposal
designed to let employers and workers help each other out, they
reacted with reflexive suspicion of businessmen and free
markets. They let the theoretical potential for abuse in some
cases trump all the people, like DeLoach, whom the proposal
could help.

Instead of letting businesses offer flextime, the
Democrats’ preferred policy is to require them to offer paid
leave. The Congressional Research Service has pointed out that
such a policy could well lead employers to reduce take-home pay.
That’s strange logic: To protect workers from the risk of being
pressured into lower take-home pay, the Democrats would actually
create a risk that they will get lower take-home pay. But at
least nobody will be manipulating their choices, since they
won’t have any. It’s the kind of perversity that led my old
boss, William F. Buckley Jr., to quip that liberals are for
anything as long as it’s coercive.

The arguments against the flextime bill don’t really
account for the changes in American society since 1938. The law
was enacted at a time when the U.S. had a much more rigid
division of labor by gender, and paid workers — overwhelmingly
male — were much less likely to want time off to be caregivers
than they are today.

High Ground

A simple question puts the objections in perspective: If
our society hadn’t inherited government restrictions on
flextime, would we impose them now? That is, if the law already
allowed companies to offer flextime instead of higher pay, in
return for overtime, would Congress vote to take that option
away? Would most people want it to? It seems pretty clear that
the answer to all these questions is no.

United Democratic opposition means this bill won’t pass the
Senate or be signed by the president. But Republicans seem
confident that they have the political high ground. They are
sending out e-mails with titles such as “Why did Elizabeth Esty
vote against families?” (She’s a Connecticut Democrat in the
House.) Unions may want to stick with the rules of 1938 forever,
but that doesn’t seem like a very good bet.

(Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg View columnist, a visiting
fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor
at National Review. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this article:
Ramesh Ponnuru at rponnuru@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this article:
Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-13/liberals-fulfilling-caricature-in-flextime-fight.html

The House is expected to vote next week to repeal the health law in an effort to reach the GOP lawmakers who did not get the chance, The Washington Post reported.

• 

Follow us

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took to Twitter and expressed outcry over the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“It just keeps getting worse,” Cantor tweeted. “I am scheduling a vote for next week on the full repeal of #Obamacare.”

Since 2010, the House leaders failed to repeal all or some portions of the health care law more than 30 times, according to Politico. But the arrival of new GOP leaders is prompting conservatives to get another vote in for this year.

It was only earlier this week when White House chief of staff Denis McDonough was spotted having dinner with Cantor at the Lincoln Restaurant, conveying signs of reconciliation. It may not last for long.

The Washington Post says Cantor’s bill “Helping Sick Americans Now Act” didn’t draw enough support from fellow party members over the fact that the health care law would still be fully intact and despite being able to fund the bill’s agenda with Obamacare funding. So given the opportunity to repeal the law, the 30 newcomers could garner Cantor enough votes to approve his bill. 

 

Published by Medicaldaily.com

Article source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/15328/20130508/eric-cantor-twitter-repeal-health-care-law-obamacare.htm

Article source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/347866/cantors-conservatism

White House photo

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) chatted with National Review‘s Robert Costa this week, and Costa complained that President Obama “doesn’t seem to socialize” with House Republicans. Cantor replied that he’d “just had drinks” with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough the other night, and then reflected on the bigger picture.

“The one thing I’ve always said — and I’ve said it to Rahm [Emanuel] and Jack Lew — is that this president has squandered an opportunity to use the office to do some good and actually get some things done. [...]

“Either the president doesn’t like to engage with people, or it’s somehow beneath him to do so. I don’t know, and I told Denis that the president could benefit himself and the country a lot by developing those relationships and understanding where conservatives are, instead of just thinking that he knows where we are. But that has not been the case over the last four years of his tenure.”

Not surprisingly, there’s a quite a bit wrong with Cantor’s deeply strange perspective. First, Obama actually has gotten “some things done” — economic recovery, health care, auto industry rescue, counter-terrorism successes, Wall Street reform, civil rights breakthroughs, etc. — but the bulk of his successes came before Cantor became Majority Leader and his radicalized caucus brought the governing process to a halt.

Second, the president has done quite a bit of schmoozing, even with Republicans who hold him in contempt, refuse to compromise with him, call him a “socialist,” embrace bizarre conspiracy theories about him, and basically do everything imaginable to try to destroy his presidency. The outreach hasn’t produced much success.

And third, does Cantor seriously believe the paralysis in Washington would improve if Obama had a greater “understanding” of Cantor and his allies? As if there are such deep complexities to the caucus’ far-right ideology and nebulous agenda that they require deep presidential analysis to fully appreciate?

---

Indeed, Kevin Drum flagged a classic anecdote from 2011, when Cantor killed a “Grand Bargain” on debt reduction, not because he disagreed with it on substantive grounds, but because he didn’t want the president to achieve a pre-election victory on an issue Republicans sometimes pretend to care about.

Perhaps Obama’s “understanding” of Cantor’s worldview isn’t really the problem here.

Article source: http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/10/18173069-eric-cantor-misunderstood?lite

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) – The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives will investigate the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups during last year’s election campaign, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Friday.
“The IRS cannot target or intimidate any individual or organization based on their political beliefs. The House will investigate this matter,” Cantor said. (Reporting By Thomas Ferraro; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• 2012 — Barack Obama

  U.S. President Barack Obama waves to supporters following his victory speech on election night in Chicago, Illinois on November 6, 2012. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

• 2008 — Barack Obama

  Nov. 4, 2008: U.S. president-elect Barack Obama waves at his supporters during his election night victory rally at Grant Park in Chicago. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

• 2004 — George W. Bush

  In this Nov. 3, 2004 file photo, President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush salute and wave during an election victory rally at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

• 2000 — George W. Bush

  U.S. Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor George W. Bush casts his vote in Austin, Texas on November 7, 2000. (PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

• 1996 — Bill Clinton

  President Bill Clinton, wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea wave to supporters in front of the Old State House during an election night celebration in Little Rock, Ark. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 1996. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

• 1992 — Bill Clinton

  Bill Clinton and Al Gore celebrate in Little Rock, Arkansas after winning in a landslide election on November 3, 1992. (AP Photo)

• 1988 — George H. W. Bush

  President-elect George Bush and his family celebrate his victory on November 8,1988 at the Brown Convention Center in Houston. (WALT FRERCK/AFP/Getty Images)

  emstrongCORRECTION:/strong An earlier version of this slide was titled “George W. Bush.” It has been fixed./em

• 1984 — Ronald Reagan

  President Ronald Reagan gives a thumbs-up to supporters at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles as he celebrates his re-election, Nov. 6, 1984, with first lady Nancy Reagan at his side. (AP Photo/File)

• 1980 — Ronald Reagan

  President-elect Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy wave to well-wishers on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 1980 at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles after his election victory. (AP Photo)

• 1976 — Jimmy Carter

  Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter embraces his wife Rosalynn after receiving the final news of his victory in the national general election on November 2, 1976. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

• 1972 — Richard Nixon

  U.S. President Richard M. Nixon meets at Camp David, Maryland, on November 13, 1972 to discuss the Vietnam situation with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger (L) and Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Haig Jr.(R), Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. (Photo by AFP PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVE/Getty Images)

• 1968 — Richard Nixon

  President-elect Richard M. Nixon and his wife, Pat, were a picture of joy at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, Nov. 6, 1968, as he thanked campaign workers. At left are David Eisenhower, Julie Nixon’s fiance, Julie and her sister Tricia at center. (AP Photo)

• 1964 — Lyndon Johnson

  President Lyndon Johnson proves he’s a pretty good cowhand as he puts his horse, Lady B, through the paces of rounding up a Hereford yearling on his LBJ Ranch near Stonewall, Texas, on November 4, 1964. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson)

• 1960 — John F. Kennedy

  Caroline Kennedy peeps over the shoulder of her father, Senator John F. Kennedy, as he gave her a piggy-back ride November 9, 1960 at the Kennedy residence in Hyannis Port, Mass. It was the first chance president-elect Kennedy had to relax with his daughter in weeks. (AP Photo)

• 1956 — Dwight D. Eisenhower

  President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon salute cheering workers and Republicans at GOP election headquarters in Washington, November 7, 1956, after Adlai Stevenson conceded. (AP Photo)

• 1952 — Dwight D. Eisenhower

  President-elect Dwight Eisenhower and first lady-elect Mamie Eisenhower wave to the cheering, singing crowd in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Commodore in New York City on Nov. 5, 1952 after Gov. Adlai Stevenson conceded defeat. (AP Photo/Matty Zimmerman)

• 1948 — Harry S. Truman

  U.S. President Harry S. Truman holds up an Election Day edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, which, based on early results, mistakenly announced “Dewey Defeats Truman” on November 4, 1948. The president told well-wishers at St. Louis’ Union Station, “That is one for the books!” (AP Photo/Byron Rollins)

• 1944 — Franklin D. Roosevelt

  President Franklin Roosevelt greets a young admirer as he sits outside his home in Hyde Park, N.Y., on election night, November 7, 1944. Behind him stands his daughter, Mrs. Anna Roosevelt Boettinger and the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. (AP Photo)

• 1940 — Franklin D. Roosevelt

  American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) speaking to a crowd of 25,000 at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 8, 1940, before his sweeping re-election for a third term. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

• 1936 — Franklin D. Roosevelt

  The Republican Governor of Kansas and presidential candidate, Alfred Landon (1887 – 1987) greeting the American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) (seated) prior to the presidential elections. Future United States President Harry S. Truman can been seen in the background. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

• 1932 — Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York at his Hyde Park, N.Y. home November 6, 1932, seen at the conclusion of the arduous months of campaigning following his presidential nomination in Chicago. (AP Photo)

• 1928 — Herbert Hoover

  President-elect Herbert Hoover is seated at a table with wife, Lou, and joined by other family members on Nov. 9, 1928. Standing from left: Allan Hoover; son; Margaret Hoover, with husband, Herbert Hoover, Jr.,at right. Peggy Ann Hoover, daughter of Herbert Hoover Jr., sits with her grandmother. (AP Photo)

• 1924 — Calvin Coolidge

  U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and first lady Grace Coolidge are shown with their dog at the White House portico in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 5, 1924. (AP Photo)

• 1920 — Warren Harding

  Senator Warren Harding, with wife Florence and his father George, shown on Aug. 27, 1920. (AP Photo)

• 1916 — Woodrow Wilson

  Surrounded by crowds, President Woodrow Wilson throws out the first ball at a baseball game in Washington in this 1916 photo. (AP Photo)

• 1912 — Woodrow Wilson

  Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924), the future American president, casts his vote while Governor of New Jersey, on Nov. 14, 1912. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/eric-cantor-irs_n_3254916.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

MADRID, May 10 (Reuters) – Real Madrid decided against holding their traditional pre-match news conference on Friday in an apparent attempt to defuse the war of words between coach Jose Mourinho and members of his squad. The nine-times European champions visit Espanyol on Saturday when a failure to win would gift leaders Barcelona their fourth La Liga title in five years. Even if they do triumph, Barca only need two more points to secure the trophy, which they could achieve at third-placed Atletico Madrid on Sunday. …

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-house-probe-irs-targeting-conservative-groups-cantor-194738661.html

A measure that would allow private-sector employees to take paid time off, or “comp time,” for overtime accrued passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday but faces an uncertain fate.

The bill, approved on a vote of 223-204, is one piece of the “Making Life Work” agenda that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, has been promoting. The agenda places less emphasis on federal budget math and more on education, medical research and flexible work time.

Under the approved measure, employees could choose whether to take paid overtime or compensatory time — time off which would be accrued at the same rate as overtime pay — time and a half over 40 hours.

Employees would have to enter an agreement with their employer to seek comp time, but the employee could withdraw from the pact at any time and take the wages in cash.

Proponents say it would bring the private sector in line with public-sector employees, who can take paid time off outside of the pay period in which it was accrued. But opponents have raised a series of concerns, including that workers would not be guaranteed that they could take the time when they choose.

Cantor and other supporters say the bill, dubbed the Working Families Flexibility Act and sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby, a Republican from Alabama, would help workers better balance family and work.

“As a father of three, I can tell you as a working parent, I know that it’s very necessary to be there for your children. And I bet no matter who you are as a working parent, if you ask a mom or a dad what they need more of, it’s time,” Cantor said on the House floor.

“Washington should not be in the way of more freedom in the workplace.”

Earlier this week, Cantor held a discussion about the bill in Falls Church and was joined by two Richmond-area businesspeople who support the legislation’s aim — Nicole Eubanks-Lambert, owner of Rainbow Station at Wyndham in Glen Allen, and Kimberly Silverthorne Mills, general manager and co-owner of Homemades by Suzanne in Ashland.

But the measure’s fate in the Senate is uncertain and the Obama administration has expressed opposition.

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, of Maryland, on Wednesday called it the “pay working families less” bill because, he said, “what it will result in is a cut in pay for almost everybody.”

Some workers, who can afford it, will volunteer for comp time, while others cannot, he said.

“And so they will not be able to earn overtime because the employer will invariably, not because they’re bad people, but will invariably go to the person that will in fact do it for free,” he said.

“I understand it’s comp time, but they won’t get paid. Most workers at this level need the pay. They need to pay their mortgage, they need to pay their car payment, they need to send their kids to school.”

Cantor said this week that he is having conversations “to hopefully see a Senate co-sponsor come forward” and sponsor similar legislation.

omeola@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6812

Article source: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/article_6e5a11a4-2bc6-5ed1-89cf-6196b7bc7e62.html

Business, community, and political leaders and senior decision-makers will convene at the 2013 Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit to discuss issues that are critical to the economic engine of the Tennessee Valley. Hosted by 3^rd district Representative Chuck Fleischmann, the two-day meeting themed “Securing America’s Future” will focus on energy and environment, innovation and entrepreneurism, public/private partnerships, and advanced manufacturing.

The Summit will be held at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s New Hope Center in Oak Ridge, Tn. on May 29-30.

Keynote speakers include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor; Senator Lamar Alexander; Congressman Phil Roe;  Dr. Pete Lyons, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy; Neile Miller, Acting Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration; Bill Johnson, President/CEO, Tennessee Valley Authority; Randall T. Kempner, Executive Director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs; and Bob Raines, Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management, National Nuclear Security Administration.

Leveraging Energy and Environment Missions in the Tennessee Valley

A special session on energy, the environment, and ways to leverage these federal missions to create jobs and promote economic growth will kick off the Summit at 8:30 a.m. on May 29.  The session features keynote speaker Senator Lamar Alexander; Dr. Pete Lyons, assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the U.S. Department of Energy; Dr. Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Mark Whitney, assistant manager for environmental management at the Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office; and Andy Page, president and CEO of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

In keynote remarks, Senator Alexander is expected to provide an update on a vision he set forth several years ago—a new Manhattan Project for nuclear energy to deal with rising gasoline and electricity prices, clean air, climate change and matters of national security.

As the primary policy advisor on key issues involving nuclear energy, including how to make it a major contributor to our energy supply and energy independence, Lyons is expected to talk about new initiatives, such as the small modular reactor and the recent decision to place a BW mPOWER reactor at the Clinch River Breeder Reactor site, and discuss their economic viability for the future.

Dr. Lyons, Mr. Whitney, and Mr. Page will then participate in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Mason.

Discussing Innovation and Entrepreneurism as Critical Economic Factors

At 4 p.m. on May 29, a session on innovation and entrepreneurship will showcase how regional efforts to build cooperation and collaboration between research and private industry can lead to economic growth.  

Randall Kempner, executive director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), a global network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets, will be the keynote speaker in the session. Mr. Kempner is also the former Vice President for Regional Innovation with the Council on Competitiveness.

“Oak Ridge is a unique location with a public research university, a federal research laboratory, and the private sector working together with such success and synergy,” said Tom Jones, host for the session and general manager for research for Electronics International, a leading provider of counter surveillance equipment.  “Oak Ridge is a great place to hold a discussion about how we can continue to develop and benefit economically from the successful relationships of public and private industries.”

John Morris, president and CEO of Tech 20/20, will moderate a panel discussion on research and commercial partnerships that can boost innovation and spur entrepreneurship in the region, featuring Kempner, Stacey Patterson, assistant vice president and director of research partnerships for the University of Tennessee-Cherokee Farms; Lisa Williams, president and CEO of Solider1 Corp in Huntsville, Ala.; and Cavanaugh Mims, president of Visionary Solutions.

“This area offers numerous resources that are advantageous to researchers and entrepreneurs alike. The Tennessee Valley is unique in that we have industries ready and capable of transforming an innovative idea into the hot new product,” said Mr. Morris. “It’s up to the region to connect people, ideas and capital to ensure it stays that way.”

Reaping Rewards from Public/Private Partnerships

A discussion on the importance of public/private partnerships and role contributing to the regional economy will begin at 8:30 am on May 30.

The Tennessee Valley has reaped the rewards of strong partnerships between communities, universities, federal agencies, and the private sector for decades.  These partnerships have allowed the region to develop a diverse economy, and in an age of economic uncertainty, shrinking government budgets, and competing priorities, these partnerships have proved vital to the region. 

“We have seen how crucial regional cooperation has been over the last several years.  Aligning interests of federal investments, the private sector, and communities can lead to job creation and long-time positive economic impact,” Etta Clark, TVC Board of Directors chair and vice president, Global Public Affairs and Policy for Eastman Chemical Company.  “Establishing strong alliances between our region’s public sector organizations and private businesses will continue to be important in ensuring the quality of the regional economy over the next 10 to 20 years.” 

Bill Johnson, the new president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, will be the keynote presenter during the session.  J. Wayne Cropp, president/CEO of The Enterprise Center will follow with a presentation about the regional planning, development and partnerships that lead to the Enterprise South Industrial Center, home to the Volkswagen Chattanooga Plant.

“We have seen first-hand how public/private partnerships are the critical factor for success, but it’s not only financial support that is crucial—our federal, business, academic, and community leaders working together, supporting each other and focusing on common goals that are important to the entire region are what truly have a long-term impact,” said Mr. Cropp. 

The session will then address how cooperation and support across industries in the region can determine the success of public/private partnerships as Mr. Cropp moderates a panel discussion featuring Victoria Hirschberg, project manager for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development; Teresa Duncan, vice president of student services and enrollment management at Roane State Community College; Van Mauney, vice president for program management at BW Y-12, LLC; and Mark Watson, city manager for the City of Oak Ridge.

Developing Advanced Manufacturing and a High-Tech Regional Economy

As a special guest of Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor will make important remarks on the state of our economy and the plans underway in the House to position the U.S. competitively at 10:15 a.m. on May 30.

Following Mr. Cantor’s remarks this session will delve into a discussion on advanced manufacturing as an industry that has promise to become a major source of jobs and a long-term contributor to the regional economy.

Neile Miller, acting administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will provide keynote remarks on this topic, followed by a special presentation from Bob Raines, associate administrator for acquisition and project management for NNSA.

A roundtable discussion, moderated by Buzz Patrick, director of advanced manufacturing at Tech 20/20, will follow where regional leaders will discuss specific advanced manufacturing trends, projects and opportunities.  The panel will feature John Eschenberg, Uranium Processing Facility project director at NNSA; Craig Blue, manager of the Industrial Technologies Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and John Vickers, assistant manager of the Materials and Processes Laboratory at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.

“We’re bringing together some of the leading voices in advanced manufacturing to have a robust discussion on how we can prepare our workforce, communities and businesses to support this growing industry and attract more high-tech work to the region,” said Mr. Patrick.

Since the first TVC Summit was held in Oak Ridge in 1995, the TVC has helped link the science and technology assets in the Tennessee Valley into a nationally recognized regional economic development effort.

The mission of the TVC is to sustain the region’s existing federal missions, to compete for new missions, and to leverage public/private relationships for high-quality job growth.

To register for the Summit and for more information about the Tennessee Valley Corridor, visit www.TennValleyCorridor.org, and follow the Corridor at www.facebook.com/TennesseeValleyCorridor. 

 

Article source: http://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/5/9/250845/18th-Annual-TVC-Summit-Keynoters.aspx

From Eric Cantor, criticizing the fact that President Obama hasn’t done much to develop personal relationships with House leaders:

The president could benefit himself and the country a lot by developing those relationships and understanding where conservatives are, instead of just thinking that he knows where we are.

Um….and just what would Obama learn if he did this? I mean, don’t get me wrong. Schmoozing is part of the job, and Obama should probably do more of it, whether he likes it or not. But is Cantor seriously suggesting that his positions, and the positions of the tea-party wing of the party that he leads, are even slightly nebulous? That Obama might learn about some surprising new areas of compromise if he talked to Cantor more? Seriously?

For more on this, I commend to your attention Ryan Lizza’s account of Cantor’s role in the 2011 debt ceiling fight. Based on Cantor’s own testimony to Lizza, it wasn’t really Obama’s request for more revenue that killed the deal. Regardless of the size of the revenue increase, Cantor just flatly didn’t want to reach an agreement. He didn’t want to give Obama a political win, and figured that a failed deal would hurt Obama enough that Republicans could win the presidency and then write their own bill. Behind the scenes, he persuaded Boehner to go along, and the deal was dead.

Maybe Cantor is a changed man, and he wants the chance to prove it to Obama. But what are the odds?

Article source: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/05/quote-day-eric-cantor-says-obama-just-doesnt-understand-him

Eric Cantor Vows To Waste More Taxpayer Money Trying to Repeal Obamacare

By: Nancy FeldmanMay. 8th, 2013more from Nancy Feldman

 

 

House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, R-VA, is at it again. Today Cantor vowed to take ANOTHER vote to repeal Obamacare, also known as the “Affordable Care Act”.

He tweeted this from his Twitter account:

I’m starting to wonder if he has some mental deficiency, besides his allegiance to the party of NO!  The fact the 112^th congress, also known as the do nothing congress, has already voted, symbolically, over 30 times to repeal Obamacare, all ending in the same results, failure!  He has wasted more tax dollars by not addressing our real issues, and taking votes on them.  I guess he really does live for taking pot shots at President Obama.  When will those that voted for Cantor and his ilk finally get it?  He is a waste of air, time and space, besides having no morals.  I guess this is different though, since it’s now the 113^th congress.  Forward we go, NOT!  Can we all say, enough all ready?!?

This is just another failed attempt at publicity since they will never repeal the law that was passed in 2010.  Not only is it working, those that screamed the loudest have seen very little change in their own insurance, and those that have seen change, it has been for their betterment.

In June, The United States Supreme Court ruled to uphold the healthcare law.  So, again, let me ask, what is wrong with Cantor, or better yet, why do people, regardless if you like the ACA or not, keep voting for someone who is wasting their hard earned money by doing absolutely nothing for them, but rather would like to rehash the past? Forever!

Not that this would ever happen, but if somehow no sane people showed up for this now impending repeal vote, and Cantor got it through the House, it could never get passed the Senate, not to mention, again, the high court has ruled!

I say the vote we should be taking is a vote of no confidence.  Wake up people, stop voting for people who don’t care one iota about you, unless of course you’re dripping in money and can help get these ne’re-do-wells reelected!

 

 

• 

  With House Republicans taking heat over not passing the Hurricane Sandy disaster relief bill, Michele Ba …

• 

  The House managed to reelect John Boehner, but not without a bit of drama as Eric Cantor got votes for s …

• 

  CBS News did a segment on Republicans wasting $50 Million on health care repeal, while not creating jobs …

• 

  After the Supreme Court ruled against them on the ACA, Republicans have retreated from reality and launc …

• 

  As Republicans struggle to rebrand their party as something other than the austerity for the 98% party, …

Article source: http://www.politicususa.com/eric-cantor-house-waste-taxpayer-money-repeal-obamacare.html

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama played golf with senators on Monday and is having dinner with House Democratic leaders on Wednesday evening, but he’s not the only one in the White House trying to build closer ties on Capitol Hill: his chief of staff Denis McDonough is, too.

McDonough was spotted by a HuffPost reader Monday night having dinner with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) at Lincoln Restaurant here. It turns out that dinner is just the latest in a string of one-on-one meetings McDonough has been having with Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

“Over the last several weeks, Denis has reached out individually to members of Congress in both parties,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. “Earlier this week, he had dinner with Leader Cantor and enjoyed the conversation.”

Details of the McDonough-Cantor dinner were scarce. Earnest wouldn’t elaborate on what topics were discussed.

Cantor spokesman Doug Heye later responded only that the dinner went well.

“The leader had a very enjoyable dinner with Denis McDonough and looks forward to more opportunities to keep lines of communication open,” Heye said in a statement.

Robert Costa of the National Review tweeted earlier Wednesday that Cantor had just told him about the dinner, and said the two officials discussed tax reform, fiscal issues and White House-Republican relations.

@robertcostaNRO


Robert Costa

HuffPost reached out to House and Senate leadership offices, plus a few others, to see who else McDonough may have sat down with in recent weeks. Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Democratic Conference Secretary Patty Murray (Wash.) and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.) all confirmed meetings.

“Sen. Thune and several of his colleagues met with McDonough before this past recess, and he spoke with McDonough on the phone regarding the [Anthony] Foxx nomination last week, but he hasn’t met with him one on one,” said Thune spokeswoman AshLee Strong.

McDonough’s meetings come as Obama’s outreach to Congress has gone into overdrive. In addition to this week’s golf outing and dinner, Obama recently dined with all 20 female senators, had a lobster dinner with 12 Republican senators, had another dinner with Republican senators, and hosted a lunch with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Obama will need at least some Republicans to work him as he pushes ahead with his second-term agenda, which includes immigration reform, gun control legislation and deficit reduction.

This article has been updated with comment from Cantor’s spokesman.

Also on HuffPost:

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• Vice President Joe Biden

  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of State John Kerry

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew

  (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel

  (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

• Eric Holder, Attorney General

  (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

• Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar

  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

  (SAUL LOEB/AFP/GettyImages)

• Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank

  (Paul Sancya/AP)

• Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris

• Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

  (Kris Connor/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan

  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

  (Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki

  (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

• Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano

  (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)

• White House Chief Of Staff Denis McDonough (Cabinet-rank)

  (Cliff Owen/AP)

• Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe (Cabinet Rank)

• Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Jeffrey Zients (Cabinet-rank)

  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Demetrios Marantis (Cabinet-rank)

  (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

• U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice (Cabinet-rank)

  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan Krueger (Cabinet-rank)

  (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

• Small Business Administrator Karen Mills

  (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/eric-cantor-denis-mcdonough_n_3239426.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The House will vote next week on a full repeal of the health law.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor just tweeted: “It just keeps getting worse. I am scheduling a vote for next week on the full repeal of #Obamacare.”

Continue Reading

It will be the first vote against all or part of the law this year. The House had voted more than 30 times on repealing all or parts of the law since it passed in March 2010, but many members — especially first-year lawmakers — were pushing leadership to get a vote on the record in 2013.

(PHOTOS: The eight GOP governors who said yes to Medicaid expansion)

Some conservatives are pushing for a more assertive stance against the health law in the final months before the big coverage provisions go into effect. Even some Democrats are worried about a bumpy start, which Republicans would like to highlight in the 2014 congressional elections.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 12:10 p.m. on May 8, 2013.

Follow @politico

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated when the Affordable Care Act passed. It passed in March 2010.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/cantor-health-care-law-repeal-vote-91069.html

By Susan Guyett INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – The daughter of Ariel Castro, the chief suspect in the Cleveland abduction of three women freed on Monday, is serving time in an Indiana prison for attempted murder after she slashed her baby’s throat four times with a knife, court documents show. Emily Castro, 25, was sentenced to 25 years and is at the Rockville, Indiana, Correctional Facility. She was found guilty in Allen County Superior Court of attempting to murder her 11-month-old daughter, according to a decision by the Court of Appeals of Indiana on November 5, 2008. …

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/house-republicans-plan-obamacare-repeal-vote-163559301.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has been pitching a GOP rebranding effort he calls Making Life Work. The agenda is aimed at creating “conditions of health, happiness and prosperity” for American families, he says. (AP)

When the House votes Wednesday on a bill called the Working Families Flexibility Act, it will be the latest test of a Republican effort at rebranding.

The architect of that effort in the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has so far had a mixed record.

In February, Cantor gave a major policy speech at the American Enterprise Institute. His pitch: The Republican Party needed to broaden its message beyond the fiscal fights of the past two years.

“Our House majority will pursue an agenda that is based on a shared vision of creating the conditions of health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families,” he said.

Cantor calls that agenda Making Life Work. Others call it an effort to win over women and minorities who favored Democrats in the 2012 election.

But, at least initially, some in Cantor’s party seem to be working against this effort. Two weeks after his speech, a majority of House Republicans voted against reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, something that in the past had been an easy vote. There was the House Republican who used a racial slur to refer to immigrants from Mexico. And most recently, Cantor had to pull a health care bill included in the Making Life Work agenda from the floor because it didn’t have enough Republican votes to pass.

But he seems undeterred.

Cantor and a handful of his Republican colleagues traveled Tuesday to a Northern Virginia suburb to promote the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. There, they assembled a small group of business owners and working mothers.

The bill would allow private employers to offer hourly workers comp time instead of overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. Instead of extra pay, they would get extra paid time off at some later date.

“Working moms and dads, American families, need flexibility so that they can balance the workplace and home,” says the bill’s lead author, Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., who is a mother of two young children.

Democrats, labor leaders and labor economists like Eileen Appelbaum at the Center for Economic and Policy Research say it’s more about giving employers a way out of strict overtime rules. Appelbaum says workers would be asked to forgo overtime pay for time off that may not come when they really need it.

“Let’s say you have a sick child,” Appelbaum says. “You call your employer and the employer says, ‘Well, sorry, I can’t really give it to you today, but how about if you take it next week?’ Well, that’s not very helpful.”

Appelbaum is used to making these arguments because it turns out House Republicans have been pushing the same bill for years.

House Speaker John Boehner, then a relatively new member of Congress, spoke in favor of the bill when it was the Working Families Flexibility Act of 1997.

“The workforce today is very different than it was in the 1930s when the law that we’re amending was put in place,” he said at the time.

The bill passed the House on a largely party-line vote and died when the Senate never took it up. It is likely to face a similar fate this time. At the moment, it doesn’t even have a sponsor in the Senate.

Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, says this vote is about sending a message to voters.

“It’s an effort to take an idea that’s been around for a long time and make it part of a broader agenda to show that Republicans are trying to think creatively and trying to achieve liberal ends through conservative means,” Pitney says.

But when asked how this fits into his Making Life Work agenda and how that agenda is working out, Cantor looked to the mothers invited to the roundtable.

“I would ask each and every one of these working individuals, working Americans, whether they even care about remaking a political party,” he said. “What they care about is making sure that their life works.”

Whether Cantor’s Making Life Work plan works won’t really be clear until the congressional elections of 2014.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

• 

Article source: http://www.wbur.org/npr/182035413/cantors-rebranding-effort-tested-by-house-republicans

Enlarge image i

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has been pitching a GOP rebranding effort he calls Making Life Work. The agenda is aimed at creating “conditions of health, happiness and prosperity” for American families, he says.

Steven Senne/AP

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has been pitching a GOP rebranding effort he calls Making Life Work. The agenda is aimed at creating “conditions of health, happiness and prosperity” for American families, he says.

Steven Senne/AP

When the House votes Wednesday on a bill called the Working Families Flexibility Act, it will be the latest test of a Republican effort at rebranding.

The architect of that effort in the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has so far had a mixed record.

In February, Cantor gave a major policy speech at the American Enterprise Institute. His pitch: The Republican Party needed to broaden its message beyond the fiscal fights of the past two years.

“Our House majority will pursue an agenda that is based on a shared vision of creating the conditions of health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families,” he said.

Cantor calls that agenda Making Life Work. Others call it an effort to win over women and minorities who favored Democrats in the 2012 election.

But, at least initially, some in Cantor’s party seem to be working against this effort. Two weeks after his speech, a majority of House Republicans voted against reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, something that in the past had been an easy vote. There was the House Republican who used a racial slur to refer to immigrants from Mexico. And most recently, Cantor had to pull a health care bill included in the Making Life Work agenda from the floor because it didn’t have enough Republican votes to pass.

But he seems undeterred.

Cantor and a handful of his Republican colleagues traveled Tuesday to a Northern Virginia suburb to promote the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. There, they assembled a small group of business owners and working mothers.

The bill would allow private employers to offer hourly workers comp time instead of overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week. Instead of extra pay, they would get extra paid time off at some later date.

Enlarge image i

House Republicans meet with business owners and working mothers in Northern Virginia on Tuesday to promote the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013.

Tamara Keith/NPR

House Republicans meet with business owners and working mothers in Northern Virginia on Tuesday to promote the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013.

Tamara Keith/NPR

“Working moms and dads, American families, need flexibility so that they can balance the workplace and home,” says the bill’s lead author, Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., who is a mother of two young children.

Democrats, labor leaders and labor economists like Eileen Appelbaum at the Center for Economic and Policy Research say it’s more about giving employers a way out of strict overtime rules. Appelbaum says workers would be asked to forgo overtime pay for time off that may not come when they really need it.

“Let’s say you have a sick child,” Appelbaum says. “You call your employer and the employer says, ‘Well, sorry, I can’t really give it to you today, but how about if you take it next week?’ Well, that’s not very helpful.”

Appelbaum is used to making these arguments because it turns out House Republicans have been pushing the same bill for years.

House Speaker John Boehner, then a relatively new member of Congress, spoke in favor of the bill when it was the Working Families Flexibility Act of 1997.

“The workforce today is very different than it was in the 1930s when the law that we’re amending was put in place,” he said at the time.

The bill passed the House on a largely party-line vote and died when the Senate never took it up. It is likely to face a similar fate this time. At the moment, it doesn’t even have a sponsor in the Senate.

Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College, says this vote is about sending a message to voters.

“It’s an effort to take an idea that’s been around for a long time and make it part of a broader agenda to show that Republicans are trying to think creatively and trying to achieve liberal ends through conservative means,” Pitney says.

But when asked how this fits into his Making Life Work agenda and how that agenda is working out, Cantor looked to the mothers invited to the roundtable.

“I would ask each and every one of these working individuals, working Americans, whether they even care about remaking a political party,” he said. “What they care about is making sure that their life works.”

Whether Cantor’s Making Life Work plan works won’t really be clear until the congressional elections of 2014.

Article source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/05/08/182035413/cantors-rebranding-effort-tested-by-house-republicans?ft=1&f=1014

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tours Richmond Public Schools adult career center. Majority Leader Eric Cantor/Flickr

In February, in the wake of their bruising loss at the polls in the 2012 presidential election, Republicans in Congress decided to launch a concerted effort to change their image and lure back a critical group of voters who abandoned the party in droves last year: women. To that end, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) gave a high-profile speech about how the party intended to “make life work” for working families. He emphasized women-friendly ideas like improving education, reducing the cost of college, and other key work/life balance issues. Among those he touched on was the idea of flex time. Cantor said:

If you’re a working parent, you know there’s hardly ever enough time at home to be with the kids. Too many parents have to weigh whether they can afford to miss work even for half a day to see their child off on the first day of school or attend a parent-teacher conference.

Federal laws dating back to the 1930s make it harder for parents who hold hourly jobs to balance the demands of work and home. An hourly employee cannot convert previous overtime into future comp-time or flex-time. In 1985, Congress passed a law that gave state and municipal employees this flexibility, but today still denies that same privilege to the entire private sector. That’s not right…

Imagine if we simply chose to give all employees and employers this option. A working mom could work overtime this month and use it as time off next month without having to worry about whether she’ll be able to take home enough money to pay the rent. This is the kind of common sense legislation that should be non-controversial and moves us in the right direction to help make life work for families.

Flex-time as Cantor described it sounds great on paper—every working parent’s dream even! But of course, the devil is in the details. Those details come in the form of the Working Families Flexibility Act, a bill Cantor introduced in April. Far from helping working families, the proposed legislation would instead deprive them of the longstanding right to be paid time-and-a-half for overtime. The bill would allow companies to give hourly workers comp time in lieu of overtime if the workers agree to it. That might not be such a terrible thing, except that the bill doesn’t give workers any power to decide when to use the comp time. The employer gets to decide that. If the employer fails to let the worker use a bunch of accrued comp time, the bill would allow the worker to demand the overtime compensation in cash, but it gives the company 30 days to make good on the payment. And if the company stiffs the worker on the overtime compensation, the bill prevents workers from complaining to the US Department of Labor, as they can now, and instead forces them to try to find a lawyer who will take up their cause to collect a few hundred dollars worth of back pay, a fairly toothless enforcement measure. The bill, supported by the US Chamber of Commerce, is a backdoor attempt to shield big companies like Wal-Mart from costly lawsuits they’ve seen stemming from their systematic refusal to pay low-wage workers the overtime to which they’re legally entitled.

All of this is why women’s groups aren’t signing on to the bill. The legislation “only pretends to give people the time they need to manage the dual demands of work and family,” Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership on Women and Families, said this week as the bill moved forward in the House. “It is insulting that the House is wasting time with a bill that would make things so much worse.”

Republicans’ track record of helping working families is truly dismal, and one speech from Cantor isn’t going to change that. Republicans fought the Family and Medical Leave Act tooth and nail (the first President Bush vetoed the bill twice before Bill Clinton finally signed it in to law) and have refused to expand it to include more people or paid leave so families could actually use it. This is the same party that rabidly opposes the Healthy Families Act, which would provide paid sick leave for more workers, a measure public health officials say is critical not just to family sanity but to the nation’s health. Perhaps what’s most depressing about the GOP’s new working families bill is that Republican leaders thought women were dumb enough not to notice that it was just a cynical attempt to win women’s votes while still catering to the GOP’s big corporate backers.

Article source: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/05/house-gop-advances-fake-pro-working-mother-bill

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor really cares about working families. He favors “common sense legislation to protect workers and make life work for more people” and wants to “help working parents who are juggling responsibilities at home and on the job.” 

That’s why Cantor is throwing his support behind H.R. 1286, the Healthy Families Act, which would follow the lead of San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Portland OR, Washington D.C., the state of Connecticut and 145 countries around the world that guarantee working people paid time off the job to cope with illness. He wants to raise the minimum wage to help 30 million working Americans make ends meet.  And he’s ready to champion paid family leave, too.

In our dreams.

Back in waking reality, Cantor is pushing a bill that wraps itself in family-friendly rhetoric while actually stripping workers of their ability to get paid for overtime work. The name of the bill, Judith Warner notes in Time Magazine, is downright treacherous: it’s called the Working Families Flexibility Act. As Brenden Timpe has noted, the bill aids employers, not workers. And yes, the House is scheduled to vote on it this week.  

Writing for The Hill, Eileen Applebaum, an economist with the Center for Economic Policy Research details what the comp time bill would really do:

Its major effect would be to hamstring workers – likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do. The proposed legislation undermines the 40-hour work week that workers have long relied on to give them time to spend with their kids. The flexibility in this comp time bill would have employees working unpaid overtime hours beyond the 40-hour workweek and accruing as many as 160 hours of compensatory time. A low-paid worker making $10 an hour who accrued that much comp time in lieu of overtime pay would effectively give his or her employer an interest-free loan of $1,600 – equal to a month’s pay. That’s a lot to ask of a worker making about $20,000 a year. Indeed, any worker who accrues 160 hours of comp time will in effect have loaned his or her employer a month’s pay. This same arithmetic provides employers with a powerful incentive to increase workers’ overtime hours. Instead of having to pay time-and-a-half wages when an hourly-paid employee works longer than the standard 40-hour work week, the employer incurs no financial cost at the time the extra hours are worked.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the legislation would actually stifle job creation. Instead of hiring more employees as the economy recovers, the bill would give businesses new incentives to pile extra overtime hours onto current employees.

As we’ve documented frequently on this blog, work hours are a major concern for low-wage workers – and the rest of us. Retail workers struggle to get by on unstable schedules with constantly shifting working hours. Forty million Americans, including two out of three low-wage workers in the U.S. don’t have a single paid sick day off work. And too many of us are striving for every extra paid hour we can get as wages have remained flat at a time of record profits. The problems are real and could be ad
1610
dressed by policy, but they need real solutions, not the cynical ploys to deprive workers of the few remaining rights on the job.

Article source: http://www.policyshop.net/home/2013/5/7/working-families-flexibility-and-the-eric-cantor-of-my-dream.html

The AP reports that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., says Republicans must be ready to offer voters frustrated with the health law’s implementation a better alternative, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., plans another vote on the health law’s repeal.

The Associated Press: Ryan Tells GOP To Capitalize On Health Care
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan told Wisconsin Republicans at the state party convention Saturday that they must capitalize politically on the implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, offering those who become frustrated a better alternative. Ryan said as the law goes into effect, health insurance costs for individuals and businesses will skyrocket, employers will drop coverage for workers and Republicans need to be there to attract those angry about it (Bauer, 5/6).

Politico: Eric Cantor Pledges Another Obamacare Repeal Vote
The House will vote again in the “near future” on full repeal of Obamacare, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a memo to fellow Republicans Friday. He said a timeline has not yet been set (Haberkorn, 5/3).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

 

Article source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130507/GOP-leaders-poised-to-exploit-health-law-problems.aspx

Eric Cantor, the majority leader in the House of Representatives has vowed to obtain another vote to repeal the Health Care Affordability Act, often called “Obamacare”, so reports Politico. Although they have voted dozens of times with no result, they’re going waste the country’s time and money knowing the result well in advance.  With no chance of passing in the Senate, and the President’s promise to veto the action, I ask a logical question.  Why?

The only conceivable answer is politicking.  Even ultra-conservatives feel the motion is unwinnable and therefore a vacuous effort.  They prefer a move by House Republican leaders to defund the health care plan, negating its effect.  But they have expressed an unwillingness to act in such a manor.

Other bills the House plans to vote on in May include the Keystone XL pipeline, requiring the SEC to conduct cost-benefit analysis of rulemaking, allowing working parents to accrue paid time off, and prioritizing payments if the debt ceiling is hit. He also plans to hold a vote on a bill to fund pediatric research at the NIH by eliminating taxpayer funding of presidential campaigns and party conventions.

Later this summer, Cantor says the GOP plans to move spending bills “through an open appropriations process,” pass the Defense Department authorization bill and “consider a Farm bill produced by the Agriculture Committee and Frank Lucas.”

One issue not mentioned by Cantor is immigration reform.  The reason may be as simple as the Republican opposition in the House to any sort of change in the present law other than an increase in border safety and protection.

There is no doubt Hispanics will take notice of that in 2014.

James Turnage

Columnist-The Guardian Express

Article source: http://guardianlv.com/2013/05/eric-cantor-vowed-to-obtain-another-vote-to-repeal-obamacare/

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay.

The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.

The push is part of a broader Republican agenda undertaken by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to expand the party’s political appeal to working families. The House is expected to vote on the measure this week, but the Democratic-controlled Senate isn’t likely to take it up.

“For some people, time is more valuable than the cash that would be accrued in overtime,” said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., the bill’s chief sponsor. “Why should public-sector employees be given a benefit and the private sector be left out?”

But the idea Republicans promote as “pro-worker” is vigorously opposed by worker advocacy groups, labor unions and most Democrats, who claim it’s really a backdoor way for businesses to skimp on overtime pay.

The White House on Monday issued a veto threat, saying the bill undermines the right to overtime pay and doesn’t offer enough protection for workers who may not want to receive compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay.

“This is nothing more than an effort to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse,” said Judith Lichtman, senior adviser to the National Partnership for Women and Families. She contends the measure would open the door for employers to pressure workers into taking compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.

The program was created in the public sector in 1985 to save federal, state and local governments money, not to give workers greater flexibility, Lichtman said. Many workers in federal and state government are unionized or have civil service protections that give them more leverage in dealing with supervisors, she added. Those safeguards don’t always exist in the private sector, where only about 6.6 percent of employees are union members.

Phil Jones, 29, an emergency medical technician in Santa Clara, Calif., said he’s wary of how the measure would be enforced.

“Any time there’s a law that will keep extra money in an employer’s bank account, they will try to push employees to make that choice,” said Jones, who regularly earns overtime pay. “I know how we get taken advantage of and I think this bill will just let employers take even more advantage of us.”

But at a hearing on the bill last month, Karen DeLoach, a bookkeeper at a Montgomery, Ala., accounting firm, said she liked the idea of swapping overtime pay for comp time so she could travel with her church on its annual mission trip to Nicaragua.

“I would greatly appreciate the option at work to choose between being compensated in dollars or days,” she said.

The GOP plan is an effort to change the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which requires covered employees to receive time-and-a-half pay for every hour over 40 within a work week. The proposal would allow workers to bank up to 160 hours, or four weeks, of comp time per year that could be used to take time off for any reason.

The bill would let an employee decide to cash out comp time at any time, and forbids employers from coercing workers to take comp time instead of cash.

Republicans and business groups have tried to pass the plan in some form since the 1990s. Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, insists it’s not about reducing wage costs.

“It’s an alternative to the mandated paid leave approaches that Democrats typically support,” Freedman said. “We believe it’s more appropriate to give employers the choice on whether they want to do this.”

Democrats say the bill provides no guarantee that workers would be able to take the time off when they want. The bill gives employers discretion over whether to grant a specific request to use comp time. Opponents also complain that banking leave time essentially gives employers an interest free loan from workers.

Lichtman said workers would rather get paid sick days, paid family leave, more unpaid family leave and an increase in the minimum wage.

But Alabama congresswoman Roby argues that, in the long run, those ideas would do workers more harm than good.

“The cost of government-mandated benefits is going to be passed off to American workers,” she said, resulting in fewer jobs.

___

Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-seeks-alternative-overtime-pay-074228556.html

This month, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives will vote on, and likely approve, a measure that bypasses White House approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, fast-tracking construction of the controversial project.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor thanks his many Big Oil campaign contributors with a promise to “ensure” the completion of the KXL pipeline. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr) In a memo sent Friday to fellow Republicans, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) outlined the complete ‘legislative agenda’ for the month of May.

“We will push the administration to finally approve the Keystone pipeline delivering much needed jobs and lower energy prices for families,” he wrote. “The Obama administration is preventing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline [...]. H.R. 3, The Northern Route Approval Act, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Lee Terry, will ensure that the Keystone XL pipeline is built without any further delay.”

The legislation would circumvent President Obama’s authority to issue the cross-border permit needed to complete Keystone’s northern leg.

According to a summary of the legislation, the Northern Route Approval Act

declares that a Presidential permit shall not be required for the pipeline described in the application filed on May 4, 2012, by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. to the Department of State for the Keystone XL pipeline, including the Nebraska reroute evaluated in the Final Evaluation Report issued by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality in January 2013 and approved by the Nebraska governor.

Deems the final environmental impact statement issued by the Secretary of State on August 26, 2011, coupled with such Final Evaluation Report, to satisfy all requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and of the National Historic Preservation Act.

H.R. 3 passed an earlier vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee 24-1.

Following that vote, industry watchdog group Oil Change International reported that “those voting for H.R. 3 (and thus, in favor of forcing approval of Keystone XL) today have received on average $141,501 in campaign contributions from Big Oil interests in their political careers.”

According to the group’s Dirty Energy Money database, since 2009, Cantor alone has received over $600,00 in contributions from Big Oil.

“Every single effort from Congress to influence the Keystone XL pipeline decision has been backed by millions in dirty energy money,” said the group’s campaign director David Turnbull.

In March, the Senate also voted 62-37 to approve a largely symbolic measure that claimed Congressional authority to approve the Keystone XL pipeline over the Executive branch.

The House vote is expected before Congress takes a week-long Memorial Day recess. It’s expected to pass with full Republican support and the backing of a number of industry-friendly Democrats.

The full text of Cantor’s memo is available to read here.

_____________________

Article source: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/06-2

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay.

The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.

The push is part of a broader Republican agenda undertaken by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to expand the party’s political appeal to working families. The House is expected to vote on the measure this week, but the Democratic-controlled Senate isn’t likely to take it up.

“For some people, time is more valuable than the cash that would be accrued in overtime,” said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., the bill’s chief sponsor. “Why should public-sector employees be given a benefit and the private sector be left out?”

But the idea Republicans promote as “pro-worker” is vigorously opposed by worker advocacy groups, labor unions and most Democrats, who claim it’s really a backdoor way for businesses to skimp on overtime pay.

“This is nothing more than an effort to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse,” said Judith Lichtman, senior adviser to the National Partnership for Women and Families. She contends the measure would open the door for employers to pressure workers into taking compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.

The program was created in the public sector in 1985 to save federal, state and local governments money, not to give workers greater flexibility, Lichtman said. Many workers in federal and state government are unionized or have civil service protections that give them more leverage in dealing with supervisors, she added. Those safeguards don’t always exist in the private sector, where only about 6.6 percent of employees are union members.

Phil Jones, 29, an emergency medical technician in Santa Clara, Calif., said he’s wary of how the measure would be enforced.

“Any time there’s a law that will keep extra money in an employer’s bank account, they will try to push employees to make that choice,” said Jones, who regularly earns overtime pay. “I know how we get taken advantage of and I think this bill will just let employers take even more advantage of us.”

But at a hearing on the bill last month, Karen DeLoach, a bookkeeper at a Montgomery, Ala., accounting firm, said she liked the idea of swapping overtime pay for comp time so she could travel with her church on its annual mission trip to Nicaragua.

“I would greatly appreciate the option at work to choose between being compensated in dollars or days,” she said.

The GOP plan is an effort to change the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which requires covered employees to receive time-and-a-half pay for every hour over 40 within a work week. The proposal would allow workers to bank up to 160 hours, or four weeks, of comp time per year that could be used to take time off for any reason.

The bill would let an employee decide to cash out comp time at any time, and forbids employers from coercing workers to take comp time instead of cash.

Republicans and business groups have tried to pass the plan in some form since the 1990s. Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, insists it’s not about reducing wage costs.

“It’s an alternative to the mandated paid leave approaches that Democrats typically support,” Freedman said. “We believe it’s more appropriate to give employers the choice on whether they want to do this.”

Democrats say the bill provides no guarantee that workers would be able to take the time off when they want. The bill gives employers discretion over whether to grant a specific request to use comp time. Opponents also complain that banking leave time essentially gives employers an interest free loan from workers.

Democrats say the bill provides no guarantee that workers would be able to take the time off when they want. The bill gives employers discretion over whether to grant a specific request to use comp time. Opponents also complain that saving up leave time essentially gives employers an interest-free loan from workers.

Lichtman said workers would rather get paid sick days, paid family leave, more unpaid family leave and an increase in the minimum wage.

But Alabama congresswoman Roby argues that, in the long run, those ideas would do workers more harm than good.

“The cost of government-mandated benefits is going to be passed off to American workers,” she said, resulting in fewer jobs.

___

Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

Article source: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/personal-finance/article/GOP-seeks-alternative-to-overtime-pay-4491025.php

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay.

The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.

The push is part of a broader Republican agenda undertaken by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to expand the party’s political appeal to working families. The House is expected to vote on the measure this week, but the Democratic-controlled Senate isn’t likely to take it up.

“For some people, time is more valuable than the cash that would be accrued in overtime,” said Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., the bill’s chief sponsor. “Why should public-sector employees be given a benefit and the private sector be left out?”

But the idea Republicans promote as “pro-worker” is vigorously opposed by worker advocacy groups, labor unions and most Democrats. These opponents claim it’s really a backdoor way for businesses to skimp on overtime pay.

Judith Lichtman, senior adviser to the National Partnership for Women and Families, contends the measure would open the door for employers to pressure workers into taking compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.

The program was created in the public sector in 1985 to save federal, state and local governments money, not to give workers greater flexibility, Lichtman said. Many workers in federal and state government are unionized or have civil service protections that give them more leverage in dealing with supervisors, she added. Those safeguards don’t always exist in the private sector, where only about 6.6 percent of employees are union members.

Phil Jones, 29, an emergency medical technician in Santa Clara, Calif., said he’s wary of how the measure would be enforced.

“Any time there’s a law that will keep extra money in an employer’s bank account, they will try to push employees to make that choice,” said Jones, who regularly earns overtime pay. “I know how we get taken advantage of and I think this bill will just let employers take even more advantage of us.”

But at a hearing on the bill last month, Karen DeLoach, a bookkeeper at a Montgomery, Ala., accounting firm, said she liked the idea of swapping overtime pay for comp time so she could travel with her church on its annual mission trip to Nicaragua.

“I would greatly appreciate the option at work to choose between being compensated in dollars or days,” she said.

The GOP plan is an effort to change the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which requires covered employees to receive time-and-a-half pay for every hour over 40 within a work week. The proposal would allow workers to bank up to 160 hours, or four weeks, of comp time per year that could be used to take time off for any reason.

The bill would let an employee decide to cash out comp time at any time, and forbids employers from coercing workers to take comp time instead of cash.

Republicans and business groups have tried to pass the plan in some form since the 1990s.

Democrats say the bill provides no guarantee that workers would be able to take the time off when they want. The bill gives employers discretion over whether to grant a specific request to use comp time. Opponents also complain that banking leave time essentially gives employers an interest-free loan from workers.

___

Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-seeks-alternative-overtime-pay-074228556.html

As He Tries to Eliminate Overtime Pay, Eric Cantor Hobnobs with Hollywood Elites

By: Sarah JonesMay. 3rd, 2013more from Sarah Jones

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor reportedly went Hollywood Thursday night, PoliticusUSA has been told by an inside tipster. The Virginia Republican attended a dinner last night hosted by Bobby Kotick, billionaire Activision founder/CEO, for an impressive guest list including Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, Patrick Soon-Shiong, Josh and Beth Friedman, and Jeff Skoll among others.

This is awkward because Cantor is known as the “family values” guy in the House. He used to push the Über conservative issues in the House, but lately he’s busy moving to the middle for his personal career. To that end, he’s also busy rebranding the GOP as the party that cares. They care about families, women and children, in spite of their policies to the contrary. How can you tell they care? Because of the language they use to label their policies that are bad for moms, dads and families.

Currently, Cantor is pushing his colleague’s “Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013″ as part of the GOP’s “Make Life Work” propaganda. The bill sounds great when you hear him sell it, it will let Americans “participate in the lives of their children.” The sweet talk continued, “All too often working parents find there just isn’t enough time at home with their kids. Too many parents have to weigh whether they can afford to miss work even for half a day to see their child off on the first day of school or attend a parent-teacher conference .”

But of course, this is the Republican Party so beware of Trojan Horses. Eileen Appelbaum, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, explained how this bill benefits employers over employees for the Huffington Post:

The flexibility in this comp time bill would have employees working unpaid overtime hours beyond the 40-hour workweek and accruing as many as 160 hours of compensatory time. A low-paid worker making $10 an hour who accrued that much comp time in lieu of overtime pay would effectively give his or her employer an interest-free loan of $1,600 — equal to a month’s pay. That’s a lot to ask of a worker making about $20,000 a year.

Indeed, any worker who accrues 160 hours of comp time will in effect have loaned his or her employer a month’s pay. This same arithmetic provides employers with a powerful incentive to increase workers’ overtime hours. Instead of having to pay time-and-a-half wages when an hourly-paid employee works longer than the standard 40-hour work week, the employer incurs no financial cost at the time the extra hours are worked.”

Aw, way to trick those “moms”; aka, women voters! (not).

While he tries to sell himself as the new hero to American Moms, Cantor’s actions belie a conservative image steeped in Southern tea hostilities toward hipster Hollywood liberals (just being from Hollywood was enough to smear Ashley Judd in tea party minds). In truth, Cantor, who’s eyeing up a larger role for himself – maybe Boehner’s Speakership – is actively seeking Hollywood glitz and money.

In April, he posed with Brad Pitt and proudly tweeted the pic of he and his wife with a real. live. moviestar. OMG!

Cantor tweeted, “At Horatio Alger Association dinner with my wife Diana and Brad Pitt. Celebrating pursuit of the American dream. pic.twitter.com/kiyM1AXki…

Republicans are used to empty chairs and washed up has-beens, so Brad Pitt was a real get even if it was just a quick pose.

Thursday’s dinner was hardly Cantor’s first dip into the Hollywood pool. In 2011, he found success by going Hollywood. “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has made a play for financial and policy support in Hollywood, tapping into a network of conservatives and finding quiet success.”

The next time a Republican sneers about the Hollywood elite, tell them to stop picking on Eric Cantor. He’s very busy trying to destroy American families.

As He Tries to Eliminate Overtime Pay, Eric Cantor Hobnobs with Hollywood Elites was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.

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Article source: http://www.politicususa.com/family-values-conservative-eric-cantor-hobnobbed-hollywood-elite.html

The House will vote again in the “near future” on full repeal of Obamacare, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a memo to fellow Republicans Friday.

He said a timeline has not yet been set.

Continue Reading

The House has already voted dozens of times on bills to repeal all or part of the law but has not voted on any Obamacare-related bills this year. But conservatives, particularly freshmen, have been eager to hold another vote.

(Also on POLITICO: Roundtable: Does Obama have the juice?)

The announcement of a repeal vote comes after Cantor’s failed efforts to pass a bill to elimination some of the health law’s prevention funding to expand the law’s high-risk insurance pools. The push resulted in complaints from the rank and file that Cantor was trying to expand Obama’s health care law, not starve it.

That bill is likely to be brought up again, and aides say that leadership is eying tweaks to ensure that the high-risk pools are state-based, not federal, according to sources involved in the planning.

(Also on POLITICO: Dems fret over Obamacare)

House Republican insiders say that Cantor’s move to vote again on repealing the law comes with risks. It looks, again, like the GOP that says it’s trying to soften its image is stuck on repealing a law that has no chance of being taken down. It won’t help much on the right, either: most conservative groups want House Speaker John Boehner, Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to defund the law through government funding bills and debt ceiling legislation — something they’ve been unwilling to do.

Cantor’s memo outlined a “full legislative agenda” for May.

He said the House will vote on a bills pushing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, requiring the SEC to conduct cost-benefit analysis of rulemaking, allowing working parents to accrue paid time off, and prioritizing payments if the debt ceiling is hit. He also plans to hold a vote on a bill to fund pediatric research at the NIH by eliminating taxpayer funding of presidential campaigns and party conventions.

Later this summer, Cantor says the GOP plans to move spending bills “through an open appropriations process,” pass the Defense Department authorization bill and “consider a Farm bill produced by the Agriculture Committee and Frank Lucas.”

One issue that not included in Cantor’s memo is immigration. Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte last month outlined a “step-by-step” approach to immigration reform and introduced two bills: One focusing on a temporary agricultural worker program that would allow up to 500,000 workers to stay and work in the United States for no more than 18 months, the other would require all U.S. employers to use the E-Verify program.

Here’s the full memo:

MEMORANDUM

TO: House Republicans

FR: Eric Cantor

DT: Friday, May 3, 2013

RE: May Legislative Agenda

In line with our underlying principles for legislation and our goal of helping make life work for American families and businesses, I expect the House to have a full legislative agenda in May. We will push the administration to finally approve the Keystone pipeline delivering much needed jobs and lower energy prices for families. We will ensure that working moms and dads in the private sector have the same freedoms and flexibility currently offered government employees. We will reform our student loan process and hold the SEC accountable so that business can be assured of more certainty and less red tape. We will put pediatric disease research ahead of politics to focus on finding cures. And we will guarantee our debt obligations are met under any circumstance so as not to burden our kids with unpaid bills. While we have not locked in the timing, I expect that the House will vote on full repeal of ObamaCare in the near future.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/obamacare-repeal-vote-eric-cantor-90900.html

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) — A vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act will be scheduled for the House of Representatives soon, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Friday.

“While we have not locked in the timing, I expect that the House will vote on full repeal of Obamacare in the near future,” Cantor told Republican members in a memo Friday, The Hill reported.

Republican leaders proposed a bill last month that would have eliminated what Republicans called a “slush fund” within the law — called “Obamacare” by its detractors — and used the money instead to fund an insurance program for people with pre-existing conditions. They pulled the bill after it became clear it didn’t have the votes to pass.

In the memo, Cantor said he expects May’s “full legislative agenda” to include a GOP bill to keep federally subsidized student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent. They are scheduled to increase to 6.8 percent this summer.

The Hill said Cantor told Republicans the House expects to pressure the Obama administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

“We will push the administration to finally approve the Keystone pipeline delivering much needed jobs and lower energy prices for families,” he wrote.

There will also be a vote on a bill to give private-sector employers the option of compensating workers with time off instead of time-and-a-half pay for overtime worked.

“We will ensure that working moms and dads in the private sector have the same freedoms and flexibility currently offered government employees,” Cantor said in the memo.

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/05/03/Cantor-says-vote-to-repeal-Affordable-Care-Act-will-be-soon/UPI-29391367606460/

“Why put off what you’ve go to do? Let’s get the job done – we need to get a plan to manage down the debt and deficit,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) tells The Daily Ticker on the sidelines of the Milken Institute 2013 Global Conference.

The big debate is about how to do that and when. There’s also a question about what the House, Senate, and president can realistically agree to when it comes to a fiscal roadmap for the country (or, arguably, anything other than FAA furloughs).

As we gear up for a budget debate with three competing blueprints and another debt ceiling deadline, Congressman Cantor lays out a couple of cost-saving ideas where he thinks Republican lawmakers could find common ground with the White House. In the accompanying interview, he cites ideas to combine Medicare Parts A and B (hospitals and doctor services) and to reform the federal pension system and bring it more in line with the private sector.

The New York Times reports that Cantor is attempting to remake the image of the Republican Party into something kinder and gentler, to “get beyond its single-minded, green-eyeshaded message of fiscal austerity and look to the problems of ordinary struggling Americans.”

Related: Did Harvard Economists Make an Excel Error that Led to Economic Austerity?

But the fiscal austerity that Cantor and other Republicans espouse has been taking blows from critics, which intensified after often-cited research suggesting economies slow considerably when debt-to-GDP reaches 90% was found to have errors.

Still, Cantor is quick to stress his foremost commitment to belt-tightening. “What I’ve said is we’re not going to abandon our commitment to fiscal discipline,” he says. “Everyone knows you can’t keep racking up trillion-dollar deficits into the future – we’re going to maintain that…We have to take some steps to address what is ailing this country, what is facing the economy and working families.” (Cantor is working on a bill to provide for flex time agreements between employees and their companies.)

Related: CBO 2013 Outlook: Slow Growth, Smaller Deficits

The CBO estimates the U.S. budget deficit will likely hit $845 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, which is an improvement from the $1 trillion dollar deficits of the prior four years. And this week the federal government reported it would pay down a small portion of the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. The move is seen as a sign of Washington’s improving finances.

But before we break out the confetti, the U.S. debt still stands at more than $16.7 trillion, topping 104% of GDP, according to Bloomberg. At the same time, the economy is still struggling, with GDP in the first-quarter coming in at a less-than-expected 2.5% annual rate, after growing just 0.4% in the fourth quarter last year. Joblessness remains elevated at 7.6%.

Related: Niall Ferguson to Paul Krugman: You’re Still Wrong About Government Spending

Like it or not, government spending is a large part of the economy. Some argue cutbacks can have a detrimental impact on growth and jobs during fragile times (especially with private sector debt so high).

Others, like Cantor, argue that cutting back the size of government is just what’s needed to unleash the private sector and the time to move forward is now.

Tell Us What You Think!

Got a topic you’d like covered? Have a guest you’d like to see interviewed? Send an email to: thedailyticker@yahoo.com.

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More from the Daily Ticker

The “Most Overpriced, Oversupplied, Over-owned Market in History”

Robert Shiller: Home Prices Will Remain Relatively Stagnant For Next 10 Years

Fed-Assisted Growth Stuck at 2% “New Normal” Rates Through 2013

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/house-majority-leader-defends-case-austerity-now-155713674.html

An estimated 11 million immigrants are living illegally in the U.S. That could change if Congress approves immigration reform, now making its way on the Hill.

The Senate has a bill developed by a bipartisan group of eight including Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Michael Bennett of Colorado that would put undocumented immigrants on a 13-year path to U.S. citizenship.

The House favors a series of smaller bills rather than one big one and has proposals for a guestworker program in agriculture and for online verification (E-verify) of an immigrant’s status for employers.

Related: Immigration Reform Could Cost Social Security Billions

“By taking a fine-tooth comb through each of the individual issues within the larger immigration debate, it will help us get a better bill that will benefit Americans and provide a workable immigration system, Congressman Bob Goodlatte ( R-VA), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to the Washington Post.

At the 2013 Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tells The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster that he’s hopeful Congress will pass immigration reform this year. “There’s a real potential to get something done,” he says.

Cantor is especially passionate about providing access to citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. “Now America is the only place they know as home. Surely we can find it in ourselves to make sure that they have access to citizenship in this country,” says Cantor.

Related: Los Angeles Mayor: Benefits of Immigration Reform Outweigh Costs

Immigration reform is also expected to be a topic of discussion during President Obama’s trip to Mexico this week where he will meet with Mexico’s new president, Enrique Pena Nieto. Among the issues they might discuss are concerns about how immigration reform will affect U.S.-Mexico border security.

The Senate bill mandates that there be no path to legal status for undocumented immigrants until the U.S. determines that the border with Mexico is secure.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) says many Republicans are suspicious that about the ability of the U.S. to secure that border, and he doubts the Republican-controlled House will approve the Senate bill, as is.

Cantor says Obamacare is one of the “real challenges” to immigration reform. “If the illegal population that is here…gains legal status under any kind of a (immigration) bill, what does that mean for their eligibility for Obamacare?” asks Cantor. “That’s a huge cost.”

Tell Us What You Think!

Got a topic you’d like covered? Have a guest you’d like to see interviewed? Send an email to: thedailyticker@yahoo.com.

You can also look us up on Twitter and Facebook.

More from the Daily Ticker

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/rep-eric-cantor-sees-real-potential-immigration-reform-155613147.html

An estimated 11 million immigrants are living illegally in the U.S. That could change if Congress approves immigration reform, now making its way on the Hill.

The Senate has a bill developed by a bipartisan group of eight including Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Michael Bennett of Colorado that would put undocumented immigrants on a 13-year path to U.S. citizenship.

The House favors a series of smaller bills rather than one big one and has proposals for a guestworker program in agriculture and for online verification (E-verify) of an immigrant’s status for employers.

Related: Immigration Reform Could Cost Social Security Billions

“By taking a fine-tooth comb through each of the individual issues within the larger immigration debate, it will help us get a better bill that will benefit Americans and provide a workable immigration system, Congressman Bob Goodlatte ( R-VA), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to the Washington Post.

At the 2013 Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor tells The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster that he’s hopeful Congress will pass immigration reform this year. “There’s a real potential to get something done,” he says.

Cantor is especially passionate about providing access to citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the U.S. by their parents. “Now America is the only place they know as home. Surely we can find it in ourselves to make sure that they have access to citizenship in this country,” says Cantor.

Related: Los Angeles Mayor: Benefits of Immigration Reform Outweigh Costs

Immigration reform is also expected to be a topic of discussion during President Obama’s trip to Mexico this week where he will meet with Mexico’s new president, Enrique Pena Nieto. Among the issues they might discuss are concerns about how immigration reform will affect U.S.-Mexico border security.

The Senate bill mandates that there be no path to legal status for undocumented immigrants until the U.S. determines that the border with Mexico is secure.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) says many Republicans are suspicious that about the ability of the U.S. to secure that border, and he doubts the Republican-controlled House will approve the Senate bill, as is.

Cantor says Obamacare is one of the “real challenges” to immigration reform. “If the illegal population that is here…gains legal status under any kind of a (immigration) bill, what does that mean for their eligibility for Obamacare?” asks Cantor. “That’s a huge cost.”

Tell Us What You Think!

Got a topic you’d like covered? Have a guest you’d like to see interviewed? Send an email to: thedailyticker@yahoo.com.

You can also look us up on Twitter and Facebook.

More from the Daily Ticker

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/rep-eric-cantor-sees-real-potential-immigration-reform-155613147.html

One further thought about the House Republicans and health care: In addition to being symptomatic of the Republican Party’s larger policy problems, last week’s defeat of a very modest gesture at something resembling a conservative approach to health care reform was illustrative of the particular problem of trying to rebuild the party’s agenda from within the House of Representatives.

Note that the bill in question was not rejected by a majority of House Republicans, or even by a large minority: It was rejected by a rump of a rump, a tiny minority within the caucus. But that was enough to doom it, because the House runs on partisanship, and obviously House Democrats aren’t about to go along with a measure designed as part of a larger strategy to pick apart Obamacare. This means that to do anything genuinely innovative on policy, Eric Cantor (or any other member of the leadership) doesn’t just need a majority or a supermajority of his own caucus: He needs almost every single vote, which he can’t get so long as there’s a political premium to being “purer” than the leadership for conservative representatives from safe-as-houses districts. And of course the Catch-22 is that this problem would diminish if the G.O.P. had a larger House majority — but it’s hard to win a larger House majority if your policymaking is held hostage by a “no retreat, no surrender, no innovation” rump.

This is why it was unfair of me, in a sense, to contrast Cantor’s cautious dance with policy experimentation with Rand Paul’s entrepreneurial brio in a column last month. The junior Kentucky senator is just in a fundamentally different position than the House majority leader: Because the Republicans are a minority in the Senate, because senators represent broader constituencies than congressmen, and because the structure of the upper chamber is designed to make compromise a necessity in any case, there’s a lot more room for Paul to be entrepreneurial on foreign policy (or for David Vitter to be entrepreneurial on banking reform, or for Marco Rubio to entrepreneurial — even if I think it’s in a mistaken cause — on immigration) than there is for a House leader charged with managing a fractious caucus to do the same.

When a Republican senator has a policy idea, he can just run with it (up to and including looking for Democratic allies) and nobody’s going to blame him if it doesn’t end up winning sixty votes. When Cantor has an idea, or at least when he wants to take an idea from the podium at A.E.I. into the actual political process, it immediately becomes a test of his leadership — which in turn leads to stories about House infighting when he can’t persuade 95 percent of his caucus to go along.

So credit for the effort in this case, even it mostly looks like a case study in why the Democratic-controlled Senate is more likely to be a seedbed of Republican reform than the body that the G.O.P. actually controls.

Article source: http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/eric-cantors-dilemma/

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Less than two weeks ago, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy walked upstairs to Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Capitol office to discuss a sensitive issue: Why did Cantor schedule a vote before McCarthy had the chance to survey Republican support?

The meeting — described as “tense” by several people familiar with it — ended with McCarthy abruptly standing up and storming out of the room. Aides downplayed the exchange. But a week later, it turned out that McCarthy’s pique was merited: The health care-related bill was suddenly pulled from the floor in what was the most recent stumble for House Republicans.

Continue Reading

The GOP leadership is dealing with an unprecedented level of frustration in running the House, according to conversations with more than a dozen aides and lawmakers in and around leadership. Leadership is talking past each other. The conference is split by warring factions. And influential outside groups are fighting them.

The chaos has led to a sense of stalemate for House Republicans, who have been in the majority since 2011.

(PHOTOS: Republicans on how to fix the GOP)

“There’s so much stuff happening up here that sometimes, you don’t pay attention to some of the more intricate details of something until it comes right to you,” said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a GOP whip from Georgia.

Speaker John Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy are plagued by a conference split into two groups. In one camp are stiff ideologues who didn’t extract any lesson from Mitt Romney’s loss and are only looking to slash spending and defund President Barack Obama’s health care law at every turn. In the other are lawmakers who are aligned with Cantor, who is almost singularly driving an agenda which is zeroed in on family issues.

Boehner seems more focused on passing big pieces of legislation like hiking the debt ceiling and extending government funding, sometimes drawing flak for having to rely on Democrats to move these bills over the finish line.

(Also on POLITICO: Rubio: House to nix immigration bill)

The House simply isn’t interested in the agendas being pushed by the president and Democratic Senate. Most Republicans aren’t looking for a big legislative push on gun control. GOP leaders are skeptical that they can arrive at a framework to negotiate a budget agreement with Senate Democrats. And tax reform and an immigration overhaul, while broadly supported, are still seen as long shots.

Members of leadership have trouble staying on the same page. Cantor is anxious to move on his agenda, but McCarthy needs to gather support in a House Republican Conference that’s filled with lawmakers constantly divided on leadership’s priorities.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/house-in-chaos-republican-leadership-eric-cantor-90803.html

“Why put off what you’ve go to do? Let’s get the job done – we need to get a plan to manage down the debt and deficit,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) tells The Daily Ticker on the sidelines of the Milken Institute 2013 Global Conference.

The big debate is about how to do that and when. There’s also a question about what the House, Senate, and president can realistically agree to when it comes to a fiscal roadmap for the country (or, arguably, anything other than FAA furloughs).

As we gear up for a budget debate with three competing blueprints and another debt ceiling deadline, Congressman Cantor lays out a couple of cost-saving ideas where he thinks Republican lawmakers could find common ground with the White House. In the accompanying interview, he cites ideas to combine Medicare Parts A and B (hospitals and doctor services) and to reform the federal pension system and bring it more in line with the private sector.

The New York Times reports that Cantor is attempting to remake the image of the Republican Party into something kinder and gentler, to “get beyond its single-minded, green-eyeshaded message of fiscal austerity and look to the problems of ordinary struggling Americans.”

Related: Did Harvard Economists Make an Excel Error that Led to Economic Austerity?

But the fiscal austerity that Cantor and other Republicans espouse has been taking blows from critics, which intensified after often-cited research suggesting economies slow considerably when debt-to-GDP reaches 90% was found to have errors.

Still, Cantor is quick to stress his foremost commitment to belt-tightening. “What I’ve said is we’re not going to abandon our commitment to fiscal discipline,” he says. “Everyone knows you can’t keep racking up trillion-dollar deficits into the future – we’re going to maintain that…We have to take some steps to address what is ailing this country, what is facing the economy and working families.” (Cantor is working on a bill to provide for flex time agreements between employees and their companies.)

Related: CBO 2013 Outlook: Slow Growth, Smaller Deficits

The CBO estimates the U.S. budget deficit will likely hit $845 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, which is an improvement from the $1 trillion dollar deficits of the prior four years. And this week the federal government reported it would pay down a small portion of the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. The move is seen as a sign of Washington’s improving finances.

But before we break out the confetti, the U.S. debt still stands at more than $16.7 trillion, topping 104% of GDP, according to Bloomberg. At the same time, the economy is still struggling, with GDP in the first-quarter coming in at a less-than-expected 2.5% annual rate, after growing just 0.4% in the fourth quarter last year. Joblessness remains elevated at 7.6%.

Related: Niall Ferguson to Paul Krugman: You’re Still Wrong About Government Spending

Like it or not, government spending is a large part of the economy. Some argue cutbacks can have a detrimental impact on growth and jobs during fragile times (especially with private sector debt so high).

Others, like Cantor, argue that cutting back the size of government is just what’s needed to unleash the private sector and the time to move forward is now.

Tell Us What You Think!

Got a topic you’d like covered? Have a guest you’d like to see interviewed? Send an email to: thedailyticker@yahoo.com.

You can also look us up on Twitter and Facebook.

More from the Daily Ticker

The “Most Overpriced, Oversupplied, Over-owned Market in History”

Robert Shiller: Home Prices Will Remain Relatively Stagnant For Next 10 Years

Fed-Assisted Growth Stuck at 2% “New Normal” Rates Through 2013

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/house-majority-leader-defends-case-austerity-now-155713674.html

With remarkable speed, the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to give the secretary of transportation enough financial flexibility to shift as much as $253 million to the air traffic control system, less than a week after the onset of politically problematic flight delays driven by across-the-board spending cuts. The money will be shifted from airport improvement funds, and none would come from additional revenues, once a key demand of Mr. Obama and the Democrats. The 361-to-41 vote came less than 24 hours after the Senate rushed the measure through.

Republicans claimed victory. “Consider that the Democrats’ opening position was they would only replace the sequester with tax increases,” Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said in a memo to members before the vote. “By last night, Senate Democrats were adopting our targeted ‘cut this, not that’ approach. This victory is in large part a result of our standing together.”

The Congressional action effectively undoes one of the thorniest results of “sequestration,” the $85 billion in spending cuts that took effect March 1 and have rippled across the federal government. With the president’s promised signature, Democrats will lose significant leverage they had hoped would force Republicans into a larger agreement since the flight delays were seen as the sort of inconvenience that could force a reversal of the cuts.

The action also brought charges that lawmakers known for gridlock could move only when affluent travelers like themselves felt the sting of Congress’s indecision and that the struggles of lower-income Americans affected by the spending cuts were being ignored. House members who have cleared precious little legislation this year made swift work of the air travel bill minutes before flying out themselves for a weeklong break, a pile of cars stacked up behind the Capitol waiting to ferry them to Washington’s airports.

“We’re leaving the homeless behind,” said Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont. “We’re leaving a lot of National Guard folks behind. We’re leaving seniors who depend on Meals On Wheels in the dust. Children who rely on Head Start can teach themselves to read. That’s basically what’s happening.”

The shifting of $253 million from the airport improvement program to air traffic operations in the Federal Aviation Administration should be enough to stop further furloughs and keep the air traffic control system operating at a normal pace through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

“This is a Band-Aid solution,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, even as he said Mr. Obama would sign it. “It does not solve the bigger problem.”

Republicans — and some Democrats — had been pushing for much of the month for a rescue of the air traffic control system. But lawmakers who wanted a separate budget rescue for the F.A.A. met resistance from some lawmakers who questioned why air travel was being rescued when children were being thrown out of early education programs, food safety inspections were being curtailed and checks to the long-term unemployed were shrinking.

With those cuts largely invisible to most Americans, some Democrats argued that mounting delays at airports might be the only pressure point left to force Republicans to negotiate a broader deal to reverse the cuts, with a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases.

That position held sway with Democrats into Thursday evening, when Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, and Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, cornered Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.

“We made the pitch that this wasn’t about elite Americans. This is about all Americans,” Mr. Udall said, singling out hotel and restaurant workers, airport workers and others who would be affected by a sharp decline in air travel.

Opponents also feared that a rifle-shot rescue of the air traffic-control system would open the floodgates for other supplicants seeking relief from the cuts. That fear was realized almost the moment the bill cleared Congress. Cancer clinics, Head Start administrators, housing advocates and teachers all demanded that their programs be addressed next.

Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/us/politics/congress-passes-bill-to-end-flight-delays.html?pagewanted=all

Michael Milken, the junk bond king who revolutionized fixed income trading in the 1980s before spending two years in jail for securities fraud, is hosting an economic policy conference this week in Beverly Hills. If anyone can bring together two politicians, it’s a generous billionaire—and that’s why immigration reform advocates might want to temper their hopes.

Milken brought together Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for a strained conversation, ostensibly  in support of Milken’s efforts to raise money for medical research (and, more subtly, their political campaigns).

Milken brought up the new immigration bill on friendly terms, citing the arguments made by Vivek Wadhwa and other proponents of bringing in new Americans, especially highly-skilled ones, and the need to recognize that Hispanics are the fastest growing American ethnic group.

Reid is all for it, promising that a bipartisan bill will pass the Senate by July 4th, give or a take a week. The comprehensive overhaul  would bolster border security, give unauthorized workers a path to citizenship, and allow many new temporary workers, high-skilled and low, into the US.

But Cantor threw cold water on the idea. The alignment of America’s lower legislative chamber favors conservatives who are skeptical of broad efforts to create a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. Cantor suggested that individual pieces of the deal might pass: efforts to give US university-trained foreigners work visas, allow children of unauthorized immigrants to become citizens, even a guest worker program. But no mention of the controversial path to citizenship.

And then he warned that no one knows what the bill would cost.

“As we lead up to another occurrence this summer of heightened focus as we approach the debt ceiling, fiscal matters do count,” Cantor said.

In political-speak, the mention of the debt ceiling is the equivalent of musing aloud about what a shame it would be if someone broke your nice new window while casually brandishing a rock. The latest estimates from the Bipartisan Policy Center show that the US will need to raise the borrowing by September or October, and finishing the bill before then is considered key—or else it will get sucked into debt ceiling madness.

Cantor’s meaning was clear: If House Republicans don’t want a vote on a compromise immigration bill, they can kill the process. But it’s not clear that Democrats will be on-board with passing individual provisions of the bill, even those they favor, without addressing the 10 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the US.

“If we try to do it piece-meal, we’ll never get it done,” Reid warned.

Article source: http://qz.com/79547/even-the-junk-bond-king-cant-protect-immigration-reform-from-these-lurking-threats/

Michael Milken, the junk bond king who revolutionized fixed income trading in the 1980s before spending two years in jail for securities fraud, is hosting an economic policy conference this week in Beverly Hills. If anyone can bring together two politicians, it’s a generous billionaire—and that’s why immigration reform advocates might want to temper their hopes.

Milken brought together Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for a strained conversation, ostensibly  in support of Milken’s efforts to raise money for medical research (and, more subtly, their political campaigns).

Milken brought up the new immigration bill on friendly terms, citing the arguments made by Vivek Wadhwa and other proponents of bringing in new Americans, especially highly-skilled ones, and the need to recognize that Hispanics are the fastest growing American ethnic group.

Reid is all for it, promising that a bipartisan bill will pass the Senate by July 4th, give or a take a week. The comprehensive overhaul  would bolster border security, give unauthorized workers a path to citizenship, and allow many new temporary workers, high-skilled and low, into the US.

But Cantor threw cold water on the idea. The alignment of America’s lower legislative chamber favors conservatives who are skeptical of broad efforts to create a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. Cantor suggested that individual pieces of the deal might pass: efforts to give US university-trained foreigners work visas, allow children of unauthorized immigrants to become citizens, even a guest worker program. But no mention of the controversial path to citizenship.

And then he warned that no one knows what the bill would cost.

“As we lead up to another occurrence this summer of heightened focus as we approach the debt ceiling, fiscal matters do count,” Cantor said.

In political-speak, the mention of the debt ceiling is the equivalent of musing aloud about what a shame it would be if someone broke your nice new window while casually brandishing a rock. The latest estimates from the Bipartisan Policy Center show that the US will need to raise the borrowing by September or October, and finishing the bill before then is considered key—or else it will get sucked into debt ceiling madness.

Cantor’s meaning was clear: If House Republicans don’t want a vote on a compromise immigration bill, they can kill the process. But it’s not clear that Democrats will be on-board with passing individual provisions of the bill, even those they favor, without addressing the 10 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the US.

“If we try to do it piece-meal, we’ll never get it done,” Reid warned.

More from Quartz

• Why are liberal US tech entrepreneurs promoting oil drilling in a wildlife refuge?
• Letting more immigrants into the US will also bring down the country’s debt
• All the paths to US citizenship in the Senate’s immigration bill, visualized

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eric-cantor-brandishes-debt-ceiling-044036610.html

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) — Congressional Republicans have declared victory following the decision to ease the effect of the sequester on U.S. air traffic control.

Lobbyists for the defense industry and other opponents of across-the-board cuts told The Hill the vote on the Federal Aviation Administration has reduced the chance Congress will deal with the sequestration as a whole. A Republican staffer said there are “no plans” for action.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor said as much Friday in a memo to his caucus.

“Consider that the Democrats opening position was they would only replace the sequester with tax increases,” Cantor said. “By the first of this week Senator Reid proposed replacing the whole sequester with phony war savings. And by last night, Senate Democrats were adopting our targeted ‘cut this, not that’ approach.”

The sequester has created an alliance between defense, health and education lobbyists and unions representing federal workers, The Hill said. They say President Obama and Democrats in Congress have lost leverage by agreeing to ease the pain of one place where sequestration was affecting the public most visibly.

“All of this is rearranging the deck chairs. I’m not overly hopeful,” said Joel Packer of the Committee for Education Funding. “We are really putting our concentration on fiscal 2014 and beyond.”

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/04/27/Republicans-declare-victory-on-sequester/UPI-13221367099880/

With frustrated travelers tapping their feet in the nation’s airports this week, politicians responded with alarm to flight delays brought on by federal budget cuts.

Beginning Monday, April 22, 2013, furloughs of air traffic controllers began to take effect under sequestration, a deficit-reduction measure that bluntly cuts federal agency budgets. The furloughs triggered flight delays around the country as the FAA scaled back the number of planes that could take off and land because the agency had fewer controllers to direct them.

U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., joined the criticism that the FAA is maximizing the budget cuts’ inconvenience on travelers.

“Why is President Obama unnecessarily delaying your flight? FAA could cut other spending,” Cantor tweeted on April 23, 2013.

The FAA has said it made all the cuts it could but sequestration still leaves no option but to furlough employees.

So who’s right? We decided to check it out.

Cuts furloughs

We looked into a similar claim from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood before the sequester took effect. The Obama administration and federal agencies were warning that flight delays would result.

Sequestration is forcing the FAA to carve $600 million from its budget, and LaHood said furloughing air traffic controllers was the last step after every other cut has been made.

But air traffic controllers make up a big chunk of the FAA’s workforce: 15,000 of its 47,000 employees.

“We’re looking at everything possible; and everything possible that’s legal, we will do,” he said at the White House. That includes cutting travel, cutting overtime, freezing hiring, canceling conferences and reducing contracts.

So what exactly is legal to cut?

The Budget Control Act of 2011, the law authorizing the sequester, says “each non-exempt account within a category shall be reduced by a dollar amount calculated by multiplying the baseline level of sequestrable budgetary resources in that account at that time by the uniform percentage necessary to eliminate a breach within that category.” (That clause comes from a similar deficit control law from 1985, the first time “sequestration” was implemented.)

It means, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, that sequestration “must be applied equally at the program, project, and activity level within each budget account.”

That’s why officials and politicians call sequestration a blunt instrument.

“The sequester language does not allow us to move funding from account to account, and we simply can’t make the required cuts without facility closures and furloughs,” DOT spokesman Justin Nisly told PolitiFact in February.

A $474 million FAA grant?

Cantor’s tweet included a link to a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the Obama administration for flight delays and spending decisions.

It pointed to a $474 million grant program posted this week on DOT’s website that promises to “make communities more livable and sustainable.”

“How about awarding grants to the control towers at Hartsfield and O’Hare?” the editorial said.

Nisly said the grant program “was specifically designed by Congress as a rigorous competition to fund projects that have a significant impact on the nation, a region or metropolitan area. The program has been wildly popular, and the DOT has received more than $105 billion in applications for only $3.1 billion available. Each round of TIGER involves a detailed application and a thorough review of the merits of each project.”

Merits aside, FAA grant programs are entirely excluded from sequester cuts.

“Under the rules of the sequester, the airport grant program was exempted, as were all grant programs … of the Department of Transportation. What that means is that it falls disproportionately on the operating side of the budget,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a House subcommittee this week.

The editorial also mentioned $500 million the agency is spending on consultants. But FAA officials have said that money pays, not for consultants, but for contracts that support the air traffic control system, including telecommunications and weather radar.

As we were working on this report, the earth moved a little under this issue. Five days into the furloughs, the Senate unanimously passed a bill allowing the FAA to move funds around and end furloughs. The House approved the legislation a day later. (Cantor voted for it.) As of this writing, it awaits Obama’s signature; he is expected to sign it.

“Congress just passed legislation that now enables the FAA to have the flexibility it needs to make less disruptive changes, so clearly there was something in the law that was posing a problem,” said Clifford Winston, an economist with the Brookings Institution.

Our ruling

Cantor said flights were being delayed unnecessarily because the FAA could have cut other funds before furloughing air traffic controllers.

But the law authorizing sequestration states that cuts must be applied equally. Given that the FAA is a huge federal agency tasked with cutting $600 million, to say there is no wiggle room is a stretch. But sequestration does not allow elimination of entire programs or departments to spend the money on in other areas, such as paying air traffic controllers.

What’s more, the fact that Congress was compelled to act to give the FAA that flexibility undercuts the argument that the agency could have moved funds around all along.

We rate Cantor’s statement Mostly False.

Article source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/apr/26/eric-cantor/eric-cantor-says-faa-could-cut-funds-avoid-furloug/

By Z. Byron Wolf
@zbyronwolf
Follow on Twitter

The Republican party is full of rebranding efforts these days. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has his. And the NRSC is working on appealing to the young and hip with their Buzzfeed-style website.

Now there’s Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, whose campaign is out with a new web video that splices inspirational lines from McConnell speeches and argues that the GOP is the party of opportunity for minorities and immigrants. But the video also has a decidedly Tea Party feel at times. It has gotten more than a million views in a day.

Produced by Lucas Baiano, the political auteur who produced videos during the 2012 for Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the video, which is called “The American Ideal”, has the feel of a trailer for a movie by Michael Bay.

 

 

“We are the party of compassion,” says McConnell at one point. “We are the party of immigrants. We are the party of hard-working taxpayers. We are party of mobility, opportunity, growth, life, liberty, optimism and innovation.”

Get the latest coverage at ABC News Politics.

But then it also pays tribute to some buzzwords important to the Tea Party.

“…the founders… They taught us by example that this experiment in self-government would endure if courageous men and women continued to defend it.”

McConnell goes on:  ”…freedom in all of its varieties. These things never lose their worth or their power to motivate and to inspire. Society may change, demographics may shift, but the principles that make up a free and prosperous society never do. And conservatives we own these principles. We own them.”

It’s not exactly political web video season, but the video appears to be part of McConnell’s effort to make sure there’s not much of a campaign against him. The Midterm elections don’t occur until November of 2014. There’s not even anyone running against Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate.

And McConnell has done his best to make it clear to potential rivals on both sides of the political aisle that he’s not to be trifled with.

The campaign had salivated at the prospect of running against Ashley Judd, the Hollywood actress who ultimately decided not to run. An audio tape made by a liberal group caught McConnell’s campaign discussing how they’d run against Judd.

Article source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/c/35229/f/654840/s/2b38fc7e/l/0Labcnews0Bgo0N0Cblogs0Cpolitics0C20A130C0A40Cviral0Emcconnell0Ead0Eseeks0Eto0Einspire0Econservatives0C/story01.htm

“This place is a treasure trove of information that’s just, in many instances, sitting idle,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said at a conference Friday.

Eric Cantor wants Washington to operate more like an app and less like a dinosaur.

[READ: The White House Correspondents' Dinner Celebrity Guest List]

Appearing at a star-studded “Creativity Conference” in Washington Friday, a day before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the House majority leader and GOP Virginia congressman urged more creativity in the political process.

“Government should provide a platform for creativity,” said Cantor, pulling out his iPhone to demonstrate what a successful app looks like. “There is a desperate need for creativity here in Washington. … This place is a treasure trove of information that’s just, in many instances, sitting idle.” Cantor said better public access to government data was the only way to change that fact.

“If we can put hoses up to some of these dinosaur agency and buildings in this town and allow the creativity to apply to all this data, I think you would be amazed at the solutions and innovations that could occur,” he said.

[PHOTOS: Artists Create Unusual Portraits of Politicians]

For his part, Cantor unveiled a platform in 2012 called “Citizen Cosponsor,” which allows constituents to follow legislation throughout the political process. He also joined House Speaker John Boehner in 2011 in prodding the House clerk to put legislative documents online for the first time.

Cantor spoke at the Creativity Conference at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington ahead of speeches by film mogul Harvey Weinstein, HBO CEO Richard Plepler and former President Bill Clinton.

The event is the brainchild of the Motion Picture Association and hosted along with TIME magazine and Microsoft, and happened just as Google and Bloomberg put on a competing “Big Tent” panel at the nearby W Hotel on free speech in the digital age.

More News:

• Top 10 Smartphone Apps for Politics and Elections
• Cantor Softens Stance on Immigration
• Photos: The 2013 Oscars

Article source: http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/04/26/eric-cantor-wants-washington-to-operate-more-like-an-app

“This place is a treasure trove of information that’s just, in many instances, sitting idle,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said at a conference Friday.

Eric Cantor wants Washington to operate more like an app and less like a dinosaur.

[READ: The White House Correspondents' Dinner Celebrity Guest List]

Appearing at a star-studded “Creativity Conference” in Washington Friday, a day before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the House majority leader and GOP Virginia congressman urged more creativity in the political process.

“Government should provide a platform for creativity,” said Cantor, pulling out his iPhone to demonstrate what a successful app looks like. “There is a desperate need for creativity here in Washington. … This place is a treasure trove of information that’s just, in many instances, sitting idle.” Cantor said better public access to government data was the only way to change that fact.

“If we can put hoses up to some of these dinosaur agency and buildings in this town and allow the creativity to apply to all this data, I think you would be amazed at the solutions and innovations that could occur,” he said.

[PHOTOS: Artists Create Unusual Portraits of Politicians]

For his part, Cantor unveiled a platform in 2012 called “Citizen Cosponsor,” which allows constituents to follow legislation throughout the political process. He also joined House Speaker John Boehner in 2011 in prodding the House clerk to put legislative documents online for the first time.

Cantor spoke at the Creativity Conference at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington ahead of speeches by film mogul Harvey Weinstein, HBO CEO Richard Plepler and former President Bill Clinton.

The event is the brainchild of the Motion Picture Association and hosted along with TIME magazine and Microsoft, and happened just as Google and Bloomberg put on a competing “Big Tent” panel at the nearby W Hotel on free speech in the digital age.

More News:

• Top 10 Smartphone Apps for Politics and Elections
• Cantor Softens Stance on Immigration
• Photos: The 2013 Oscars

Article source: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/4/26/eric-cantor-wants-washington-to-operate-more-like-an-app?s_cid=rss:washington-whispers:eric-cantor-wants-washington-to-operate-more-like-an-app

(below is from my FNC colleague Chad Pergram)

—-

Urgent: Cantor explains FAA bill to House colleagues

Per Pergram-Capitol Hill

 

Fox has obtained a “Dear Colleague” letter from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent to members. In it, he outlines the FAA bill the Senate passsed last night and the House plan to approve the same measure today.

 

A vote comes later this morning.

 

Dear Colleague:

 

Last night the Senate passed a bill to provide the FAA with increased authority to reprogram funds from lower priority items to air traffic control operations. As a CQ / Roll Call reporter tweeted last night, “Make no mistake, this FAA fix is a complete, utter cave by Senate Democrats and, if signed, by the White House.” This is a sentiment expressed in other press reports over the last 12 hours, including, Politico: “Democrats blink first on aviation” and Chicago Tribune: “White House Scrambles For Damage Control.”

 

Consider that the Democrats opening position was they would only replace the sequester with tax increases. By the first of this week Senator Reid proposed replacing the whole sequester with phony war savings. And by last night, Senate Democrats were adopting our targeted “cut this, not that” approach. This victory is in large part a result of our standing together under the banner of #Obamaflightdelays.

 

After conferring with the other leaders, and in light of the pending constituent work week, it is my intention to schedule the text of the Senate passed bill for consideration today under suspension of the rules. More information is provided below.

 

Process:

 

The House will consider under suspension of the rules an HR bill introduced by Congressman Latham that consists of the text of the Senate passed bill. We will consider an HR so that we preserve our constitutional role in originating appropriations measures. The Senate has already locked in a u.c. that if the House sends over a bill identical to the bill they passed last night, it will be cleared and sent to the President.

 

Summary:

 

The bill permits the FAA to transfer $253 million in FY 2013 to air traffic controller salaries and expenses, thus negating the necessity for further furloughs of controllers through the end of the fiscal year. It pays for this by reducing Airport Improvement Program grants by the same amount. While the bill is neutral in terms of budget authority, the ten year bill score will show a slight $4 million increase in outlays due to the fact that salaries spend out at a significantly faster rate than construction grant programs.

 

The bill also contains language permitting Secretary LaHood to do additional transfers within FAA accounts. This may allow him to restore the FAA contract towers that were cut as part of the effort to reduce controller furloughs. An effort to include more robust language regarding restoration of contract towers was rejected in the Senate last night.

 

Text:

 

Bill text is available here: http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20130422/Bills-113hr-SUS-FAAFundsTransfer.pdf

 

Sincerely,

Eric

 

 

 

Chad Pergram

Senior Producer for Capitol Hill

FOX News

• previous post

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Article source: http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/26/letter-from-house-majority-leader-eric-cantor-about-the-faa-bill/

Shelving the measure to provide more money for coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, which faced strong opposition from conservatives, is viewed as a setback for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and efforts to rebrand the Republican Party.

The Washington Post: House GOP Leadership Falls On Health Vote
House Republican leaders suffered a humiliating legislative setback Wednesday when a large faction of GOP lawmakers rebelled against a leadership proposal that had drawn the opposition of powerful outside activists. The mutiny forced House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to abruptly pull from the floor legislation to shore up a program that allows people with preexisting health conditions to buy into an insurance pool for high-risk patients before they are able to transition to coverage under President Obama’s health-care law. … The Club for Growth led a contingent of right-leaning groups that urged Republican lawmakers to oppose the bill, casting it as a costly boondoggle that would do nothing to dismantle the health-care law (Kane, 4/24).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: GOP Postpones Vote To Use Disease-Prevention Money To Extend Coverage For High-Risk Patients
GOP leaders postponed a scheduled vote after the measure met strong opposition from two directions: from conservative groups resistant to any federal role in health care and from Democrats who objected that the Republicans planned to pay for the high-risk patient program by raiding a disease prevention provision the administration says is essential to the overhaul (4/24).

The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire: GOP Shelves Legislation Attacking Obama Health Law
Their bill had been scheduled for a House vote but was abruptly pulled from the calendar in the face of conservative and Democratic opposition. The measure would abolish a $2 billion fund to pay for public health initiatives and channel the money instead to a program to help provide insurance for people with pre-existing conditions (Hook, 4/24).

Politico: GOP Pulls Contentious Obamacare Bill
It’s a blow to the Virginia Republican, who touted the “Helping Sick Americans Now Act” and visited the Republican Study Committee meeting Wednesday to try to move votes (Sherman, 4/24).

Reuters: Republican Leaders Withdraw Healthcare Bill Amid Conservative Concerns
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Wednesday withdrew a bill that would change the Obama administration’s healthcare law amid conservative concerns that the legislation was replacing one big government program with another. The House cleared the way to debate the bill, which was designed to help Americans with pre-existing medical conditions while preventing the administration from using an alternate source of funding to implement its healthcare law (Cowan, 4/24).

Article source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130426/GOP-leader-pulls-bill-to-redirect-public-health-funds-to-high-risk-patients.aspx

Daily Kos
Thursday 25th April, 2013

Seriously, they’re arguing over which symbolic attack on Obamacare the House should be voting on. Cantor’s bill was a part of a broader rebranding agenda he’s embarking on, from school vouchers to replacing overtime pay with flex or comp time. He’d staked this bill out as his ground and said there would be a vote.

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Article source: http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/214092012/scat/a1e025da3c02ca7c

The measure is part of Cantor’s effort to rebrand the GOP after defeats in the 2012 presidential and Senate elections, but it quickly found resistance among conservative activists.

The Club for Growth led a contingent of right-leaning groups that urged Republican lawmakers to oppose the bill, casting it as a costly boondoggle that would do nothing to dismantle the health-care law.

“Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing Obamacare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive,” Andy Roth, a vice president of Club for Growth, wrote to lawmakers last week. Heritage Action, the political arm of the the conservative Heritage Foundation, joined in the opposition.

No Democrats supported the bill as it was considered by the House Energy and Commerce Committee because the $3 billion tab would be covered by revoking funding from a different piece of the health-care law. That let GOP leaders know they needed to wrangle almost every vote from their side of the aisle to pass the measure. The failure was reminiscent of flops they have experienced since seizing the majority in 2011.

Cantor pulled the bill after trying to push his rank-and-file members to support it during a closed-door huddle on Wednesday. He argued that “helping the sick people” was a worthy conservative cause. “This is the right thing to do,” Cantor said. “We’re trying to find solutions here.”

Conservatives rebel

On numerous occasions during the last Congress, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has tried to muscle legislation through the House with just Republican votes, only to see a couple of dozen conservatives rebel, some fearful of retribution from outside groups that specialize in financing primary challenges in safe GOP districts.

Unlike those previous battles, this one measured the clout not of Boehner but of his lieutenants. Cantor, 49, and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, 48, have often been described as tea party leaders in Congress, part of the younger GOP generation that recruited the rabble-rousing class of 2010 that thrust Republicans into the majority.

Increasingly, however, conservative activists have signaled uneasy relations with the younger leaders. In January, they opposed a relief bill for communities hit by Hurricane Sandy, which Cantor had pushed, and the resulting passage of the measure was a legislative victory but a political embarrassment.

Cantor and McCarthy (Calif.), who wrote the book “Young Guns” together, supported the bill, but only 49 Republicans voted yes, while 179 opposed the measure. It passed because 192 Democrats backed it. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who co-authored the book, also voted no.

Article source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/c/34656/f/636635/s/2b1ed297/l/0L0Swashingtonpost0N0Cpolitics0Chouse0Egop0Eleadership0Eyoung0Eguns0Enear0Eshowdown0Eon0Ehealth0Evote0C20A130C0A40C240Cc0Afbfa50A0Eab90A0E11e20Eb6fd0Eba6f5f26d70Ae0Istory0Bhtml0Dwprss0Frss0Inational/story01.htm

Surveys showed that the public had tired of the party of “no” as House Republicans fought President Obama. The party lost its opportunity to win the White House or take control of the Senate last fall, and saw its House majority shrink.

Cantor’s approach echoed the “compassionate conservatism” of an earlier Republican era. In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, he said the House majority would “pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families.”

• Also

• 

  Republican lawmakers show their division on immigration reform

• 

  McManus: The GOP’s tactical retreat

• 

  Cantor signals shift on immigration as he lays out GOP agenda

That ambitious goal ran smack into political reality Wednesday as conservative lawmakers rejected a Republican bill to help Americans with preexisting health conditions gain access to insurance coverage.

Republican leaders had to abruptly yank the bill from consideration because they did not have enough votes from their rank and file to pass it. The episode was another example of the difficulty the Republican Party faces in corralling its unruly majority and finding a common message to attract voters.

Although rebellious lawmakers have bucked their leaders at crucial moments, this was the first time they had rejected part of Cantor’s effort to rebrand the party.

“We’re going to continue to work the bill,” Cantor spokesman Doug Heye said. “We had positive conversations today and made good progress.”

The legislation, which Cantor and other Republican leaders backed, was a classic Washington maneuver — just the kind of compromise that Republican newcomers in the House have repeatedly rejected.

Unable to overturn the president’s healthcare law, as many Republicans wanted, GOP leaders countered with a bill that would redirect money from the health law to help fund a national high-risk insurance pool, an effort Republicans have supported on the state level.

But the bill drew mixed reviews from conservative groups.

FreedomWorks, a tea party umbrella group, welcomed it as “a tactical maneuver in a larger war, cannibalizing the implementation of Obamacare exchanges in order to gain leverage in the larger fight for healthcare freedom.”

On the other side, the Club for Growth warned against taking from one government program to start another. The club, especially feared for its war chest that finances challengers in primaries, urged a “no” vote.

Conservative lawmakers lined up against it. Last-minute attempts to amend the bill helped, but not enough, aides said. Democrats mostly opposed the bill, and the White House threatened a veto.

The bill’s stumble came as many Republican lawmakers were headed to Dallas to attend Thursday’s dedication of the presidential library and museum of George W. Bush, one of the last GOP proponents of “compassionate conservatism.”

Republican leaders had little choice but to pull the bill from consideration and try again in May, after lawmakers return from a weeklong recess.

Cantor, when asked about the bill’s prospects earlier in the day, balanced the party’s “making life work” approach with its hard-charging spirit.

“We’re trying to find solutions here,” he said. “We don’t believe in Obamacare, and we want to stop Obamacare.”

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-house-gop-20130425,0,3786225.story?track=rss

House Republican leadership abruptly pulled a health care bill from the floor after concerns from conservatives that it extended President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The legislation, which was championed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, had opposition from all corners of the conservative universe.

Continue Reading

It’s a blow to the Virginia Republican, who touted the “Helping Sick Americans Now Act” and visited the Republican Study Committee meeting Wednesday to try to move votes.

(PHOTOS: The eight GOP governors who said yes to Medicaid expansion)

The legislation attempts to transfer money from what Republicans call a “slush fund” — it’s actually a preventative disease account — to create high-risk pools for sick Americans. The Obama administration said Tuesday the president would likely veto the bill.

“We had good conversations with our members and made a lot of solid progress,” said Erica Elliott, a spokesman for Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). “There’s still work to do and with members leaving town for the Bush Library dedication in Texas, we’ll continue the conversations after the district work period.”

Things were not running smoothly in GOP leadership. Cantor announced a vote on this legislation last Thursday, well before GOP leadership surveyed its members to see if the bill had enough support, according to Republicans involved in the process. That process took place during Tuesday evening’s vote series.

Regardless of the content in the bill, Republicans were behind the eight ball this week. More than one dozen lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, are headed to Dallas for the opening of George W. Bush’s presidential library.

The Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation and tea party groups have urged Republican lawmakers to oppose the bill, which was authored by GOP Reps. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, Michael Burgess of Texas and Ann Wagner of Missouri. Club for Growth said it would include this vote in its annual rating of members of Congress.

Brent Bozell, a tea party leader, dubbed the bill “CantorCare” in a news release Tuesday.

Republican lawmakers privately fretted that the bill would bolster Obamacare, which the GOP has long tried to dismantle.

Cantor, speaking at a Capitol press conference, said his party’s ability to pass legislation is “the whip’s purview,” referring to McCarthy.

“We are forging ahead,” Cantor said, adding that “we don’t believe in Obamacare” — an attempt to beat back on the idea that this legislation expands the program.

When asked if Republicans can pass the legislation, McCarthy said “every time you ask this question, I’ll give you the same answer: the first rule of Fight Club, we don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Several House Republicans told reporters Wednesday morning that they were opposed to the measure. Among the lawmakers who said they would vote “no”on the bill or were leaning against it included Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, Justin Amash of Michigan, Trey Radel of Florida, and Raul Labrador of Idaho.

Another, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), said he wanted to wait and see how the bill was amended but said he was “uncomfortable” that the legislation hadn’t gone through regular order.

“It’s pretty simple. We’re shifting money from one part of Obamacare we don’t support to another part of Obamacare we don’t support,” Amash said during a panel led by conservative House Republicans on Wednesday. “That’s a nonstarter for me.”

And Republican leadership can’t count on cover from House Democrats, who reiterated Wednesday morning that they were united against the bill.

Seung-Min Kim contributed to this report.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/gop-may-pull-contentious-obamacare-bill-90561.html

WASHINGTON — Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, has been trying for months to remake the image of the Republican Party, from one of uncompromising conservatism to something kinder and gentler.

It isn’t working so well.

On Wednesday, Republican leaders abruptly shelved one of the centerpieces of Mr. Cantor’s “Making Life Work” agenda — a bill to extend insurance coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions — in the face of a conservative revolt. Last month, legislation to streamline worker retraining programs barely squeaked through. In May, Republican leaders will try again with legislation, pitched as family-friendly, to allow employers to offer comp time or “flex time” instead of overtime. But it has little prospect for Senate passage.

So it has gone. Items that Mr. Cantor had hoped would change the Republican Party’s look, if not its priorities, have been ignored, have been greeted with yawns or have only worsened Republican divisions.

“We need to look at these issues through a more human lens and realize government has a role here, especially on some of these pocketbook issues,” said Representative Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, who expressed frustration with the lock-step opposition of the House’s fiercest conservatives. “Have we been successful? No. We’re still trying to find our way.”

The debacle on Wednesday was the worst moment yet. The Helping Sick Americans Now Act sounded like solid middle ground — a measure to actually expand the part of President Obama’s health care law that created a federal “high-risk pool” in which people with pre-existing conditions could band together to buy subsidized insurance coverage. The provision was to be paid for by siphoning money from another part of Mr. Obama’s health care law, the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

But these days, those who linger in the middle of the road end up flattened. The White House issued a stern veto threat to keep the money in the fund, which chased away Democratic votes from the Helping Sick Americans Now Act. The Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee, warned that Republicans who voted in favor of the act would have their scorecards marked down for supporting part of the health care law. L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist, labeled the bill “Cantorcare” — and not as a compliment.

“We often say we don’t need this Democrat big-government program, we need this Republican big-government program,” said Representative Trey Radel, Republican of Florida. “It’s time to say enough is enough.”

In the end, the votes were not there — not even close, House vote counters conceded.

“We absolutely intend to bring this legislation back up,” said Doug Heye, a spokesman for Mr. Cantor.

When Mr. Cantor delivered a “Making Life Work” speech at the American Enterprise Institute in February, his message to his party was urgent and well received. The party, he said, needs to get beyond its single-minded, green-eyeshaded message of fiscal austerity and look to the problems of ordinary struggling Americans. Education, work-force training, health care and medical research have to augment the central issue of fiscal discipline and balanced budgets, he said.

“It was meaningful and good advice to all of us,” said Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania. “I wish more of our members would have heeded it.”

The decision to call off the vote on the health care bill on Wednesday — a rare occurrence in the House — set off a round of recriminations. Some Republicans complained that Mr. Cantor had not vetted his proposals before presenting them publicly as the party’s salvation, then forcing them to the House floor. Others said a large core of the House Republican conference had simply proved unwilling to move beyond the austerity message.

The Republicans’ embrace of such austerity was evident as the House Ways and Means Committee was drafting a bill on Wednesday to ensure that the federal government’s creditors would be the first paid with incoming tax revenues, should Congress refuse this summer to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/us/politics/majority-leaders-quest-to-soften-gops-image-hits-wall.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Hoping to show support for the most needy in the health system, Republicans instead ran into another battle with right-leaning groups that have served as steady agitators for a pure conservative approach. Led by the Club for Growth, the groups are urging rank-and-file Republicans to buck their leadership and oppose the bill as a costly boondoggle that does not dismantle the health-care law.

“Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing Obamacare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive,” Andy Roth, a senior Club for Growth adviser, wrote to lawmakers last week.

Heritage Action, the political outfit of the conservative foundation, has also joined in the opposition to the health legislation. No Democrats supported the bill as it emerged from the House Energy and Commerce Committee because the $3 billion tab is paid for by revoking funds from a different piece of the health-care law. That means GOP leaders will need to wrangle almost every vote from their side of the aisle to pass the measure.

This has left House GOP leaders scrambling to secure votes in a manner eerily reminiscent of past failures since seizing the majority in 2011. Cantor and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the top vote counter, declined to predict victory at a Wednesday morning news briefing.

“This is the right thing to do,” Cantor said, suggesting that “helping the sick people” was a conservative goal. “We’re trying to find solutions here.”

Cantor’s aides have been aggressively promoting conservative outfits that have supported the measure, such as the Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board praised financing this effort by revoking money from a prevention fund reviled by conservatives.

Conservatives rebel

On numerous occasions, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has tried to muscle through legislation with all Republican votes, only to see a couple dozen conservatives rebel, fearful of retribution from outside groups that specialize in financing primary challenges in safe GOP districts.

Unlike those previous battles testing Boehner’s power, this fight measures the clout of his lieutenants. Cantor, 49, and McCarthy, 48, have often been described as tea party leaders in Congress, part of the younger GOP generation that recruited the rabble-rousing class of 2010 that thrust Republicans into the majority.

Increasingly, however, the Club for Growth and others have signaled uneasy relations with the younger leaders. In January, they opposed a relief bill for communities hit by Hurricane Sandy, which Cantor had pushed, and the resulting passage of the measure was a legislative victory but a political embarrassment.

Article source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/c/34656/f/645348/s/2b20561d/l/0L0Swashingtonpost0N0Cpolitics0Chouse0Egop0Eleadership0Eyoung0Eguns0Enear0Eshowdown0Eon0Ehealth0Evote0C20A130C0A40C240Cc0Afbfa50A0Eab90A0E11e20Eb6fd0Eba6f5f26d70Ae0Istory0Bhtml0Dwprss0Frss0Ihomepage/story01.htm

House Republican leadership abruptly pulled a health care bill from the floor after concerns from conservatives that it extended President Barack Obama’s health care law.

The legislation, which was championed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, had opposition from all corners of the conservative universe.

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It’s a blow to the Virginia Republican, who touted the “Helping Sick Americans Now Act” and visited the Republican Study Committee meeting Wednesday to try to move votes.

(PHOTOS: The eight GOP governors who said yes to Medicaid expansion)

The legislation attempts to transfer money from what Republicans call a “slush fund” — it’s actually a preventative disease account — to create high-risk pools for sick Americans. The Obama administration said Tuesday the president would likely veto the bill.

“We had good conversations with our members and made a lot of solid progress,” said Erica Elliott, a spokesman for Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). “There’s still work to do and with members leaving town for the Bush Library dedication in Texas, we’ll continue the conversations after the district work period.”

Things were not running smoothly in GOP leadership. Cantor announced a vote on this legislation last Thursday, well before GOP leadership surveyed its members to see if the bill had enough support, according to Republicans involved in the process. That process took place during Tuesday evening’s vote series.

Regardless of the content in the bill, Republicans were behind the eight ball this week. More than one dozen lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, are headed to Dallas for the opening of George W. Bush’s presidential library.

The Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation and tea party groups have urged Republican lawmakers to oppose the bill, which was authored by GOP Reps. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, Michael Burgess of Texas and Ann Wagner of Missouri. Club for Growth said it would include this vote in its annual rating of members of Congress.

Brent Bozell, a tea party leader, dubbed the bill “CantorCare” in a news release Tuesday.

Republican lawmakers privately fretted that the bill would bolster Obamacare, which the GOP has long tried to dismantle.

Cantor, speaking at a Capitol press conference, said his party’s ability to pass legislation is “the whip’s purview,” referring to McCarthy.

“We are forging ahead,” Cantor said, adding that “we don’t believe in Obamacare” — an attempt to beat back on the idea that this legislation expands the program.

When asked if Republicans can pass the legislation, McCarthy said “every time you ask this question, I’ll give you the same answer: the first rule of Fight Club, we don’t talk about Fight Club.”

Several House Republicans told reporters Wednesday morning that they were opposed to the measure. Among the lawmakers who said they would vote “no”on the bill or were leaning against it included Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, Justin Amash of Michigan, Trey Radel of Florida, and Raul Labrador of Idaho.

Another, Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), said he wanted to wait and see how the bill was amended but said he was “uncomfortable” that the legislation hadn’t gone through regular order.

“It’s pretty simple. We’re shifting money from one part of Obamacare we don’t support to another part of Obamacare we don’t support,” Amash said during a panel led by conservative House Republicans on Wednesday. “That’s a nonstarter for me.”

And Republican leadership can’t count on cover from House Democrats, who reiterated Wednesday morning that they were united against the bill.

Seung-Min Kim contributed to this report.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/gop-may-pull-contentious-obamacare-bill-90561.html

By
Emma Koch

Credit: WDAF-TV

Eric Cantor Speaks At Lincoln Day Dinner (PHOTOS)

April 22, 2013

Updated Apr 23, 2013 at 10:46 AM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) — House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R), served as keynote speaker at Monday night’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

It’s an annual event to raise money for the local party and to get republicans from all levels of government together.

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Cantor spoke on issues of immigration, gun control and unemployment.

The event was sold out.

Congressman Marlin Stutzman was also in attendance.

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Emma Koch

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Eric Cantor To Speak At Lincoln Day Dinner

April 22, 2013

Updated Apr 22, 2013 at 3:18 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) — House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R), will serve as keynote speaker at Monday night’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

It’s an annual event to raise money for the local party and to get republicans from all levels of government together.

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The event is sold out.

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By
Emma Koch

Credit: WDAF-TV

Eric Cantor To Speak At Lincoln Day Dinner

April 22, 2013

Updated Apr 22, 2013 at 3:18 PM EDT

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (www.incnow.tv) — House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R), will serve as keynote speaker at Monday night’s Lincoln Day Dinner.

It’s an annual event to raise money for the local party and to get republicans from all levels of government together.

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The event is sold out.

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The conservative Club for Growth is ignoring House GOP leadership and urging members to vote down a bill that would pump $4 billion into ObamaCare’s temporary insurance program.

The group’s vice president of government affairs, Andy Roth, wrote to lawmakers Thursday saying the bill from Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) would “further extend the federal government’s role in healthcare.”

“The Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP) is a program that even President Obama found to be too expensive,” Roth wrote, promising to score next week’s vote.

“Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing ObamaCare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive.”

GOP leaders have fast-tracked Pitts’s bill, H.R. 1549, calling it a major component of their spring agenda.

The measure would use funds from the Affordable Care Act’s public and preventive health efforts to reopen enrollment in the PCIP, a struggling program designed to cover vulnerable patients until 2014.

The effort marks the first time Republicans have tried to fix healthcare reform rather than repeal, dismantle or defund it.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Thursday that while the GOP remains committed to “full repeal,” the Pitts bill will aid “America’s most vulnerable patients.”

He blamed the Obama administration for closing PCIP enrollment earlier this year due to cost concerns.

“Two months ago, the Obama administration abruptly announced the end of enrollment … leaving thousands of Americans with pre-existing conditions without access to health insurance,” Cantor said.

The GOP bill would extend enrollment in the PCIP through next year, when healthcare reform’s major provisions take effect.

Starting Jan. 1, insurance companies can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, eliminating the need for high-risk pools.

Roth, with the Club for Growth, claimed Thursday that Pitts’s measure would do “nothing to lower healthcare costs.”

“If high-risk pools need to be established, they should be created and maintained at the state level with no interference from the federal government,” he wrote to lawmakers.

In a surprise move, prominent Tea Party group FreedomWorks backed Cantor Thursday and called the bill’s critics “misguided.”

“H.R. 1549 gets ObamaCare opponents back on offense on the most important political issue of our time, healthcare,” wrote FreedomWorks vice president of healthcare policy Dean Clancy in a blog post.

He added that the bill “gives the House a chance to talk about pre-ex pools,” an important issue for the GOP.

“Sometimes cliches bear repeating: You can’t beat something with nothing,” Clancy wrote. “You have to say what you’re for. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”

Pitts’s bill was introduced Monday and passed the Energy and Commerce Committee in a 27-20 vote on Wednesday. The vote split on party lines.

—This post was last updated at 3:03 p.m. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Andy Roth.

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Article source: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/294797-club-for-growth-cantor-at-odds-over-obamacare-bill

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will add some bipartisan balance to the MPAA and Microsoft’s Creativity Conference on April 26, a D.C. event that will feature a keynote by former President Bill Clinton.

The event, to be held the day before the White House Correspondents Assn. dinner, is co-sponsored by Time. The orgs released a list of other participants in the event at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, including “Beasts of the Southern Wild” director Benh Zeitlin, Monumental Sports and Entertainment’s Ted Leonsis, New York Times’ Frank Bruni, Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson and Time managing editor Richard Stengel, among others. Previously announced participants also include Harvey Weinstein and MPAA chairman Chris Dodd.

The purpose of the event is to highlight “the critical intersection between technology and the arts,” but it also comes as Dodd and other show biz trade associations acknowledge that a key component to fighting piracy will be voluntary agreements, perhaps instead of new legislation.

Article source: http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/eric-cantor-to-appear-at-mpaa-microsoft-creativity-conference-1200390967/

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So Brad Pitt was in town — and we had to hear about it from Eric Cantor? The House majority leader casually tweeted a photo of himself Friday night with the movie star, who dropped in to handle celebrity duties at the Horatio Alger Association awards gala at Constitution Hall.

Cantor tweeted Friday: “At Horatio Alger Association dinner with my wife Diana and Brad Pitt. Celebrating pursuit of the American dream.” (Office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor)

The annual event, which celebrates up-by-their-bootstraps success, has a knack for stealthily bringing in stars with little media spotlight — Rob Lowe, Tom Selleck and Oprah Winfrey, in recent years. But now there’s social media. According to photos shared online by guests, Pitt was sporting longish hair, a gray-tinged beard, and a slightly floppy black tie.

More Reliable Source: Joe Biden at Opera Ball; Beyonce in Cuba; Kyle Richards; Roger Ebert; David Stockman

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/04/06/brad-pitt-hangs-out-with-eric-cantor-at-horatio-alger-awards/

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So Brad Pitt was in town — and we had to hear about it from Eric Cantor? The House majority leader casually tweeted a photo of himself Friday night with the movie star, who dropped in to handle celebrity duties at the Horatio Alger Association awards gala at Constitution Hall.

Cantor tweeted Friday: “At Horatio Alger Association dinner with my wife Diana and Brad Pitt. Celebrating pursuit of the American dream.” (Office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor)

The annual event, which celebrates up-by-their-bootstraps success, has a knack for stealthily bringing in stars with little media spotlight — Rob Lowe, Tom Selleck and Oprah Winfrey, in recent years. But now there’s social media. According to photos shared online by guests, Pitt was sporting longish hair, a gray-tinged beard, and a slightly floppy black tie.

More Reliable Source: Joe Biden at Opera Ball; Beyonce in Cuba; Kyle Richards; Roger Ebert; David Stockman

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/04/06/brad-pitt-hangs-out-with-eric-cantor-at-horatio-alger-awards/

It has been revealed in a recent report that President Barack Obama’s nominee is to be introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor so as to run the Medicare and Medicaid agencies.

The report finds that Carton has known Marilyn Tavenner since when he was in the state Legislature and Tavenner was in Virginia. The nominee would be introduced at Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday. The aim is to consider her nomination.

It is being said that the nomination is a bipartisan encouragement indicating that Tavenner is probably on course for confirmation.

According to Cantor, Marilyn Tavenner is eminently qualified and could be the best administrator for the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services. He had earlier said that Tavenner had vast knowledge regarding the health care system’s complexities.

Also, it was her who worked out some effective solutions actually. She has been a nurse and a health system administrator, which contributes for her experience. “With Marilyn, we can work together to bring much needed reform to Medicare and Medicaid and save them for those seniors and working families that rely on these programs”, Cantor affirmed in February.

Cantor himself cannot vote for her, the report said. But, his support could influence Senate Republicans, which may gather votes for her confirmation.

Article source: http://topnews.us/content/254442-eric-cantor-strongly-supporting-marilyn-tavenner

(House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) speaks at the American Enterprise Institute, on February 5, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images))

On Thursday morning, the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing regarding the innocuously titled Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, which would allow workers to choose between receiving overtime pay or additional time off in exchange for extra hours on the job. While supporters of the legislation say it would give employees the freedom to decide on their own how to use their overtime, critics argue that the power would really be in the hands of the boss.

“This legislation is based on smoke and mirrors,” said National Partnership for Women and Families senior adviser Judith Lichtman in her testimony before the committee. “It pretends to offer the time off people need, when they need it, but in fact, it is a pay cut for workers without any attendant guarantee of time.”

Speaking to MSNBC.com later that day, she described the legislation as an “Employers Flexibility Bill.”

“It’s the employer that gets to decide when and under what circumstances you can take this comp time,” she said. She also expressed concern that employers could pressure employees into taking comp time rather than pay. These employers could then also decide who to give overtime hours on the basis of who they would have to grant overtime pay or comp time.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)—a human resources trade group with executives from Burger King, Yahoo!, and other major companies sitting on its board—argues that the employees would welcome increased flexibility.

“There is no doubt that employees today are juggling ever more responsibilities between work and home, which is why many employees are requesting more flexibility at work,” said SHRM member Juanita Phillips in her own testimony to the subcommittee. The Working Families Flexibility Act “meets the needs of both employees and employers.”

While SHRM champions “flexibility” as a boon to workers and managers alike, some worker rights activists are wary of the term. “The business community always wants to have more flexibility in how to schedule workers,” said Sherry Leiwant, co-president of the progressive legal center A Better Balance. Instead of flexibility in scheduling, Leiwant’s organization advocates for legislation such as mandated paid sick leave.

Besides SHRM, one top-ranking congressional Republican has acted as an advocate on behalf of the Working Families Flexibility Act. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, though not a sponsor of the bill, alluded to it in a February speech intended to “repackage conservative principles through a familial lens.”

“Federal laws dating back to the 1930s make it harder for parents who hold hourly jobs to balance the demands of work and home,” he said, apparently referring to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act which guaranteed paid overtime. “An hourly employee cannot convert previous overtime into future comp-time or flex-time. In 1985, Congress passed a law that gave state and municipal employees this flexibility, but today still denies that same privilege to the entire private sector.”

The day before the subcommittee hearing, he reiterated his report in a statement, saying, “This is the kind of common sense legislation that we should all be able to support and will make life work for more families.”

The Working Families Flexibility Act was first proposed in 1997. At the time, future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a “cruel hoax on the American family.”

Tune into MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes tonight at 8 p.m. EST to hear Chris Hayes’ take on the bill.

Article source: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/11/overtime-pay-or-comp-time-will-house-bill-benefit-workers-or-their-bosses/

The Obama administration assumed that, after the election, House Republicans would have to deal. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts and sequestration, with its large and across-the-board cuts to defense, would put Republicans in a position where it would be ideologically advantageous to negotiate a deal. But they have steadfastly refused. Obama tried to get a big budget deal in November and December, wrapping up taxes and spending together. Republicans wouldn’t bite. Instead they fought to limit the tax hike to the smallest acceptable amount and didn’t negotiate for spending cuts. After that, they swore off negotiations — or, as they put it, “back-room deals,” as if there is some other way to negotiate.

Article source: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/siren-eric-cantor-will-consider-higher-taxes.html

Listen up, working moms and dads: Rep. Eric Cantor has a deal for you — more time to spend with your family! What’s not to like?

Except for one hitch: You get to spend more time with your family only after you’ve been forced to spend more time at work away from your family. And your boss gets to decide when you take that extra time you’ve earned.

After some reflection on why women have deserted the Republican Party, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gave a speech laying out the GOP plan to “Make Life Work” for working families.

Enter the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, sponsored by Rep. Cantor and his Tea Party colleague Rep. Martha Roby. Instead of being paid time-and-a-half for overtime, workers may be offered comp time — a paid hour and a half off in the future in exchange for an extra hour on the job this week.

Need to go to your kid’s school play? Take your dad to the doctor? Heck, you could even save time for when the baby is born. Whatever you like.

Here’s the problem: the boss may decide that the slot you requested could “unduly disrupt” the business, reject your request, and tell you to take the time when work is slow. The comp time you are allowed to use may not coincide with your kid’s play, your dad’s cholesterol check or the baby’s arrival — but hey, we can all be a little flexible, right?

Also, those who need overtime to pay the bills are likely to be passed over when the overtime shifts are assigned; for them this bill represents a pay cut. Supervisors may well prefer co-workers who say they’re fine with comp time instead.

Workers already have a working families flexibility bill — it’s called the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed 65 years ago. Because workers had been burdened by inordinate work hours, the new law put a 40-hour-a-week limit on how much employers can require employees to work and a price on additional hours. That created a disincentive for employers to force workers to spend more time away from their families.

This new Cantor/Roby bill does nothing to address mandatory overtime. By making it possible for employers not to pay for overtime and offer comp time at an unspecified future date convenient for the employer, this bill provides an incentive to require long hours on the job.

Right now, there’s nothing stopping employers from letting employees rearrange their schedules to fit in a school play or doctor’s appointment. It’s standard practice at many firms.

And those who work a lot of overtime and don’t need more money can take unpaid days off. That, too, is an option now.

This bill may declare that employees, not employers, can choose whether or not to take comp time or pay, but it ignores the reality that most workers have no control over their hours or working conditions. Violations by employers of wage and hour laws are rampant, and many unscrupulous employers take advantage of a weak economy in which workers fear for their jobs if they speak up.

In many cases, employees will work extra hours and accrue comp time they will never be paid because employers will declare bankruptcy or go out of business.

During the debates in the 1990s on this issue, the corporate-funded National Federation of Independent Businesses promoted the idea of comp time because it gave them “something… [to] offer in exchange” for getting overtime hours. Put simply, comp time as envisioned here gives the employer more control over scheduling and the employee less money to earn. Rep. Cantor saying his plan is meant to help working families does not make it so.

Want to make life work? Ensure people don’t have to work extra hours to cover the basics or care for their families by:
• guaranteeing they can earn paid sick days.
• making family and medical leave more accessible and affordable.
• fixing the minimum wage to adjust for lost value and index it to inflation. (If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be $10.56 per hour.)
• guaranteeing minimum hours and predictable schedules, so that millions of workers can earn enough and plan their family time.
• passing equal pay measures.
• removing barriers to collective bargaining.

Workers desperately want more time with their families, more control over their hours, and fair compensation. The Cantor/Roby bill would make it harder for them to have any of the above.

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-bravo/eric-cantor-budget_b_3047895.html

Senators are planning to grill Marilyn Tavenner, the Obama administration’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services, but Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., has said she is “eminently qualified,” and her confirmation is expected.

Politico: Eric Cantor Could Sway GOP For Marilyn Tavenner
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will introduce President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the Medicare and Medicaid agencies at Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider her nomination -; a bipartisan boost that signals that she’s likely on course for confirmation. Cantor, who has known Marilyn Tavenner since he was in the state Legislature and she worked in Virginia, has called her “eminently qualified” to be administrator at the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services. That job also encompasses a lot of the implementation of the health care law (Haberkorn, 4/9).

Article source: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130410/House-GOP-leader-to-introduce-Tavenner-at-nomination-hearing.aspx

Epigenomics said this week that it has appointed its Chief Operating Officer Uwe Staub to serve on the company’s executive board. Staub has been with Epigenomics since 2008, and his portfolio has including product development, RD, medical and regulatory affairs, customer support, and manufacturing. He also previously held posts at Abbott Diagnostics, Digene, and Qiagen.

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Jon Lorsch will be the new director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, according to the National Institutes of Health. He currently is a professor in the Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. Lorsch, who is to take up the post in the summer, replaces Jeremy Berg, who stepped down as NIGMS head in June of 2011; Judith Greenberg has been serving as the interim director. The position had been offered to, and accepted by, Chris Kaiser from MIT, but he later declined the post for personal reasons.

Article source: http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/taxpayer-campaign-bucks-autism

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will introduce President Barack Obama’s nominee to run the Medicare and Medicaid agencies at Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing to consider her nomination — a bipartisan boost that signals that she’s likely on course for confirmation.

Cantor, who has known Marilyn Tavenner since he was in the state Legislature and she worked in Virginia, has called her “eminently qualified” to be administrator at the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services. That job also encompasses a lot of the implementation of the health care law.

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“She was an individual with a wealth of knowledge about the complexities of the health care system, and she came forward with solutions that actually made sense. Her experience is drawn from her time as a nurse and as a health system administrator,” he said in February. “I am convinced that with Marilyn, we can work together to bring much needed reform to Medicare and Medicaid and save them for those seniors and working families that rely on these programs.”

While Cantor cannot vote for her, the Republican majority leader’s strong support could help sway Senate Republicans to vote for her confirmation.

Before joining CMS, Tavenner was the secretary of Health and Human Resources in Virginia during former Gov. and now-Sen. Tim Kaine’s administration. But before that, she spent 25 years working at the Hospital Corp. of America, rising to the position of group president of outpatient services.

Tavenner was nominated to the Medicare post in November 2011. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in 2012 that he wasn’t going to hold a hearing because he anticipated Republican opposition to Tavenner’s confirmation. But so far, Republicans have not vocally opposed her.

She would be the first CMS chief to be confirmed since Republican Mark McClellan got Senate approval in 2004. He stepped down in 2006, and the agency has had various interim and acting chiefs since then. Tavenner has been acting administrator since November 2011, when her predecessor, Don Berwick — himself a recess appointee in President Barack Obama’s first term — stepped down.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/eric-cantor-could-sway-gop-for-marilyn-tavenner-89777.html

House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor called for improvements to the American education system in an address at the Institute of Politics Monday evening.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” Cantor said, advocating for the charter school concept.

But the news of the night came as a protest staged by a campaign led by the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition interrupted Cantor’s appearance. After the group refused requests by Institute of Politics moderator C. M. Trey Grayson ’94 to return to their seats and cease their chorus of, “Lift the ban”, they were escorted out of the forum by security personnel.

Coalition members, who were not forcibly removed, primarily protested Cantor’s support for a two-year-old ban on federal funding of a needle exchange program that allows drug users to trade in dirty needles for new ones, thus preventing the spread of blood-borne diseases like HIV.

When asked whether he would vote to lift the appropriations ban if it is brought back before Congress on March 27, Cantor said, “No, I won’t.”

To this, protesters replied, “Shame on you!” and began their chant of, “Lift the ban!”

The coalition was participating in a campaign with Harvard Medical School students and members of local AIDS awareness group ACTUP/Boston.

The protest launched when coalition member Darshali A. Vyas ’14 made the first statement of the post-speech discussion, asking fellow campaigners to stand up with her. After the delegation had risen, Vyas recounted Cantor’s last visit to the IOP, which the group also protested.

During that visit, Cantor stated that the government did not have the money to fund certain AIDS research and treatment funding.

Vyas said that after being escorted out, she and fellow demonstrators “chanted in front of the window until [HUPD] asked us to stop” and told them to move away from the Kennedy School’s Littauer Building.

Indoors, Cantor continued to participate in the question and answer session, remarking that “As far as the activists who just left, it wouldn’t be Harvard without that.”

Cantor’s address, which preceded the protest, focused primarily on federal spending cuts and the importance of medical advancements, something he said would be aided by improvements to the American education system.

Cantor also discussed the need to fix the higher education system, saying that this issue was at the center of his conversation with University President Drew G. Faust earlier Monday morning.

In addition to discussing general goals for the country during his speech, Cantor also stated his positions on a number of contentious political issues currently plaguing leaders in Washington. He stressed that mental health care reform deserves prominent attention in the gun control debate that has developed since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, pointing to Virginia’s response to the 2007 shooting at Virginia Technical University. After the shooting, the state mandated updates to its mental health databases, thus improving the gun-buyer background check system.

—Staff writer Steven R. Watros can be reached at watros@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @SteveWatros.

Article source: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/3/12/protest-cantor-aids-address/

The prospects for U.S. economic growth are “still too little” and “too uncertain,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told CNBC on Friday.

“Europe is not in good shape,” Cantor pointed out in a “Squawk Box” interview, but despite the problems the U.S. is facing “we still look to many investors, and many folks looking to allocate capital, like the place that is at least the best of the worst.”

He noted, however: “We’ve got to play to win here.”

“We can’t just sit on the fact that we’re America and we are always going to be the best,” Cantor said. “We’ve got to go compete.”

(Read More: US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%)

The Virginia Republican stressed the need to create an environment in which businesses and investors can thrive by “making it so people with capital say, ‘Hey, it is a good time to take the risk.’”

Cantor asserted, however, that while the GOP is working hard to reform the tax system, President Barack Obama continues to press for higher taxes.

“Given the way you score things in Washington, every time you want more static revenue it’s hard to bring rates down to compete,” he said.

(Read More: Wealthy Beware! IRS Audit Squad Nabs One in Eight)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100618953

The prospects for U.S. economic growth are “still too little” and “too uncertain,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told CNBC on Friday.

“Europe is not in good shape,” Cantor pointed out in a “Squawk Box” interview, but despite the problems the U.S. is facing “we still look to many investors, and many folks looking to allocate capital, like the place that is at least the best of the worst.”

He noted, however: “We’ve got to play to win here.”

“We can’t just sit on the fact that we’re America and we are always going to be the best,” Cantor said. “We’ve got to go compete.”

(Read More: US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%)

The Virginia Republican stressed the need to create an environment in which businesses and investors can thrive by “making it so people with capital say, ‘Hey, it is a good time to take the risk.’”

Cantor asserted, however, that while the GOP is working hard to reform the tax system, President Barack Obama continues to press for higher taxes.

“Given the way you score things in Washington, every time you want more static revenue it’s hard to bring rates down to compete,” he said.

(Read More: Wealthy Beware! IRS Audit Squad Nabs One in Eight)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100618953?__source=yahoonews&par=yahoonews

Actor Brad Pitt is no Sean Penn.

The two may pull the same Democrat-friendly lever when they enter the voting booth, but Pitt’s brand of celebrity politics is far less incendiary.

The latest proof? Pitt posed for a picture with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently while attending the Horatio Alger Association dinner. The Republican even tweeted out the snapshot above this post to confirm the meeting.

One question–couldn’t Pitt manage even a half smile while standing next to a GOP darling? The star of the upcoming World War Z looks like he’s seen a ghost–or a zombie, to be precise.

Article source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2013/04/08/cantor-pitt-photo-opp

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So Brad Pitt was in town — and we had to hear about it from Eric Cantor? The House majority leader casually tweeted a photo of himself Friday night with the movie star, who dropped in to handle celebrity duties at the Horatio Alger Association awards gala at Constitution Hall.

Cantor tweeted Friday: “At Horatio Alger Association dinner with my wife Diana and Brad Pitt. Celebrating pursuit of the American dream.” (Office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor)

The annual event, which celebrates up-by-their-bootstraps success, has a knack for stealthily bringing in stars with little media spotlight — Rob Lowe, Tom Selleck and Oprah Winfrey, in recent years. But now there’s social media. According to photos shared online by guests, Pitt was sporting longish hair, a gray-tinged beard, and a slightly floppy black tie.

More Reliable Source

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/04/06/brad-pitt-hangs-out-with-eric-cantor-at-horatio-alger-awards/

A conservative gun rights group is going after three congressmen with “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association by falsely claiming they support President Obama’s gun control agenda.

• TV ads attacking Virginia Republicans Eric Cantor and Scott Rigell and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin falsely accuse the three congressmen of supporting a federal gun registry. They have expressed varying degrees of support for enhanced background checks, but none has supported a federal gun registry. Nor is such a registry even being proposed.
• A claim that Rigell and Manchin support Obama’s gun agenda is false. Neither has backed the most controversial part of Obama’s plan: banning assault weapons and large capacity magazines.

The National Association for Gun Rights, which takes a more conservative line on gun rights than the NRA, has spent $50,000 on TV and radio ads attacking the gun rights bona fides of three legislators who have enjoyed the backing of the NRA. At the end of each ad, the politicians’ faces morph into Obama’s to drive home the bogus claim that they are pushing the president’s gun control agenda.

Obama’s gun control plan would require criminal background checks for all gun sales, including private sales, and would ban certain military-style, semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines. Although political momentum for an assault weapons ban appears to be waning, Obama has not wavered from that goal. In a speech in Denver on April 3, Obama reiterated his pledge to “keep weapons of war and high-capacity ammunition magazines that facilitate mass killings off our streets.” He also repeated his call for universal and beefed-up background checks.

That is far different from the public positions adopted by the three legislators targeted by the NAGR ads.

The NAGR’s ad campaign has garnered news attention recently because Rigell questioned the group’s association with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has lent his name to the group’s fundraising efforts. Paul, a Republican, denied he has any role in setting the group’s agenda, but he refused to repudiate the group.

No ‘Federal Database Registration System’

All three ads accuse the congressmen of supporting a plan to create a federal database registration system. That’s not true. As we have written before, current law bars the FBI from retaining records on those who pass background checks, and nothing in the president’s plan — nor those proposed by the congressmen — would change that.

Rigell took to the radio airwaves to contest the NAGR ad, and told Politico the claim that he is supporting the creation of a national database of firearm owners is “an egregious lie, and completely unfounded.”

Some gun rights groups make a “slippery slope” argument that background checks could lead to a federal gun registry, but that’s simply not part of any of the plans being considered in Congress.

The FBI is required to destroy any records generated by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System — which was created as a result of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993. The law strictly prohibits the “registration of firearms, firearm owners, or firearm transactions” of those who pass the background check. Since 2004, Congress has inserted language in annual spending bills requiring the FBI to destroy firearm transfer records within 24 hours of approval. Although Obama has proposed a universal background check system, nothing in his plan would result in the establishment of a federal firearm registry.

As Obama said recently, “We’re not proposing a gun registration system, we’re proposing background checks for criminals.”

Let’s take a look at some of the other specific claims in the NAGR ads.

The Claims About Rigell

According to the NAGR ad, “Congressman Scott Rigell has teamed up with anti-gun Congresswoman Caroline McCarthy to pass Obama’s gun control. Rigell and McCarthy’s legislation could make you a criminal if you sell a gun without federal approval and it falls into the wrong hands.”

The bill — H.R. 452, which Rigell proposed along with Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Elijah Cummings, and Republican Rep. Pat Meehan — is known as the “Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2013.” McCarthy, who was mentioned in the ad, was one of 102 cosponsors. The law seeks to crack down on gun trafficking and on “straw” buyers who purchase guns on behalf of others they know to be prohibited from possessing a firearm. The legislation is not opposed by the NRA, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

Obama’s gun plan also calls for tougher enforcement against “straw purchasers.” But to call the bill an effort to pass “Obama’s gun control” ignores the much more controversial parts of Obama’s plan — banning assault weapons and requiring universal background checks, for example — which aren’t part of the bill Rigell cosponsored.

The ad’s claim that Rigell’s legislation “could make you a criminal if you sell a gun without federal approval and it falls into the wrong hands” is also highly misleading. In order to run afoul of the proposed law, the purchaser has to “know” or have “reasonable cause to believe” the person they are buying the gun for is prohibited by federal or state law from possessing a firearm.

The ad claims Rigell “also wants gun owners in a federal registration system.” As evidence, the ad cites a Feb. 5 article in the Virginian Pilot that states that Rigell “doesn’t object to toughening federal background check regulations for gun sales.” But that’s not the same thing as creating a federal registration system, as we explained earlier.

Rigell, who got an A- rating from the NRA last year, wrote on his congressional website on Feb. 28: “As a gun owner, hunter, and lifetime member of the NRA, I have not and will not support legislation which establishes in any form a national registry of guns or gun owners.”

“To say the bill creates a federal registry is laughable,” Rigell wrote of his bill.

The Claims About Cantor

The NAGR ad against Cantor accuses the House majority leader of hatching a plan to improve the Republican Party that “starts with passing President Obama’s gun control schemes.”

The ad goes on to say that Cantor “wants to herd even more gun owners into a federal database registration system, to let Washington bureaucrats strip gun rights from veterans and other Americans without trial if they seek mental health counseling, to deny law-abiding Virginians the right to buy, sell or even trade a gun without federal approval, to once again blame honest gun owners for the actions of criminals.”

While the ad’s voiceover states that Cantor is trying to pass “Obama’s gun control schemes,” the text on the screen offers a more qualified description, that Cantor supports “key parts of Obama’s gun control.”

Cantor — who got an A+ rating from the NRA last year — did say he supports improving background checks, but he did not say whether he supports expanding background checks to include private sales.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, Virginia implemented a system to link mental health information to law enforcement databases used for gun background checks. Cantor has said that he supports using Virginia’s initiative as a national model.

“I think we can take a lot of lessons from what Virginia did and put it in place at the federal level, because there’s a lot of states that are not doing what Virginia is doing to try and beef up the database for the background checks to make sure that we actually can do something that does have a chance at reducing the likelihood and hopefully eliminating that from happening again,” Cantor told CNN on Feb. 5. “I am for making sure that we increase the quality of information in the database that is in existence already.”

In an email to FactCheck.org, Cantor’s press office declined to elaborate on the congressman’s position. But what he said is not the same thing as supporting universal background checks (nor would it be supporting a “federal database registration system” even if he did back universal checks). Nor does Cantor’s public position indicate any support for Obama’s controversial proposal for an assault weapons ban.

The ad leaves the impression that Cantor supports much of the Obama plan, when in fact, Cantor expressed support for only one part of it. Even Cantor’s support for improved background checks does not go as far as Obama wants.

The Claims About Manchin

The NAGR ad targeting Manchin claims that the West Virginia Democrat “is now the Senate’s loudest voice for Obama’s gun control.”

Like the other ads, the one against Manchin claims he is “beating the drum to herd gun owners into a federal registration system, to let Washington bureaucrats strip gun rights from veterans and other Americans without trial if they seek mental health counseling, to deny law-abiding West Virginians the right to buy, sell or even trade a gun without federal approval, to once again blame honest gun owners for the actions of criminals.”

The ad features a headline from the MSNBC “Morning Joe” show that states, “NRA-endorsed Senator calls for assault weapons ban.” But Manchin didn’t quite say that on the show. In the immediate aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., shooting, Manchin — who got an A rating from the NRA last year — said the shooting had “changed America,” and he indicated a desire to have a conversation about assault weapons. “Anyone saying they don’t want to talk and sit down and have that type of discussion is wrong,” he said.

“I’m a proud outdoorsman and huntsman, like many Americans, and I like shooting, but this doesn’t make sense,” Manchin added. “I don’t know anyone in the sporting and hunting arena who goes out with an assault rifle; I don’t know anyone who needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting.” That may sound like an argument in favor of an assault weapons ban, but in the end, all he committed himself to was a conversation about such a bill. He said more than once, “Everything has to be on the table.”

The ad also claims that “when asked if he’d go so far as to ban guns, tax ammunition or limit magazines, Joe Manchin said, quote, ‘I can’t say yes or no.’ ”

Here’s the fuller context of Manchin’s comments to the West Virginia Metro News radio program:

Metro News, Dec. 19, 2012: “I’m not supporting a ban on anything. I’m supporting a conversation on everything,” Senator Manchin said.

“I can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any of the things because all I’ve asked for, I want the NRA to tell me why we have any weapon you might want. Is there any grounds or any changes or anything they would like to look at? I don’t know. I can’t even get a conversation to have responsible people at the table to finally come out with a conclusion.”

But by February of this year, Manchin had made clear that he did not support an assault weapons ban.

“I do not support an assault weapon ban because the definition of assault weapon is still hard to come by,” Manchin said on MSNBC. “So I am not going to comment on people’s legislation. I do not support that approach right now.”

Meanwhile, Manchin says he is working on a bipartisan bill that would expand background checks to gun shows, online sales and individual transfers — but would include exceptions, such as for those handing down a firearm to a family member. That’s in line with the spirit of a part of Obama’s proposal, but it is inaccurate to call Manchin “the loudest voice for Obama’s gun control.” For one, Manchin specifically opposes Obama’s proposed assault weapons ban.

In a release posted on his congressional website on March 8, Manchin said he would not support any bill that includes a weapons ban, because “it is simply unconstitutional.” Manchin also wrote, “My bill will not create a national registry; in fact, it clearly makes illegal the establishment of any such registry.”

The ad is also incorrect in its claim that Manchin supports allowing “Washington bureaucrats [to] strip gun rights from veterans and other Americans without trial if they seek mental health counseling.” On his website, Manchin said he was working on a bipartisan bill that seeks to “make sure firearms do not end up in the hands of convicted criminals or people who are deemed mentally unstable by court ruling.”

Misleading Imagery

We’d like to make one other point about some misleading imagery in the NAGR ads.

The Rigell ad opens with a photo of Rigell at an Obama bill-signing event with these words on screen: “Scott Rigell wants to pass Obama’s gun control.” In fact, the photo comes from a noncontroversial November 2011 event in which Obama signed an executive order designating Fort Monroe as a National Monument.

And the opening of the Cantor ad features a photo of Cantor shaking Obama’s hand. That’s from a Nov. 30, 2010, bipartisan meeting with Obama after the Republicans won control of the House. It was the president who extended an olive branch to congressional Republican leaders after what Obama called a “shellacking.”

– Robert Farley

Also Read

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/gun-rights-group-aim-way-off-221248997.html

MANCHESTER, England, April 5 (Reuters) – Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini believes a lack of goals and maverick striker Mario Balotelli’s departure to AC Milan in January has harmed the defence of their Premier League crown. Second-placed City are 15 points behind rivals Manchester United, whom they face at Old Trafford on Monday, and Mancini said last week the title race was over. “Mario scored 15 goals last season. This is the difference, the goals we did not score,” Mancini told a news conference on Friday. …

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republican-super-pac-launch-six-figure-ad-campaign-132325504--politics.html

During an interview with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Friday, CNBC host Joe Kernen filled some air time by bringing up a topic rarely discussed on the finance-focused news network: same-sex marriage.

Kernen opined that many people who would be Republicans vote against the GOP because of the party’s stance against same-sex marriage. He asked Cantor if history will judge the Republican party for waiting too long to support same-sex marriage.

“There are those of us who have personal religious convictions about the issue,” Cantor said. “And I think that we as a country need to respect people about their opinion, not matter which side you come down on.”

Kernen challenged Cantor’s position and bluntly said, “No one’s asking you to marry another man.” Cantor broke out in laughter and steered the conversation back to one about the economy.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/joe-kernen-cnbc-eric-cantor-gay-marriage_n_3022801.html?utm_hp_ref=media

The prospects for U.S. economic growth are “still too little” and “too uncertain,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told CNBC on Friday.

“Europe is not in good shape,” Cantor pointed out in a “Squawk Box” interview, but despite the problems the U.S. is facing “we still look to many investors, and many folks looking to allocate capital, like the place that is at least the best of the worst.”

He noted, however: “We’ve got to play to win here.”

“We can’t just sit on the fact that we’re America and we are always going to be the best,” Cantor said. “We’ve got to go compete.”

(Read More: US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%)

The Virginia Republican stressed the need to create an environment in which businesses and investors can thrive by “making it so people with capital say, ‘Hey, it is a good time to take the risk.’”

Cantor asserted, however, that while the GOP is working hard to reform the tax system, President Barack Obama continues to press for higher taxes.

“Given the way you score things in Washington, every time you want more static revenue it’s hard to bring rates down to compete,” he said.

(Read More: Wealthy Beware! IRS Audit Squad Nabs One in Eight)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100618953

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) appeared on CNBC’s Squawkbox this morning to offer his take on the state of the economy before a fairly tepid monthly jobs report was announced. But while he was waiting for the news, host Joe Kernen decided to bring up a topic that rarely gets discussed on CNBC: gay marriage.

“We never talk gay marriage, but I don’t know, why not?” Kernen began, before laying out a “hypothetical” scenario in which “52%, 53%, 54% of the country think it’s okay now for gay people to get married” and asking if Cantor would be willing to change his position on the issue. Kernen said it “kills me” that there are gay people out there who agree with Republicans on fiscal issues but “vote the other way” because of the GOP’s opposition to marriage equality. “Do the Republicans, will they forever be behind the curve and will history judge that they waited way too long to move were what looks like the general population on this?”

Cantor essentially deferred to the Supreme Court, saying he’s waiting to see how they vote on the issue. But, he added, “There are those of us who have personal religious convictions. And I think we as a country need to respect people about their opinion, not matter which side you come down on.” Cantor said that Republicans are being “portrayed” as a party that doesn’t care about people, but “that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Kernen dug in and pushed Cantor to address the issue more directly, saying, “if we really are free, then everybody should be free.” When Cantor hedged, Kernen added, “No one’s asking you to marry another man.” This comment drew a hearty laugh out of Cantor.

But soon, he was changing the subject back to the economy, saying, “This is an issue that has been divisive, but why can’t we spend some time on things we can agree on? That’s how we build, that’s how we grow. On the economy, my goodness, there’s so much we all know we need to grow and get more jobs, so we’re waiting on the jobs report.”

Watch video below, via CNBC:

–

Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Article source: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnbc-host-challenges-eric-cantor-on-gay-marrage-no-ones-asking-you-to-marry-another-man/

The prospects for U.S. economic growth are “still too little” and “too uncertain,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told CNBC on Friday.

“Europe is not in good shape,” Cantor pointed out in a “Squawk Box” interview, but despite the problems the U.S. is facing “we still look to many investors, and many folks looking to allocate capital, like the place that is at least the best of the worst.”

He noted, however: “We’ve got to play to win here.”

“We can’t just sit on the fact that we’re America and we are always going to be the best,” Cantor said. “We’ve got to go compete.”

(Read More: US Job Creation Plunges, but Rate Drops to 7.6%)

The Virginia Republican stressed the need to create an environment in which businesses and investors can thrive by “making it so people with capital say, ‘Hey, it is a good time to take the risk.’”

Cantor asserted, however, that while the GOP is working hard to reform the tax system, President Barack Obama continues to press for higher taxes.

“Given the way you score things in Washington, every time you want more static revenue it’s hard to bring rates down to compete,” he said.

(Read More: Wealthy Beware! IRS Audit Squad Nabs One in Eight)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100618953?__source=yahoonews&par=yahoonews

The prospects for U.S. economic growth are “still too little” and “too uncertain,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told CNBC on Friday.

“Europe is not in good shape,” Cantor pointed out in a “Squawk Box” interview, but despite the problems the U.S. is facing “we still look to many investors, and many folks looking to allocate capital, like the place that is at least the best of the worst.”

He noted, however: “We’ve got to play to win here.”

“We can’t just sit on the fact that we’re America and we are always going to be the best,” Cantor said. “We’ve got to go compete.”

The Virginia Republican stressed the need to create an environment in which businesses and investors can thrive by “making it so people with capital say, ‘Hey, it is a good time to take the risk.’”

Cantor asserted, however, that while the GOP is working hard to reform the tax system, President Barack Obama continues to press for higher taxes.

“Given the way you score things in Washington, every time you want more static revenue it’s hard to bring rates down to compete,” he said.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100618953

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has announced plans to introduce a bill that would redirect federal funds to pediatric research at the National Institutes of Health by eliminating public funding for presidential candidates and party conventions, The Hill reported Tuesday.

The bill — titled the Kids First Research Act — was unveiled on Tuesday in tandem with World Autism Awareness Day. Although the bill does not direct all funds to autism research, it would provide $200 million to the NIH, which allocates portions of its funding to autism research.

“House Republicans are focused on smart policy solutions that will help parents meet the needs of their families and help children live a life full of opportunity,” Cantor said in a statement. “Instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars for presidential campaigns, these funds will be better spent helping find cures and treatments for pediatric diseases and disorders like autism.”

Current Federal Election Commission rules allow presidential candidates and political parties to tap into public campaign funding, in which the federal government funds election campaigns and party conventions through a voluntary taxpayer checkoff. Candidates who accept money from the public financing system are limited in the amount of money that they can both raise and spend. Neither President Barack Obama nor Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney used public funding for their 2012 campaigns.

Cantor’s bill would eliminate the public funding option entirely, forcing candidates and parties to raise funds solely through private donors.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) — who, along with Cantor and Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), is sponsoring the legislation — says that diverting public presidential election funds to pediatric research is “a much better reflection of our national prerogatives.”

“Transforming welfare for politicians into efforts to eradicate this terrible disease is a much better reflection of our national prerogatives,” Cole said. “This legislation is an example of how much can be accomplished by ending wasteful spending and redirecting those funds toward urgent national priorities like the need to combat autism.”

According to Autism Speaks, an autism science and advocacy organization, autism affects one in 88 children in the United States and costs the average family $60,000 a year. The organization also says that, based off the 2012 NIH budget, only 0.55 percent — or $169 million — of NIH funding directly went to autism research.

The $200 million that would be restored to the NIH budget under Cantor’s legislation accounts for roughly 8 percent of the $1.6 billion cut last month from the NIH due to the sequester.

In February, former NIH director Elias Zerhouni warned that the across-the-board sequestration cuts would “impact science for generations to come.”

“Research is an investment, it’s not an expense,” Zerhouni told the Washington Post.

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• Defense

  About half of the sequestration consists of a href=”http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=b276f1fe-4529-4f63-bf10-d26d0444797c” target=”_hplink”defense spending cuts/a, which would “drastically” shrink the military and cancel defense contracts, according to the House Armed Services Committee.

  (John Cantlie/Getty Images)

• Emergency Response

  The sequestration would slash funding for the government’s a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”emergency response system/a for disasters such as hurricanes, according to the White House.

  (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

• Unemployment Benefits

  a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”Checks for unemployed people/a looking for work would shrink by up to 9 percent, according to the White House.

  (J Pat Carter/AP Photo)

• Homelessness Programs

  More than 100,000 a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”formerly homeless people/a would lose their current housing as a result of sequestration, according to the White House.

  (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)

• Rental Assistance

  About 125,000 low-income families would be at risk of losing their housing because of a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”rental assistance cuts/a, according to the White House.

  (Barry Gutierrez/AP Photo)

• Mental Health Programs

  The sequestration would eliminate care for up to 373,000 a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”"seriously mentally ill” people/a, according to the White House.

  (Eric Gay/AP Photo)

• Food Safety

  The FDA would conduct fewer a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”food inspections/a as a result of sequestration, according to the White House.

  (Mike Hentz/AP Photo)

• Head Start

  About 70,000 children would lose access to the early education program a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”Head Start/a as a result of the sequestration, according to the White House.

  (Elaine Thompson/AP Photo)

• Small Business Assistance

  The government’s a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”small business loan guarantees/a would get slashed by nearly $1 billion as a result of the sequestration, according to the White House.

  (Steven Senne/AP Photo)

• Scientific Research

  The sequestration would slash a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”scientific research funding/a at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), according to the White House.

  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

• HIV Prevention

  Up to 424,000 a href=”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/08/fact-sheet-examples-how-sequester-would-impact-middle-class-families-job” target=”_hplink”HIV tests/a would be on the chopping block as a result of sequestration, according to the White House. Thousands of people with HIV also would lose access to “life-saving” HIV medications.

  (Darren Abate/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/eric-cantor-autism_n_3001753.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “we’ll see” about higher taxes if President Barack Obama proves he is “serious about fixing the problem” in an interview with the New York Times published on April 3.

New York Magazine drew attention to the quote on Thursday, noting Cantor quickly reinforced that Republicans would not back additional taxes.

The New York Times reports:

Even on the divisive tax issue, however, Mr. Cantor can sometimes sound as if he is leaving a door open. If Mr. Obama shows he is “serious about fixing the problem,” he said, “then we’ll see” about additional taxes.

(When pressed on the point, Mr. Cantor returned to his familiar position that the House would not back higher taxes.)

Cantor dismissed Obama in February for “not talking about” tax reform as massive budget cuts loomed.

“The problem is every time you turn around, the answer is to raise taxes,” Cantor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He just got his tax hike on the wealthy. And you can’t in this town every three months raise taxes. Again, every time, that’s his response.”

“The bottom line is we want tax reform, but we want to plug those loopholes that the president talks about, to bring down tax rates because we believe that’s pro-growth and we can get [the] economy growing again, let people who earn the money keep more of it,” Cantor said. “The president’s not talking about that. He’s talking about raising more taxes to spend.”

Cantor again criticized Obama and Senate Democrats in an interview with CNN on March 14.

“There really [are] two separate visions of the way this country ought to go. On the one hand, we have the House budget that is –promotes a balance within 10 years, that can grow our economy, and that you can get people back to work with more jobs. On the Senate side, what you have is a budget calling for a trillion dollars of additional tax increases and you have more borrowing, more spending and never a balance,” Cantor said. “So the real question for the American people is, which side would they come down on?”

Not everyone agrees with Cantor’s tough stance against tax hikes. On March 17, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he thought “Republicans, if they saw true entitlement reform, would be glad to look at tax reform that generates additional revenue.”

UPDATE — 12:07 p.m.: Cantor’s spokesperson issued the following statement to HuffPost:

Leader Cantor did not open any doors to more tax hikes. President Obama has already hiked taxes several times, including on worker’s income 12 weeks ago and the high taxes on American families and employers in Obamacare. As he has repeatedly said, it’s time for Washington to address out-of-control spending with smart reforms and by cutting waste.

Also on HuffPost:

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• Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)

  Chambliss, a conservative Republican up for reelection in 2014, started the a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/26/the-gops-read-my-lips-moment/” target=”_hplink”media surge/a of prominent GOP lawmakers breaking ranks with Norquist last week. He told a local news station on Nov. 21 that he thought the pledge itself was a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/saxby-chambliss-grover-norquist_n_2177333.html” target=”_hplink”outdated/a.

  “I care too much about my country — I care a lot more about it than I do about Grover Norquist,” Chambliss said. “Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down. His plan says you continue to add to the debt, and I just have a fundamental disagreement about that and I’m willing to do the right thing and let the political consequences take care of themselves.”

  As a member of the “Gang of Six” –lawmakers focused on a path towards deficit reduction — Chambliss has proposed raising a significant amount of new revenues through tax reform.

• Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)

  King championed Chambliss’ take on the ATR no-tax-increases pledge when speaking about deficit reduction on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

  “I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss,” King a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/11/25/lindsey-graham-peter-king-break-with-grover-norquist/” target=”_hplink”said/a. “A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress. … The world has changed, and the economic situation is different…For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a declaration of war against Japan. I’m not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed, and the economic situation is different.”

• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

  The South Carolina senator took to the news shows on Sunday to push for a solution to the fiscal crisis, even if it requires that the a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/lindsey-graham-grover-norquist-anti-tax-pledge_n_1590356.html” target=”_hplink”GOP gives some ground on new revenues/a. He told ABC’s Jonathan Karl that he would be willing to break the pledge in order to ensure the fiscal solvency of the United States — provided, of course, that Democrats would cede some serious structural reforms to entitlement programs.

  “When you’re $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece, and Republicans — Republicans should put revenue on the table,” Graham a href=”http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/mccain-graham-norquist-chambliss/2012/11/25/id/465282#ixzz2DLTNhN8O” target=”_hplink”said/a. “I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs, but I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform.”

  emCorrection: An earlier version of this story contained a misspelling of Graham’s first name./em

• Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

  Corker became the third GOP senator to a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/bob-corker-grover-norquist-pledge_n_2190985.html” target=”_hplink”publicly disavow the pledge/a promulgated by Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform in the last week. Speaking to CBS’ Charlie Rose on Monday, the Tennessee Republican said that he was bound to serve his constituents first and foremost.

  “I’m not obligated on the pledge,” he said. “I made Tennesseans aware, I was just elected, the only thing I’m honoring is the oath I take when I serve, when I’m sworn in this January.”

• Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

  Although Cantor has not come out and explicitly stated that he would violate the pledge — in the manner of Graham — he has said that a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/26/eric-cantor-grover-norquist-pledge_n_2191375.html” target=”_hplink”he is not concerned/a with the pledge and wants to do what is best for his constituents.

  “When I go to the constituents that have reelected me, it is not about that pledge,” Cantor said on MSNBC on Monday. “It really is about trying to solve problems.”

  As a part of a supposed grand bargain, Cantor says that Republicans are willing to put some new revenues on the table, provided that they are raised from closing loopholes rather than from increasing the marginal rates. Under Norquist’s pledge, neither option would be permissible.

• Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.)

  Rigell broke with Norquist and a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/16/grover-norquist-tom-coburn_n_1676841.html” target=”_hplink”revoked his signing/a of the pledge in May on the grounds that it restricts any meaningful attempt at tax reform.

  “Averting bankruptcy requires us to grasp the severity of our fiscal condition and summon the courage to speak boldly about the difficult steps needed to increase revenues and sharply decrease spending,” he a href=”http://www.democraticwhip.gov/content/washington-post-gop-shifting-taxes-norquist-pledge-losing-support” target=”_hplink”wrote/a in a two-page letter explaining his reversal to his constituents. He wasn’t advocating for tax hikes to further increase government spending, but any substantive overhaul of the tax code could only be undertaken if everything was on the table, he said.

  At the time, Norquist questioned the salience of Rigell’s position, saying that the sort of tax increases he was looking for would be as unlikely as a href=”http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76470_Page2.html#ixzz2DM2L4989″ target=”_hplink”catching a unicorn/a.

  “[I've] been in touch with the Republican Party in [Rigell’s] district, and they aren’t excited about it. This is not going to be a continuing problem,” Norquist told Politico in May.

• Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

  Coburn has a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/16/grover-norquist-tom-coburn_n_1676841.html” target=”_hplink”publicly criticized/a the idea of a no-new-taxes pledge before. In July, he authored a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/opinion/a-greater-american-pledge.html?_r=2ref=todayspaper” target=”_hplink”an editorial/a for The New York Times in which he decried the hard-line approach taken by Norquist as counterproductive to substantive deficit reduction.

  “In a debt crisis, higher interest rates and the debasement of our currency would be additional tax hikes,” Coburn wrote. “In that sense, no one is doing more to violate the spirit of the pledge than Mr. Norquist himself, who is asking Republicans to reject the very type of agreement that could prevent future tax increases.”

  Coburn previously disagreed with Norquist’s characterization of his bill to eliminate the ethanol tax credit as a “a href=”http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56990.html” target=”_hplink”tax increase/a.”

• Senator-Elect Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)

  When running for his Arizona seat, Flake claimed that he had not signed the pledge when a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/jeff-flake-promises-tax-pledge_n_1956509.html” target=”_hplink”in fact he had/a. But the Republican did publicly distance himself from Norquist, saying in October that “the only pledge I’d sign is a pledge to sign no more pledges.”

  “I believe in limited government, economic freedom, individual responsibility,” Flake said during a debate against his Democratic and Libertarian opponents. “I don’t want higher taxes. But no more pledges.”

• Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.)

  Ribble, a freshman lawmaker from Wisconsin, decided that a href=”http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20111116/APC0602/111160402/Editorial-Read-Rep-Reid-Ribble-s-lips-No-new-pledges” target=”_hplink”he wouldn’t be signing any more pledges/a, including a renewal of Norquist’s anti-tax measure. In order to achieve deficit reduction, he wants to a href=”http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76470.html” target=”_hplink”close corporate loopholes/a and explore other options around tax reform.

  “Tax rates don’t correlate much to what actual revenue is, but if we would remove some of the subsidies and tax giveaways, we would have the money to reduce rates and spur economic growth which would increase revenue,” he told CNN.

• Rep. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.)

  Andrews, one of two House Democrats to sign the anti-tax pledge, said that he thought the anti-tax promise only applied to the term in which he signed it rather than extending throughout his legislative career.

  “I honored that pledge — a href=”http://thehill.com/homenews/house/192529-house-gop-lawmakers-want-out-of-tax-pledge” target=”_hplink”I never renewed it/a,” Andrews told The Hill back in 2011. “I never considered it to be like my marriage vows…I’m married to Camille Andrews, not Grover Norquist. I promised her to be faithful until death do us part, and I mean it. I did not promise him to oppose tax increases until death do us part.”

• Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.)

  Terry also believed that the anti-tax pledge only applied to the two-year term in which he signed it. He and Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) both indicated to The Hill in 2011 that they had signed the pledge a href=”http://thehill.com/homenews/house/192529-house-gop-lawmakers-want-out-of-tax-pledge” target=”_hplink”20 years ago/a but had not agreed to uphold the pledge while serving in the present Congress.

• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.)

  Fortenberry told his constituents in August that he found Norquist’s anti-tax pledge to be “a href=”http://thehill.com/homenews/house/192529-house-gop-lawmakers-want-out-of-tax-pledge” target=”_hplink”too constraining/a” and did not want to be associated with it. He first broke ranks in 2011 and then a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/jeff-fortenberry-one-house-republican-whos-dared-to-defy-grover-norquist/2012/05/17/gIQA5Q0wVU_blog.html” target=”_hplink”renewed his position/a again in May 2012 when speaking to The American Conservative.

  “Simply looking at the status quo and suggesting that the tax code is sacrosanct and can never change, and that decisions made in the ’80s and ’90s can never change, is absurd,” he said. “The tax code is weighted toward the ultra-wealthy and ultra-wealthy corporations, and has created an offshore aristocracy of people who can afford to hire an army of accountants and lawyers.”

  “We need a simpler, fairer tax code. Removing special-interest loopholes could potentially increase revenues and allow for lower rates,” he added.

• Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio)

  LaTourette, who announced in July that he will retire at the end of the year, hasn’t signed the pledge since 1994. He was under the impression, like several other GOP lawmakers, that the anti-tax promise had a limited applicability and had to be renewed.

  “My driver’s license expires,” LaTourette a href=”http://thehill.com/homenews/house/192529-house-gop-lawmakers-want-out-of-tax-pledge” target=”_hplink”told/a The Hill. “The milk in my refrigerator expires. My gym membership expires, and I find the website to be a little deceptive.”

  LaTourette and Sen. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) a href=”http://cooper.house.gov/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=586Itemid=73″ target=”_hplink”introduced/a a version of the Bowles-Simpson deficit-reduction plan in March. Although it engendered very little public support at the time — and drew fire from Norquist — LaTourette told HuffPost that many lawmakers a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/steve-latourette-grover-norquist_n_1733712.html” target=”_hplink”privately pledged to get behind the measure/a after the November elections.

• Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)

  DesJarlais a href=”http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121127/NEWS02/311260055/Sen.-Corker-backs-off-no-tax-hike-pledge?nclick_check=1″ target=”_hplink”walked back his commitment/a when The Tennessean asked about his signature on the anti-tax pledge Monday.

  “The only pledge that matters is the one I made to my constituents to always represent their interests in Congress,” the Tennessee congressman said in a statement. “I will judge any legislation put forth to avoid the fiscal cliff based solely upon the wishes and needs of the people of Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District.”

  In the past, DesJarlais has also appeared to waffle on conservative positions he has taken on both preventing abortion and supporting family values. HuffPost’s Michael McAuliff a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/scott-desjarlais-abortion-pro-life_n_1953136.html” target=”_hplink”reported/a in October that he had an affair with one of his patients and appeared to push her to get an abortion on a recorded phone call.

• Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)

  Alexander first broke with the pledge last year, but he a href=”http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121127/NEWS02/311260055/Sen.-Corker-backs-off-no-tax-hike-pledge?nclick_check=1″ target=”_hplink”reaffirmed his sentiments/a to The Tennessean yesterday. When speaking to Roll Call magazine last July, the senior GOP senator said that he wanted to get rid of some a href=”http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_139/grover-norquist-ethanol-tax-206489-1.html” target=”_hplink”unwarranted tax breaks/a — something Norquist’s pledge would not allow.

  “My only pledge is to the United States flag and to the United States Constitution, and I’ve forsworn all others,” Alexander a href=”http://www.tennessean.com/article/20121127/NEWS02/311260055/Sen.-Corker-backs-off-no-tax-hike-pledge?nclick_check=1″ target=”_hplink”told/a Roll Call at the time.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/04/eric-cantor-taxes_n_3014884.html

The Obama administration assumed that, after the election, House Republicans would have to deal. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts and sequestration, with its large and across-the-board cuts to defense, would put Republicans in a position where it would be ideologically advantageous to negotiate a deal. But they have steadfastly refused. Obama tried to get a big budget deal in November and December, wrapping up taxes and spending together. Republicans wouldn’t bite. Instead they fought to limit the tax hike to the smallest acceptable amount and didn’t negotiate for spending cuts. After that, they swore off negotiations — or, as they put it, “back-room deals,” as if there is some other way to negotiate.

Article source: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/04/siren-eric-cantor-will-consider-higher-taxes.html

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Several of my readers of have questioned why I am writing positive articles about my Republican Party.  The simple answer is that they deserve it. In the past, I have been very critical of my party because they have ignored the Black community, disrespected our current president with incendiary language, and strayed away from our core principles and values.

Since last November’s elections,  my party has seemed to have reflected on what happened during last year’s elections and have been open to positive criticism on how to best learn from the past.  So, it’s not so much that my writing has changed as the facts have changed.

Current party chair, Reince Priebus has begun to change the makeup of the party by beginning to hire minorities throughout the Republican National Committee (RNC).  My writings have reflected my support for some of these changes and a continued willingness to work with the party to help it get back on track.

People need to remember that Priebus and the RNC are not policy making entities.  Rather, they are responsible for the execution of the principles advocated by the members of the RNC board and GOP members of Congress. The Congressional side of this equation leaves a lot to be desired, but one person on the Congressional side who really understands this issue is House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor.

I was happy to receive a phone call from Eric Cantor two weeks ago to discuss some of his recent activities to engage with the minority community, specifically the Black community.  I have known Cantor for many years and we have always enjoyed stimulating, honest conversations.

Last month, Eric Cantor accepted the opportunity to go with Civil Rights icon and fellow Congressman John Lewis, to attend the annual march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.  Eric Cantor grew up in segregated Richmond, Va. during the 60s.  Somehow the hatred of Blacks in the 60s didn’t seep into him and his family.

I hope Eric Cantor will let me put together a town hall meeting with him to give him a forum to share with the public his reflections from Selma.   He brought his son along with him and there is a fascinating event that happened as a result of this trip, but I will let Cantor share that story.

What is fascinating and embarrassing at the same time is that Cantor has come to understand that education is the Civil Rights of the 21^st century for the Black community; not homosexual marriage as claimed by Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, and Marc Morial.

I find it astonishing that a White, southern Congressman is more in tune with my community than the media appointed Black leaders.   Eric Cantor is working through a series of policy issues that I hope will lead to legislation that will benefit the Black community.

Eric Cantor is a man that deserves, at a minimum, more engagement from within the Black community and I plan on working with him to make that happen.  As Ronald Reagan once said, “My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy.”  It’s not necessary for you to agree with everything Cantor believes in or accept the party that he represents. But if he is trying to create a better future for us and our kids, why would you not support and work with him?

If you agree with the media appointed Black leaders that homosexuality is the new Civil Rights, then continue to support them. However, if you believe that the new Civil Rights is education, then please reach out to Congressman Cantor and let’s help create a better future together.

Eric Cantor has shown the Republicans in the House a pathway to the Black vote.  The question is, will they follow his example?  Eric Cantor is doing his part by reaching out to the Black community, now will we return the favor?  I await my community’s response.

Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson

Mr. Jackson is also founder of a political and industrial consultant firm which is based in Washington, DC; Raynard Jackson Associates.

 

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Article source: http://thyblackman.com/2013/04/03/eric-cantor-republicans-have-learned-a-lesson/

Sen. Rand Paul, the tea party favorite and possible 2016 presidential candidate, is raising money for a conservative gun rights group that’s targeting fellow Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

And when one congressman complained, the message from Paul’s camp was: too bad.

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The Kentucky Republican has lent his name to fundraising pitches for the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that says the National Rifle Association is too willing to compromise on gun rights.

(Also on POLITICO: NRA plan: Let teachers carry guns)

The group has blitzed the districts of Virginia Republicans Cantor and Rep. Scott Rigell with $50,000 worth of TV and radio ads accusing them of helping President Barack Obama pass gun control legislation.

Paul’s email pitches for the group don’t mention Cantor or Rigell by name, but his activity for an organization that attacks fellow Republicans shows the potential 2016 presidential contender isn’t afraid to pick a fight inside the party.

(Also on POLITICO: Paul hits Hollywood on gun control)

Paul chief of staff Doug Stafford is unapologetic.

“Rand signs normal, run-of-the-mill activist emails and letters for numerous groups and this is one of them,” Stafford told POLITICO. “That’s all he’s ever done for them, he’s not affiliated with the group in any way, he doesn’t control how they decide their activism should take place in terms of who the people are that need to be shored up on an issue.”

Paul poses a formidable challenge for fellow Republican lawmakers. He has a built-in base of libertarians, and his profile rose again last month after he filibustered against the Obama administration’s drone policy and won the Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll.

Rigell, a second-term congressman from Virginia Beach, reelected with nearly 54 percent of the vote, this year introduced a bipartisan bill to strengthen penalties for straw purchasers — those who knowingly buy guns for people who cannot pass a background check.

(PHOTOS: Politicians with guns)

But he also has an A-minus rating from the NRA, and said the ads caught him by surprise, forcing him to air several radio spots of his own to refute their claims.

“I outright oppose any initiative that would directly or indirectly result in the creation of a national database of firearms and or firearm owners,” Rigell said in an interview. “Their charge that I am leading this, that I am supporting this, is an egregious lie, and completely unfounded.”

When he discovered that Paul was fundraising for the NAGR, he called the senator and Paul promised to investigate and get back to Rigell.

The congressman also sent Paul a two-page handwritten note asking him to repudiate the group.

“It is true your name is not on any email, direct mail piece, nor is it mentioned in the television or radio ads,” Rigell wrote, according to a copy of the letter viewed by POLITICO. “Yet it is also true, irrefutably, that your good name is being leveraged, with your permission one must assume, by a corrupt, detestable outfit.”

A day or so later, Stafford told Rigell’s office that nothing would be done, according to Rigell.

“The reply essentially was: ‘It’s between you and this group and the senator will not disassociate himself from that organization.’ Which surprised me,” Rigell said.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/rand-paul-backed-group-attacks-republicans-89561.html

Rand Paul is helping the National Association for Gun Rights fundraise, as the group, which finds the NRA too soft on gun control, targets Republicans in their home districts.

Politico reports:

The group has blitzed the districts of Virginia Republicans Cantor and Rep. Scott Rigell with $50,000 worth of TV and radio ads accusing them of helping President Barack Obama pass gun control legislation.

Paul’s email pitches for the group don’t mention Cantor or Rigell by name, but his activity for an organization that attacks fellow Republicans shows the potential 2016 presidential contender isn’t afraid to pick a fight inside the party.

“Rand signs normal, run-of-the-mill activist emails and letters for numerous groups and this is one of them,” Paul’s spokesman said. “That’s all he’s ever done for them, he’s not affiliated with the group in any way, he doesn’t control how they decide their activism should take place in terms of who the people are that need to be shored up on an issue.”

Article source: http://salon.com.feedsportal.com/c/35105/f/648624/s/2a4b38d2/l/0L0Ssalon0N0C20A130C0A40C0A30Crand0Ipaul0Ibacks0Igroup0Itargeting0Irepublicans0Ion0Igun0Icontrol0C/story01.htm

By Daniel Newhauser Posted at 4:38 p.m. on April 2

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s latest effort at a new-look Republican Party will come in the form of a bill that would fund pediatric research in an unconventional way, the Virginian’s office announced Tuesday.

The Kids First Research Act would repurpose federal money used to finance the Democratic and Republican political conventions and publicly finance presidential campaigns and would instead use the resources to fund research into autism and other childhood diseases.

“Instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars for presidential campaigns, these funds will be better spent helping find cures and treatments for pediatric diseases and disorders like autism,” Cantor said in a statement.

The bill would move the $100 million in 10-year funding to the National Institutes of Health Common Fund but allow the expenditure to sunset after 2023. The legislation will be co-sponsored by Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., who has a child with fragile-x syndrome, a common genetic syndrome that can cause autism and mental retardation.

“It is something that makes sense. We have a lot of families that deal with various pediatric problems,” Harper said in an interview. “It’s important to do something that will give some hope to some of these families.”

It remains to be seen, however, whether the plan will pass muster in the House. Republicans have long stressed reducing wasteful spending to pay down the debt. Democrats, meanwhile, have been hesitant to cut public financing of conventions and campaigns for fear of greater corporate influence.

Harper said that although it is possible that the bill could have its detractors on both sides, he is hopeful it could pass with help from both parties.

“You never know until everyone has a chance to look at it, but I do have a lot of optimism that in a bipartisan way you could pass this,” he said.

The idea of eliminating taxpayer funding for conventions and presidential campaigns is not a new one. In fact, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the bill’s other co-sponsor, has introduced similar legislation, and he penned an op-ed in U.S. News World Report last year calling for Congress to do just that.

Cole made no mention of repurposing taxpayer money for political conventions in the op-ed, instead tying the idea of eliminating the expenditure to paying down the debt.

“In a time of record deficits, persistent unemployment, and a $16 trillion national debt, it’s hard to find a more frivolous waste of taxpayer money,” he wrote at the time.

Cole was not immediately available for comment.

The announcement comes on World Autism Day and is part of Cantor’s effort to move the GOP beyond just budget talk, which he laid out in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year.

Article source: http://www.rollcall.com/news/the_new_gop_kids_before_conventions-223568-1.html

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  House Majority Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican (Associated Press) more 

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has proposed that the nearly $100 million taxpayers spend on presidential campaigns would be better spent on fighting autism and other childhood diseases.

“Instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars for presidential campaigns, these funds will be better spent helping find cures and treatments for pediatric diseases and disorders like autism,” the Virginia Republican said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Mr. Cantor, along with Reps. Gregg Harper of Mississippi and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, announced the “Kids First Research Act” on World Autism Day Tuesday.

The plan would divert about $100 million over 10 years from the presidential election fund to pediatric research, meaning political parties will be forced to raise even more money to stage their conventions, the Washington Examiner reports.

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Article source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/2/cantor-100-million-presidential-campaigns-should-g/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is setting aside the need to cut government spending for now and is instead suggesting shuffling some funds around. Specifically, Cantor suggested Tuesday that the $100 million taxpayers spend on publicly funded presidential campaigns and conventions should be diverted to fund research to fight autism and other childhood diseases.

(Image: AP)

“Instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars for presidential campaigns, these funds will be better spent helping find cures and treatments for pediatric diseases and disorders like autism,” Cantor said in a press conference with Reps. Gregg Harper and Tom Cole. To accomplish this, Cantor plans to introduce the “Kids First Research Act” to increase funding for pediatric research at the National Institutes of Health.

Could this be something Republicans and Democrats and come together to agree on?

The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard has more details:

Spending money on researching autism has been increasing, but the trio’s plan would provide a funding turbo boost by diverting about $100 million over 10 years from the presidential election fund to pediatric research.

“In order for clinical trials – and other advancements – to meet their full potential, adequate federal resources must be directed to pediatric research,” said Harper.

Cole, a recent chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said picking on funds for presidential campaigns and national presidential conventions was easy. “Transforming welfare for politicians into efforts to eradicate this terrible disease is a much better reflection of our national prerogatives,” said Cole. “This legislation is an example of how much can be accomplished by ending wasteful spending and redirecting those funds toward urgent national priorities like the need to combat autism.”

Article source: http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2013/04/02/eric-cantor-fund-autism-research-not-political-campaigns/

Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images

President Obama is announcing his BRAIN initiative, a multi-year $100 million scientific research project that aims to do for brain science what the Human Genome Project did for genetics. 

While that is ambitious, the project has already succeeded in one thing: In a positively stunning display of bipartisanship, House majority Leader Eric Cantor has announced that he supports the $100 million government spending project proposed by President Obama. 

Here are three tweets from Cantor Communications Director Rory Cooper explaining his support:

 

Cantor: “Mapping the human brain is exactly the type of research we should be funding, by re-prioritizing the $250 million…” 1/3

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) April 2, 2013

 

Cantor cont: “…we currently spend on political and social science research into expanded medical research,” 2/3

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) April 2, 2013

 

Cantor cont: “…including the expedited mapping of the human brain. It’s great science.” 3/3

— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) April 2, 2013

The move makes a lot of sense for Cantor. Here’s an excerpt from a February 2013 speech he gave to the American Enterprise Institute called “Making Life Work” where he explained that he thought money spent on social science should instead be spent on hard science.

There is an appropriate and necessary role for the federal government to ensure funding for basic medical research. [...] We can and must do better. 

This includes cutting unnecessary red tape in order to speed up the availability of life saving drugs and treatments and re-prioritizing existing federal research spending. Funds currently spent by the government on social science – including on politics of all things – would be better spent helping find cures to diseases.

It’s still pretty jarring to see Eric Cantor and Barack Obama team up, but it seems that neuroscience research managed to do the trick. 

Article source: http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-barack-obama-brain-research-2013-4

Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Majority Whip, may have the hardest job in Washington.

As the House GOP’s No. 3 leader, behind Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, McCarthy is responsible for wrangling the Republican caucus — an unruly group with hardline Tea Parties, libertarian gadflies, and a dwindling corps of Establishment moderates all competing for air time.

But McCarthy — a laid-back 48-year old Californian who once won the lottery — has a surprisingly zen attitude about his willful charges.

Unlike his predecessors — and unlike the Whip caricature played by Kevin Spacey on the buzzy Netflix series House of Cards — McCarthy has largely forgone the backroom dealings and knuckle-breaking tactics commonly associated with the Whip’s office. Instead, his role, as he describes it, sounds like a cross between a camp counselor and a twenty-something startup founder.

His office, he says, is more like an “idea factory” than a smoke-filled room.

“It’s a place for members to come, hang out, participate, talk about different solutions. I try to drive my office more as a start-up of ideas,” he told Business Insider. 

They jury is still out on whether McCarthy’s approach is working — Republicans ended the last Congress in disarray, with McCarthy and Cantor unable to whip the votes necessary to place Boehner’s “Plan B” for the fiscal cliff. And two months into the new session, congressional Republicans remain deeply unpopular, with a ratio of 24 percent favorable to 72 percent unfavorable sentiment, according to a March Washington Post/ABC News poll.

Still, McCarthy is optimistic. In an interview last week, he told us how House Republicans are making their comeback, giving us a preview of what to expect from Congress after the Easter recess. 

Below is our lightly-edited QA with McCarthy:

————————————————————————————————————-

BI: Have you seen House of Cards? How accurate is Kevin Spacey’s portrayal of the Whip job? Is that really what you do?

McCarthy: [Laughs] No, it’s not really accurate. We don’t murder animals or members or anything like that. And we would never be sitting in our office when a vote is going on on the floor….

That is Hollywood – people are not doing what he’s doing. Being Whip is working with members, educating them, and trying to move legislation forward.

I met with Kevin Spacey a few times — and if you watch it, there’s one thing in the show that he did take from me. The thing that we tell – that I tell — members is “vote your district, vote your conscience, just don’t surprise us.” He used that in one of the shows.

BI: So do you talk to him often? 

McCarthy: Spacey called me the other day and he leaves this message, he goes ‘Congressman? This is Congressman Frank Underwood.’ We’ve talked a few times, he hung out with me for a few days.

When he first wanted to talk to me, I didn’t want to talk to him because I knew how it was going to be portrayed, it was going to be Hollywood. But then I found out that he was supposed to be a Democrat and I had no problem.

BI: The common perception of the Whip’s office is that its a lot of backroom dealing and knuckle-breaking. Is that accurate? How do you Whip? 

McCarthy: No. The Whip’s office is much different than the Whip offices of the past. America has changed. You don’t have earmarks, you have greater transparency. The Whip’s office is almost more educational — educating members on the bill itself, listening to members ahead of time.

Like, before [House Budget Chair] Paul [Ryan] crafted the budget, we had a lot of listening sessions in the office with the members to talk about where we could go with the budget, and where we should go.

It’s trying to solve problems, providing the information, gathering the information, and then helping craft the legislation to best reflect the whole House as we move forward.

…It’s like an idea factory. [The office] is a place for members to come, hang out, participate, talk about different solution. I try to drive my office more as a start-up of ideas.

BI: And that’s different from past Whips?

McCarthy: Yes, from what I’ve seen in the past. In my office, you’ll also see a Nerf basketball hoop. My artwork is about historical figures, but painted in a different way — more modern.

In my conference where we always meet, I’ve got a painting Washington crossing the Delaware [by beloved conservative painter Steve Penley]…But in that famous picture, if you look, the second rower happens to be Scottish, the second happens to be an African-American. There’s a woman, there’s a Native American — they’re all in the boat.

They probably were not all in the boat that night — but it depicts America as a melting pot. And I wanted it to be in that room where we talked about ideas, try to find solutions — and the reason why is that we are all in this boat together, and we all need to go ahead to victory.

And here’s Washington, leading our first victory as a small country — it shows that we can overcome a lot.

That’s the tone that I want to set inside that room.

There’s a lot of history in that office. There’s an opportunity to take the tradition of the past and apply it to a changing future.

BI: It sounds like you’re having fun. Are you?

McCarthy: Oh, a lot. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do this. The reason to sleep in my office is that I want to work all the time — I enjoy this job. 

BI: What do you say to those who argue that there is no leadership among Republicans in the House? And to those who say that Congressional Republicans — and particularly the emphasis on spending — is hurting the party in national elections?

McCarthy: To that I say, we’ve had the second-largest majority since World War II. The House majority is larger than any majority that Newt Gingrich had in the ’90s. We are the only body with a majority — the Senate has missed the opportunity to win the majority twice. Any time there is a national election a party loses a presidential race, you reflect. There are two ways to handle a loss — you either can deny it, or you can learn from it.

BI: There’s also been a lot of buzz about the disunity in the House Republican Caucus.

McCarthy: About how unified we are?

BI: No, about how not unified you are.

McCarthy: You might have been able to make that argument at the end of the year [2012]. But I would say, looking at us in our break right now, we are more unified than we’ve been in quite some time.

BI: So how did you regroup?

McCarthy: I believe our Williamsburg retreat was a time of regrouping for the House Republicans.

And look at what has transpired from then until now: We had three major issues before us — the sequester, the debt ceiling, and the funding of government with the CR — and every single one of those has been moved forward on, and they’ve all lead through the House. 

We did all this without much fanfare. We didn’t wait until the deadline. At the same time, with “No Budget, No Pay,” we forced the Senate to act on something that they had not done in quite some time.

None of this was theatrical in engaging with the President. We went back to regular order.

So if you look back at the last few months, I think you’ll see that 1) it shows we are unified; 2) I think it shows the pattern for the rest of the term — that the House and the Senate are going to go back to regular order…

That is much more efficient – that’s the direction that the founding fathers crafted it. And I think that’s what we’ve learned from the last two years. Have the House do their work and have the Senate do their work.

BI: So practically speaking, how did you reunify your members and address their concerns post-fiscal cliff?

McCarthy: The one big thing was to bring all of the members together and listen. Sit there and listen and develop the strategy together. And in doing so, everybody has a part in it, they have ownership in it.

The one thing that the conference realizes as well, is that that if we can’t pass it — because the minority party in the House, led by Nancy Pelosi, they will never help to vote to pass anything, so we have to get to the vote on our own. Knowing that, we have to take the lead, we have to get to 218 [votes], we have to pass the bill to move the Senate to do so. And if we’re not able to do that, it’s hard to have a direction in where the process will end up. As long as we are doing that, then we’ve been successful.

…Inside our budget, we laid out a framework for what the rest of the term is going to look like too. Energy reform, which will be coming to the floor; tax reform, which Ways and Means is starting to process.

I am always a believer in crawling before you walk, and walking before you run. And the last few months have shown us the ability to start the crawling into the walking.

BI: What kind of chance do you think immigration reform has after the recess?

McCarthy: I think there’s a very good chance we can move immigration reform. We’ve been doing immigration listening sessions — not talking about any solutions, but about the current system today and looking at where the failures are. We have a broken system, so we have to solve the system, and the only way you solve it is by passing legislation.

We have had a working group in the House working on this longer than the Senate has, and I think that they’ve been moving in a very positive direction. And the members themselves have been analyzing the current broken system too, and coming up with ways to solve it.

BI: What are the roadblocks to passing immigration reform in the House? 

McCarthy: Some of the biggest challenges are making sure borders are protected. The key here is that we are a country of immigrants and we are a country of law. You’ve got to keep those two principles into consideration while you solve it. So members re looking at what was the past immigration law, why did that create more problems.

We don’t want to come back and have to address this same thing later, we want to solve this once and for all, and have the accountability and the checks and balances to make sure that it is being solved as you move forward.

BI: How necessary do you think it is for Republicans to pass immigration reform if they want to win national elections?

McCarthy: I always believe its wrong to pass policy for political reasons — I just think its always good to pass good policy. There is no one in this country who doesn’t believe our current immigration system is broken.

So if you want to continue a broken system, you do nothing; if you want to fix a broken system, you have to have legislation.

I think that’s important: You have a system that people in America think is broken, that people on both sides of the aisle think is broken. We may have different beliefs, but how can we find a solution? That’s what we need to come to — a solution that has good policy so you don’t have to come back to readdress this issue.

BI: What about gun control? Will we see the House move on any legislation to prevent more gun violence? 

McCarthy: I know the Senate has had some real difficulties with passing anything. In the House, the most important thing you can do is look at all the problems that are in the system before you just write legislation.

The House is having their hearings — I think there’s a very important part with mental health, and how it’s treated in America today. Congressman [Tim] Murphy [R-Pa.] is looking at that.

BI: Can we expect another fight over the debt ceiling in the spring?

McCarthy: I firmly believe that we have a big fiscal problem and you can’t keep spending more than you have. If you look at the two budgets, Republicans passed a budget that balances in 10 years; the Democratic budget never balances and raises a trillion dollars in taxes. So you’ve got to deal with your fiscal problems if you ever want to solve this issue.

If you want to keep writing a check, you’ve got to first show the American public where you’re going to spend the money and where you’re going to make the cuts.

Whenever you bring up the debt ceiling, there is going to be a debate on how you’re spending money in the future, and can you produce a balanced budget.

BI: So basically, you’re saying that yes, there is going to be another fight over the debt ceiling.

McCarthy: There doesn’t have to be! If we produced a budget that balances over 10 years, there’d be no problem with passing a debt ceiling. So no, there doesn’t have to be a fight.

The challenge will be that, when I see the President, he doesn’t seem to have changed his mind when he says that he wants to tax more. He’s never produced a balanced approach. There doesn’t have to be [another fight] — but when I look at his current messaging, it seems like he wants one.

We have tried to show a path to put us on to growth and opportunity and a balanced budget.

The difference between the Republican majority and maybe the President is that we will keep our promises, we will fight for prosperity, we believe Washington needs to be reformed, and we will continue to do it.

BI: One last question: Do you have an actual whip?

McCarthy: Yes. If you look at that show [House of Cards], Spacey took a picture by my Whip, and then he has one framed like that in his office too. My whip is actually in a frame, given to me by Eric Cantor, and he put his like that too.

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Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/house-majority-whip-tells-us-115900937.html

Stockman: Fed-Fueled Bubbles Will Explode, Run for CashDaily Ticker

David Stockman, President Reagan’s budget director and former Republican congressman, says the Fed pumped “phony …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-announcing-100-million-spending-142248581.html

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the GOP’s No. 2 person in the House, visited the community on Monday to tour the area and attend a private fundraiser benefitting Nugent.

“I’m coming to support Rich. He’s become a very good friend of mine since he’s been in Congress and we’re going to be talking to some people who might not have gotten a chance to meet him,” Cantor said of the Brooksville Republican in an interview.

After last year’s redistricting process Nugent, who spent nearly four decades in law enforcement, including the 10 years before entering Congress as Hernando County’s sheriff, now represents the city of Ocala and about 80 percent of Marion County’s population.

Citing his background, Cantor described Nugent as “real leader” who had won the support of others in the House for his integrity.

“Rich is a family guy who’s well grounded in the community. He’s raised his family there, and he’s very concerned about the people of Florida,” Cantor continued. “Those are the kind of leaders I support.”

Nugent was pleased to have the support from one of his party’s most influential figures.

“I really appreciate Majority Leader Cantor coming down to Ocala to listen to people on the ground here. He knows as well as I do that the best ideas come from the people facing these issues every day — not from Washington,” Nugent said in an email to the Star-Banner.

“We both had careers before coming to Congress. He ran a small business and I worked in law enforcement. It is extremely important to get out of Washington and reach out to the American people. He has done a great job of that as majority leader and I sincerely appreciate him being here.”

Nugent was first elected in 2010, and during his first term had represented a portion of western Marion County.

In his first post-redistricting race last year he defeated Democrat Dave Werder with 65 percent of the vote in a conservative district where Republicans hold a strong advantage among registered voters. And many of Nugent’s new local voters had returned former Republican lawmaker Cliff Stearns of Ocala to Congress term after term.

So although Nugent’s seat seems safe, Cantor said he was making his first visit to Ocala to help promote Nugent and discuss with some key voters topics that Republicans will focus on.

For example, Cantor said, education would be a key issue in his meeting with Ocala residents.

The Virginia lawmaker noted that he had recently visited New Orleans to get a glimpse of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher initiative, which Cantor had hailed as a possible model for school reform nationwide.

“We’ve got to redouble our efforts on education reform,” said Cantor, adding that was an important component of getting the national economy going again.

Cantor also said he would talk about economic issues.

The GOP majority leader recognized that Florida, and specifically Marion County, has outperformed many parts of the country in reducing unemployment, but said many communities remained vexed by economic anxiety.

Gains in employment too often reflect undesirable underlying trends, such as having too many people who are underemployed or who have simply dropped out of the labor market, he added.

“Wherever you are in the country, or whatever your socioeconomic status, I don’t think today’s economy is necessarily good,” Cantor said.

While in Ocala, Cantor said, “We’re going to be talking about fiscal issues, the debt burden, the need to grow the economy and what we can do to relieve the anxiety many are feeling.”

Beyond education reform, that would include discussing other steps like tax reform, infrastructure needs and rolling back some of the Obama administration’s programs, especially on health care, he noted.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get (economic) growth going again,” Cantor said.

Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or bill.thompson@starbanner.com.

Article source: http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013130409969

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the GOP’s No. 2 person in the House, visited the community on Monday to tour the area and attend a private fundraiser benefitting Nugent.

“I’m coming to support Rich. He’s become a very good friend of mine since he’s been in Congress and we’re going to be talking to some people who might not have gotten a chance to meet him,” Cantor said of the Brooksville Republican in an interview.

After last year’s redistricting process Nugent, who spent nearly four decades in law enforcement, including the 10 years before entering Congress as Hernando County’s sheriff, now represents the city of Ocala and about 80 percent of Marion County’s population.

Citing his background, Cantor described Nugent as “real leader” who had won the support of others in the House for his integrity.

“Rich is a family guy who’s well grounded in the community. He’s raised his family there, and he’s very concerned about the people of Florida,” Cantor continued. “Those are the kind of leaders I support.”

Nugent was pleased to have the support from one of his party’s most influential figures.

“I really appreciate Majority Leader Cantor coming down to Ocala to listen to people on the ground here. He knows as well as I do that the best ideas come from the people facing these issues every day — not from Washington,” Nugent said in an email to the Star-Banner.

“We both had careers before coming to Congress. He ran a small business and I worked in law enforcement. It is extremely important to get out of Washington and reach out to the American people. He has done a great job of that as majority leader and I sincerely appreciate him being here.”

Nugent was first elected in 2010, and during his first term had represented a portion of western Marion County.

In his first post-redistricting race last year he defeated Democrat Dave Werder with 65 percent of the vote in a conservative district where Republicans hold a strong advantage among registered voters. And many of Nugent’s new local voters had returned former Republican lawmaker Cliff Stearns of Ocala to Congress term after term.

So although Nugent’s seat seems safe, Cantor said he was making his first visit to Ocala to help promote Nugent and discuss with some key voters topics that Republicans will focus on.

For example, Cantor said, education would be a key issue in his meeting with Ocala residents.

The Virginia lawmaker noted that he had recently visited New Orleans to get a glimpse of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s voucher initiative, which Cantor had hailed as a possible model for school reform nationwide.

“We’ve got to redouble our efforts on education reform,” said Cantor, adding that was an important component of getting the national economy going again.

Cantor also said he would talk about economic issues.

The GOP majority leader recognized that Florida, and specifically Marion County, has outperformed many parts of the country in reducing unemployment, but said many communities remained vexed by economic anxiety.

Gains in employment too often reflect undesirable underlying trends, such as having too many people who are underemployed or who have simply dropped out of the labor market, he added.

“Wherever you are in the country, or whatever your socioeconomic status, I don’t think today’s economy is necessarily good,” Cantor said.

While in Ocala, Cantor said, “We’re going to be talking about fiscal issues, the debt burden, the need to grow the economy and what we can do to relieve the anxiety many are feeling.”

Beyond education reform, that would include discussing other steps like tax reform, infrastructure needs and rolling back some of the Obama administration’s programs, especially on health care, he noted.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get (economic) growth going again,” Cantor said.

Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or bill.thompson@starbanner.com.

Article source: http://www.ocala.com/article/20130401/ARTICLES/130409969

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, says Republicans must find ways to reduce economic insecurity in American families.

“Over the last 20 years, the world has changed,” he said during a Feb. 5 speech to the American Enterprise Institute. “It used to be that one could make a career out of working for one company. Today, the average worker stays at his or her job for barely four years.”

It’s a common refrain that people don’t stay at jobs as long as they used to and we wondered whether it’s true. Checking Cantor’s statement required two determinations: 1) How long does the average worker of today keep a job and, 2) Has the duration become shorter in the last 20 years?

Cantor’s staff directed us to numbers from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency collects tenure data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which asks a sample of workers how long they have been with their current employer. The figures reflect the median responses, meaning that half of the workers have been with their employers a shorter time and half longer.

Since 1996, the BLS has published tenure statistics every other year. Immediately before then, it was published every five years. So it’s impossible to find data that neatly compares the 20-year span Cantor referenced. But the figures do allow a 21-year comparison, from January 1991 to January 2012, the date of the last report.

The median tenure for U.S. workers in 2012 was 4.6 years, longer than the 3.6 years recorded in 1991. So contrary to Cantor’s contention, the length of time employees stayed with companies increased.   

The problem with this data is that it includes all workers, starting at age 16.

“Those people are in school, starting out doing part-time work and may have a first job in retail,” said Craig Copeland, a senior research associate for the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington. “When we get to 25, we’re seeing people who are starting their career … that’s the age where people begin to have a strong workforce attachment.”

In an article he wrote for the institute’s newsletter, Copeland singled out the figure for all workers 25 or older. The median tenure was 4.8 years in 1991 and 5.4 years in 2012. By this measure, too, the length of time employees stayed with companies increased.

Copeland’s analysis of the data goes back to 1983, when workers 25 or older had a median tenure of 5.0 years with the same company. He noted that tenure figures sway with the economy, falling during boom years when companies are hiring and rising during tight years when workers have fewer job options.

The 5.4-year median tenure for workers 25 and older in January 2012 was the highest recorded in BLS reports dating back to 1983.

The increase over the last 21 years has been driven by women. In 1991, women 25 and older spent a median 4.3 years with the same company. That rose to 4.4 years in in 1992 and 5.4 years in 2012.

There hasn’t been a sustained change for similarly aged men. They spent a median 5.4 years working for the same company in 1991, 4.9 years in 2002 and 5.5 years in 2012.

Putting all the numbers together, Copeland wrote, “Overall, employee tenure has been remarkably stable since 1983.”

He also noted that the number the number of workers staying in what could be considered career jobs has slowly increased. In 1983, 8.9 percent of workers had been with the same company 20 years or more. That rose to 9.5 percent in 1991, and 11 percent in 2012.

Robert Topel, a University of Chicago labor economist, told us in an email that the median tenure statistics Cantor referred to are an imperfect measure of workers’ longevity with employers. The problem, he said, is that it records workers during the middle of employment stints that could last much longer.  ”The average completed duration of jobs in progress is roughly double the mean,” he wrote.

Topel said that in measuring worker longevity, “career jobs are pretty important and not materially different from the past.”

The BLS figures show that in 1991, 32.2 percent of workers 25 or older worked for the same company for 10 years or more. That increased to 33.7 percent in 2012.

In 1991 and 2012, slightly more than half of full time workers 55 or older had been with the same company for 10 years or longer.

Our ruling

Cantor said job longevity has diminished over the last 20 years. “It used to be that one could make a career out of working for one company,” he said. “Today, the average worker stays at his or her job for barely four years.”

The majority leader was referring to 2012 BLS figures that show the median length of time U.S. workers 16 and older had spent with their employer was 4.6 years. The problem with this statistic is that young workers don’t stay at jobs very long and don’t view their labor as careers. The mean tenure of workers 25 and older was 5.4 years.

In either case, tenure has actually increased over the last two decades. It has actually risen by one year if we consider workers 16 and older, and by more than half a year if we consider workers 25 and older.

The bottom line: There’s some accuracy in Cantor’s estimate of how many years workers stay at their jobs. But he’s off target on his his major point — that longevity at companies has decreased over the last 20 years. All told, we rate Cantor’s statement Mostly False.

Article source: http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2013/mar/12/eric-cantor/cantor-says-job-longevity-has-decreased-during-las/

The No. 2 House Republican said Thursday that comprehensive immigration reform would be a “tall order” in Washington, but expressed optimism a deal is possible.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, appearing on Fox News on Thursday, likened immigration to other contentious issues including Obamacare and the Middle East peace process.

Continue Reading

“But I will say, we’ve got an opportunity to come together on one point, and that is the kids,” Cantor said, voicing preference for a smaller-scale immigration fix. “If a kid was brought here by his parents or her parents, unbeknownst to them, and knows no other place … than America as home, why wouldn’t we want to give them a path to citizenship, and I think we should.”

(PHOTOS: 20 quotes on immigration reform)

Cantor’s view could help pierce the secrecy of House negotiations on immigration. The Virginia Republican is in charge of the House floor, charting action for legislation to move through the chamber, and has been briefed on where bipartisan talks stand in his chamber.

A large group of Republicans and Democrats have been in lengthy talks to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. Republicans in the group include Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Sam Johnson and John Carter of Texas and Raul Labrador of Idaho. Democrats include Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Xavier Becerra and Zoe Lofgren of California and John Yarmuth of Kentucky.

On Fox News, Cantor said there is “a lot of interest” in D.C. in finding a way to craft legislation that would help foster immigration, while “upholding the law.”

“Weighing these two things, I think that we can come to some agreement,” Cantor said.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/eric-cantor-immigration-89423.html

March 28 (Bloomberg) — House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor discusses revamping U.S. immigration policy across party lines. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/immigration-reform-keeping-the-dream-alive-hTR7dmGyReuYjtraCDQ3Hw.html

U.S. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said curbing the tax exemption given to the $3.7 trillion
municipal-bond market may undermine the ability of state and
local governments to finance public-works projects.

Cantor told the National Association of State Treasurers
today in Washington that he understands the need for the
Congress to keep the tax break.

State and local governments have been lobbying to keep
investors’ income from municipal debt exempt from taxes, which
holds down their borrowing costs for schools, roads and mass-
transit projects. President Barack Obama has proposed capping
the tax-break for high earners, though that proposal has failed
to advance in Congress.

“The message was received, at least in my office, about
the importance of that benefit to states,” said Cantor, of
Virginia. “We can’t be pulling back on that right now given the
current state of our existing infrastructure.”

With the federal government under pressure to find ways to
curb the deficit, the municipal-bond exemption has drawn fresh
scrutiny. The president’s bipartisan deficit-cutting commission
in 2010 proposed doing away with it as part of a package of tax
code changes, a step that failed to gain traction.

Cantor’s comments follow a hearing yesterday of the House
Ways and Means Committee, in which Republicans and Democrats
said they were concerned that any changes to the tax treatment
of municipal debt would increase costs to state and local
governments.

Such changes also would affect investors by diminishing the
tax-benefits of holding the securities, which help push up
prices.

The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means
Committee are both working on plans to reshape the U.S. tax
code, a goal that has proved elusive amid competing priorities
among Republicans who control the House and the Democratic
majority in the Senate. Such tax changes have previously been
set aside as immediate budget issues, including mandatory
spending cuts that began this month, took priority.

State and local treasurers need to continue lobbying to
preserve the tax-exemption in Congress, where lawmakers will be
pressured to retain favorable tax breaks for charities and
mortgage interest, Cantor said.

“You need to keep focused on this and relay the benefit
that these bonds can provide to the people that you represent,”
Cantor told the treasurers.

To contact the reporter on this story:
William Selway in Washington at
wselway@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Merelman at
smerelman@bloomberg.net

Enlarge image

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said that it doesn’t make sense for the U.S. Congress to change the tax break.

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said that it doesn’t make sense for the U.S. Congress to change the tax break. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

March 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, talks about budget talks with President Obama and banking regulation.
Cantor, speaking to Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop,” also discusses the Skills Act bill to overhaul federal job training programs and the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Source: Bloomberg)

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-20/cantor-backs-municipal-bond-tax-break-as-needed-for-public-works.html

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) — While some prominent Democratic lawmakers accepted an invitation to accompany President Obama on his trip to Israel this week, various top Republicans opted not to join them.

Among them: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.  Cantor, who is Jewish, was invited to attend a state dinner in honor of the president in Jerusalem but turned down the request because of a vote in Washington on government funding and the 2014 budget.

Other GOP lawmakers said that their schedules conflicted with Obama’s visit to Israel, his first as president.

Meanwhile, Florida Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, and New York Congressman Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, eagerly agreed to make the trip.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Article source: http://www.kmbz.com/Eric-Cantor-and-Other-GOP-Lawmakers-Skip-Trip-to-I/15852489

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the most powerful members of the Congress – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor – signaled his support on Wednesday for maintaining the tax exemption of interest paid by municipal bonds, offering reassurance to the state and local governments that use the debt to finance infrastructure and other projects.

“The message was received at least in my office about the importance of that benefit,” Cantor, who as the second most powerful Republican in the House has been key in most fiscal and tax debates in Congress, told a meeting of the National Association of State Treasurers.

“Lord knows we can’t be pulling back on that right now given the current state of our infrastructure,” added Cantor, who is from Virginia.

For more than two years, President Barack Obama has suggested limiting the exemption to increase federal tax revenues.

The idea gained traction at the end of 2012, when the “fiscal cliff” crisis sent the U.S. government scrambling to bring in money without raising taxes. Some political leaders have broached doing away with it altogether.

State and local leaders say capping or eliminating the exemption will cost them billions of dollars at a time when their revenues are only just now recovering from 2007-09 recession.

The chairman of the committee drafting a reform plan for the federal tax system, fellow Republican Dave Camp, has already said he does not support a cap on the exemption.

Investors are willing to accept less in interest payments from municipal bonds because of the exemption. That in turn keeps borrowing costs low for the issuers in the $3.7 trillion market using the bonds to finance infrastructure, schools and hospitals.

Cantor added a note of caution, saying he had recently met with members of a philanthropic organization lobbying Congress to preserve the deduction people take for donations to charities. The municipal bond tax break has “stiff competition,” he said.

“You’re up against the charitable deduction,” he told the treasurers, who were visiting Capitol Hilln to press for the exemption. “The realtors are in town at some point. You’re up against the realtors and the mortgage deduction.”

In fiscal year 2011, the government missed out on collecting $30 billion in revenues because of the exemption, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/congressional-republican-leader-reassures-muni-193909378.html

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor
said curbing the tax exemption given to the $3.7 trillion
municipal-bond market may undermine the ability of state and
local governments to finance public works projects.

Cantor told the National Association of State Treasurers
today in Washington that it doesn’t make sense for the U.S.
Congress to change the tax break.

State and local government groups have been lobbying to
keep the income from municipal debt exempt from income taxes,
which hold down their borrowing costs for schools, roads and
mass-transit projects.

“The message was received, at least in my office, about
the importance of that benefit to states” in financing
projects, said Cantor, of Virginia. “Lord knows, we can’t be
pulling back on that right now given the current state of our
existing infrastructure.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
William Selway in Washington at
wselway@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Merelman at
smerelman@bloomberg.net

Enlarge image

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said that it doesn’t make sense for the U.S. Congress to change the tax break.

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said that it doesn’t make sense for the U.S. Congress to change the tax break. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

March 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, talks about budget talks with President Obama and banking regulation.
Cantor, speaking to Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop,” also discusses the Skills Act bill to overhaul federal job training programs and the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Source: Bloomberg)

Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-20/cantor-backs-municipal-bond-tax-break-as-needed-for-public-works.html

By: Linda J. Scott

and
Meena
Ganesan

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor waves after addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 15, 2013. Photo by Nicholas Kamm/ AFP/ Getty Images.

As Republicans work to reassess their party message and policy prescriptions for America, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has stepped up his outreach to minority groups who helped to re-elect President Barack Obama last fall.

The Virginia Republican in recent weeks has done the rounds by paying tribute to major civil rights landmarks, giving speeches about the importance of diversifying his party and on Tuesday, spoke to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

According to prepared remarks sent over by Cantor’s press office, he relayed that in Congress he hopes to significantly fix the education system for the most vulnerable — that high unemployment is directly tied to a quality education.

“Suppose colleges provided prospective students with reliable information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major,” Cantor said during the keynote address at the legislative lunch. “Armed with this knowledge, students and their families could make better decisions about where to go to school, and how to budget their tuition dollars.”

Cantor concluded his speech vaguely alluding to the immigration debate: He told the story of his grandparents’ journey to the United States from Russia, and reminding the audience of their united front.

Cantor received the group’s USHCC’s Legislator of the Year Award. He also received the award in 2010.

In a recent speech at Harvard University, Cantor said it’s time for a change. “Our party needs to do a better job of getting to know different constituencies,” he said. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Earlier this month GOP leader Cantor traveled to Selma, Ala., to mark the anniversary of what’s known as “Bloody Sunday.” In 1965, 600 non-violent protesters led by John Lewis, then chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, marched across the Edmund Pettus bridge to highlight the need for voting rights protections in Alabama.

The bloody confrontation on the bridge was a pivotal event in the civil rights movement and outcry against the beatings eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which opened up voting access for African-Americans. Lewis leads a bi-annual pilgrimage to Selma, and this year among those marching with him were Cantor, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Few if any Republicans usually make the trip attend, and Cantor stood out in the crowd.

Lewis told the NewsHour that all members of Congress are invited. “He took us up on our invitation and I know he was sincere in his outreach. We have to always look for any way we can find common ground,” Lewis said.

Cantor hasn’t stopped there. Following the Alabama trip, he posted photos of that day on his website. Cantor said on the House floor he was “so proud to have been in Selma” and he announced that he, Lewis and two others are launching a new website, The House and Selma: Bridging History and Memory. Cantor said it will help preserve historic testimonies from lawmakers about their contributions to the civil rights movement. “Their stories are part of our nation’s heritage and serve as a reminder to every American of the determination and sacrifice that shaped the greater democracy we live in today,” he said.

Cantor also visited this winter a private school in New Orleans to push his education reform ideas. He toured a depressed area of Washington, D.C., north of Capitol Hill, that is undergoing gentrification.

Cantor pushed through legislation last week called the SKILLS Act, designed to improve the nation’s workforce through training. Democrats opposed the bill, arguing it eliminates or consolidates 35 separate jobs programs and will wind up killing the training systems for those who need it most, but Cantor muscled the bill through on a mostly party line vote 215-202.

Politico recently wrote about Cantor’s push making some Republicans uncomfortable.

On Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Cantor told the activists gathered about some poor families that he had met over the last few weeks. He said the GOP can provide an agenda steeped in conservative principles of limited government and freedom to help families, but also told the red-meat-craving crowd that they have their work cut for them.

“Let’s face it, the opposition is organized,” Cantor said. “President Obama and his allies believe that the best solutions to our ills is cradle-to-grave government support. It is hard to get anything done in Washington when common ground is being held hostage by tax hikes.”

Article source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/cantor-continues-outreach-to-minority-groups.html

Pushing his party to do some “soul searching,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday night outlined a softer Republican message on immigration, education and government support for vulnerable Americans.

The Virginia Republican said the GOP needs to work harder to connect with “an increasingly diverse country.”

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said while speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Cantor’s remarks were part of an ongoing effort to improve the GOP’s image after painful election losses last November. National Republican leaders next week will release a plan — known as the “Growth and Opportunity Project” — designed to broaden the Republican Party‘s appeal among minorities and lower-income Americans.

Cantor said that millions of Americans need help because they’re suffering from a lack of education, skills, resources or time.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” he said, endorsing plans for a new funding formula now being used in San Francisco public schools.

On immigration, Cantor stopped short of endorsing a comprehensive package, but said children of illegal immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship.

“I say if we’re unable to get a comprehensive bill done first, at least we can start with the kids,” he said.

The House Republican leader also called for prioritizing federal investment in medical research. Specifically, he called for shifting federal funding away from “less immediate” needs and toward finding cures for diseases.

The policy prescriptions are consistent with his message in recent public appearances.

Cantor only briefly mentioned Congress’ recent inability to avert deep federal spending cuts — known in Washington-speak as “the sequester.” They included sweeping reductions to some of the same policy priorities in Cantor’s speech — education and scientific research, in particular.

Facing protesters who challenged him to support federal funding for a syringe exchange program, Cantor said the recent spending cuts require certain “tradeoffs.”

“Unfortunately, that sequester takes a very blunt instrument and says across-the-board cuts to all of government,” he said. “It eliminates or reduces, if you will, good programs the same way that it reduces bad. So I support research dollars. I support investment in the kinds of programs you’re talking about. But yes, there are tradeoffs.”

Also Read

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/cantor-offers-softer-gop-message-015406965.html

An outside group aligned with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has commissioned a report that warns conservatives against adopting an all-spending cuts, all-the-time message, and suggests that leaders on the right put a heavier emphasis on less abstract issues such as education and gas prices.

The poll, commissioned by the nonprofit YG Network and obtained by POLITICO, shows that even Americans concerned about deficits and debt are far more concerned with their own personal economic well-being.

Continue Reading

The YG Network polling, conducted by the GOP firm McLaughlin Associates, found that 38 percent of Americans name the “economy and jobs” as the issue of greatest importance to them. Twenty percent named “deficit and debt” as their top concern, and 16 percent pointed to health care.

“It is important to note that ‘economy and jobs’ is almost twice that of ‘deficit and debt,’” pollster John McLaughlin notes in the report.

The polling questions related to entitlements are just as bracing. Voters are willing to consider some changes to the Medicare system – raising the eligibility age to 67 and means-testing benefits – but less than half are enthusiastic about changing the system immediately in order to balance the budget over a decade.

Asked to choose one government program they would be willing to cut, only 14 percent of respondents named Social Security or Medicare. Just over three quarters – 76 percent – picked military spending or other, unspecified “welfare programs.”

The survey represents the latest prominent attempt by center-right leaders in Washington to nudge Republicans toward adopting a comprehensive political agenda that appeals to the middle class.

While public polls have shown the GOP continues to perform well on questions related to spending, the outcome of the 2012 election raised serious questions about the political potency of a message overwhelmingly anchored in hawkishness on the national debt. There are persistent doubts, even among foes of public spending, that a majority of the electorate is prepared to reward legislators for implementing deep cuts to government.

John Murray, who heads the YG Network, confirmed that the poll was “specifically designed to challenge the assumption that spending cuts as a central theme is sufficient.”

It’s not that spending restraint is a bad issue for conservatives, according to Murray; it’s just not enough, on its own, to drive middle-class support for a center-right policy vision.

“It doesn’t feel aspirational and it doesn’t feel like a message of the future,” said Murray, who suggested conservatives need an agenda “broad enough so [Americans] feel like it impacts them in a real way.”

The poll points specifically toward education and energy as areas where politicians on the right can better connect with voters. Eighty-eight percent of respondents in the poll said that energy prices hurt their personal finances, including 56 percent who said they hurt “a lot.” That’s considerably more than the percentage naming debt or government regulation as a personal financial problem.

McLaughlin’s report also found strong support for incremental proposals to create greater transparency in higher education; for example, 88 percent said they’d favor a measure requiring schools to give parents a full breakdown of tuition costs.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/poll-warns-republicans-of-focus-on-deficit-88954.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) spoke to a sparse crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday.

His speech was a stark contrast to the lively addresses given earlier in the day from National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.).

Cantor struck a somber tone and used anecdotal stories of inner-city children in a narrow speech arguing for school choice.

“School choice is the answer,” Cantor said.

His speech was not particularly partisan, although at one point he urged President Barack Obama and Democrats “to see the light.”

Cantor went on to invoke an adage from former President Ronald Reagan: “If we can’t make them see the light, we’ll make them feel the heat,” Cantor said.

The House Republican leader closed his remarks with a plea for Republican solidarity.

“Conservative ideas win,” he said.

Follow the liveblog for the latest updates from CPAC:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) came out on top of this year’s CPAC straw poll. Click here to read more.

From HuffPost’s Paige Lavender:

Orly Taitz, commonly known as the “Birther Queen,” was rebuked by blogger Pamela Geller during a Saturday panel on Islam and national security at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference.

Click here to read more.

HuffPost’s Jason Linkins reports:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took the stage Saturday at CPAC, praising the assemblage for its support during the fraught Wisconsin recall fight, which Walker won, allowing him to stay in power. His speech was themed around the idea that the states are the laboratories of policy — “Real reform does not happen in Washington, it happens in the statehouses throughout this country,” he said — and that he, in particular, was leading the way to end “government dependency.”

If future GOP presidential runs depend on silver-tongues articulation of dorm-room “makers vs. takers” arguments, then Walker’s future is pretty bright.

Click here to read more.

(Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

(Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

@ elisefoley :
RT @EvanMcSan: Steve King calls them “undocumented Democrats” #Immigration #CPAC2013

(Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

@ achorowitz :
Phyllis Schlafly just asked if we would please follow her on Twitter. What.

@ Bencjacobs :
Phyllis Schafly says immigrants will all vote Democratic, I don’t think Marco Rubio agrees #cpac

@ jmartpolitico :
Phyllis Schlafly: “comprehensive is a synonym for amnesty”

(Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)

@ elisefoley :
Palin exits to Shania Twain’s “She’s Not Just a Pretty Face.” Sample lyric: “She’s a geologist–a romance novelist”

@ elisefoley :
Palin’s referenced Big Gulps, guns annnnnnd, of course, White Hours tours, literally world’s most important topic.

@ politicoroger :
Palin: White House “has power to use drones without accountability, but not enough to open WH to kids for spring break.”#cpac2013

@ politicoroger :
Palin: “These experts keep making millions by losing elections.” #cpac2013

@ politicoroger :
Palin: “If you don’t have a lobbyist in DC, you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”

@ jonward11 :
“It’s time to stop preaching to the choir,” Palin tells choir.

@ HotlineJosh :
RT @AaronBlakeWP: Palin pauses her speech to take a sip from a Big Gulp. Crowd goes wild. “Bloomberg’s not around. Don’t worry.” #CPAC

@ joshgreenman :
(Wouldn’t have been banned.) MT @elisefoley: Palin drinking a Big Gulp on stage at CPAC. http://t.co/y2FlBCXKyk

@ achorowitz :
“You gotta be thinking Sam Adams, not drinking Sam Adams.” -Palin to college Republicans, adding “it was a joke.”

@ lgabriellel :
“He’s got the rifle, I’ve got the rack.” –Sarah Palin on Christmas gifts she and her husband bought each other. #CPAC2013

@ elisefoley :
Palin says Obama should “step away from the teleprompter and do [his] job.” Is she using one?

@ AaronBlakeWP :
Palin: “Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever. Barack Obama: You lie.” #CPAC

@ mpoindc :
After nodding to Obama’s win in ’12, Palin: “He’s considered a good politician — which is like saying Bernie Madoff was a good salesman.”

@ achorowitz :
“Came in second… out of 2!” -Palin, on 2012

@ AaronBlakeWP :
Palin: “More background checks? Dandy idea Mr. President. Shoulda started with yours.” #CPAC

@ AaronBlakeWP :
Palin on Cruz: “He chews barbed wire, he spits out rust.” #CPAC

@ AaronBlakeWP :
Ted Cruz: “I would not be in the United States Senate today if it were not for Gov. Palin.” #CPAC

@ jonward11 :
Cruz says Palin “drives the mainstream media bat crap crazy.”

@ jonward11 :
“The mainstream media wants us to shut up … to accept defeat … to be timid and hide in the corner.” – Ted Cruz

@ achorowitz :
“I am not remotely cool enough to be Sarah Palin” -Ted Cruz

@ jonward11 :
despite his efforts, this crowd still seems a little skeptical of Artur

@ jonward11 :
in first #CPAC speech, Artur Davis tries to win over activists who might be skeptical of him, sets up critique of party, by bashing media

@ ariannahuff :
Jeb Bush at #cpac2013: “If you’re fortunate enough to count yourself among the privileged, the rest of the nation is drowning.”

@ sanuzis :
Huge line for Dr. Carson’s book signing at #cpac2013 http://t.co/ipFcQ3OoBh

@ CraigCaplan :
.@SenTedCruz served as introductory speaker at #CPAC 2011. Tonight he’s #CPAC2013 last keynote speaker of the day. http://t.co/Z3paWaRWgv

@ LOLGOP :
The thesis statement of every speech at #CPAC2013: Read my book.

@ daveweigel :
Betting on a Ben Carson/Tim Scott 2016 GOP ticket

@ samsteinhp :
Dr Carson is a grt, thought provoking speaker but i don’t get this line: “Nobody’s starving on the streets, we’ve always taken care of them”

@ daveweigel :
RT @igorvolsky: Wow, Fox News is carrying Dr. Ben Carson’s speech live. Newt or Bachmann didn’t even get this kind of treatment…

@ daveweigel :
Carson: “Many people don’t know this, but socialism started as a reaction to America.” It did?

@ achorowitz :
Bachmann argues for more funding for cancer, Alzheimer’s research. Great, but, the Ryan budget cut funding for medical research.

@ UrquhartMP :
Speaker says the “2nd amendment is under siege. Especially in our schools.” #CPAC2013

@ CPACnews :
@RealBenCarson up next at #CPAC2013

@ RightWingWatch :
According to Bachmann at #CPAC2013, conservatism is “the movement of love, the movement of care.”

@ vdare :
Bachmann’s speech is surprisingly unfocused. Jumping from one issue to another. It’s like a campaign speech. #CPAC

@ daveweigel :
Bachmann spending a lot of time hitting WH for wasteful spending on personnel. Okay, then. http://t.co/isCrAMPbFf

@ AaronBlakeWP :
Bachmann on two full-time projectionists in White House: “I don’t mean to be petty here, but can’t they just push the play button.” #CPAC

@ ACUConservative :
@TeamBachmann on what Obama should say to UN: “The future does not belong to the low-life murderers who kill innocent Americans.” #CPAC2013

@ KatrinaTrinko :
Bachmann slamming Obama for going to Vegas after Benghazi consulate attack to meet with Jay-Z and Beyonce #cpac2013

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• The American Conservative Union’s 2012 Rankings

  On Feb. 21, 2013, a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”The American Conservative Union/a released its 2012 conservative ratings guide. Which members of Congress had a perfect score?

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)

  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)

  Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

  (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

  (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)

  (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)

  (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.)

  (Photo By Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)

  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/dan-burton-retirement-indiana-gop_n_1244141.html”Editor’s note:/a Burton retired from Congress in January 2012/em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/jeff-flake-election-results-2012_n_2049514.html”Editor’s note:/a Flake became a U.S. senator in Jan. 2013/em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. John Fleming (R-La.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.)

  (Photo by Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/wally-harger-retirement-california-republican_n_1197156.html”Editor’s note:/a Herger retired from Congress in January 2012./em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.)

  (Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/charles-boustany-wins_n_2267276.html”Editor’s note:/a Landry was defeated by fellow Republican Charles Boustany in Dec. 2012′s special election./em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call via Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/david-schweikert_n_1838371.html”Editor’s note:/a Quayle was defeated by David Schweikert in the Republican primary for Arizona’s 6th congressional district./em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.)

  (Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.)

  (Photo by Bill Clark/Getty Images)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/tim-scott-senate_n_2315830.html”Editor’s note:/a Scott was appointed U.S. Senator by S.C. Gov Nikki Haley in Dec. 2012, taking the seat of Jim DeMint./em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  ema href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/cliff-stearns-planned-parenthood-reelection_n_1777602.html”Editor’s Note:/a Stearns lost the Aug. 2012 GOP primary to retain his House seat./em

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)

  (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.)

  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

• Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.)

  (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

  a href=”http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1174985/8b2d5dc5f6/ARCHIVE”Source: American Conservative Union 2012 Rankings /a

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/eric-cantor-cpac-speech-2013_n_2857501.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) discussed the need for school choice reform in the United States during his speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday afternoon.

“There is no longer a debate about whether federal education policy is working,” he said. “More money goes in, and the results stay the same. It’s not fair to taxpayers, it’s not fair to parents, and most importantly, it’s not fair to the kids.”

Cantor spoke of impoverished students in New York, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. that benefitted from private school vouchers, noting how public schools are not always the answer for some students.

“Today, too many of the most vulnerable children in our country are stuck in schools that don’t work. The schools are too dangerous, they don’t teach to grade level, and they certainly are not preparing our kids for college or a better future,” the House Majority leader commented.

Cantor also pointed out how Republicans have historically led the fight, as the American Conservative Union — which hosts CPAC each year — called on then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to replace education subsidies with tax credits that fund alternative forms of education, like cyber and magnet schools. He urged today’s conservative to follow through with this, so that students can have the best opportunities available to them regardless of their economic status.

“A competitive environment, where schools compete for students rather than the other way around, gives every child an equal chance at a greater destiny,” Cantor said. “No parent or child should be forced to wait for failing school systems to get their acts together.”

Article source: http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/03/16/eric-cantor-stresses-the-need-for-school-choice-reform-during-cpac-speech/

March 15, 2013 1:39 PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said that Republicans must recognize the importance of education reform to America’s future economic prosperity, saying parents should be able to decide where their children are educated: “In short, school choice is the answer.”

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50142930n

With the
automatic sequestration cuts geared up to slash billions of dollars from
domestic programs, military funding, social services, and government-sponsored
scientific research — including about a 6 percent reduction for the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) –
policymakers and professionals are scrambling to stave off the worst by
resetting priorities. In a major speech last month, House majority leader Eric
Cantor (R-VA), proposed outright to defund political and social
science: “Funds currently spent by the government on social science –
including on politics of all things — would be better spent on curing
diseases,” he said, echoing a similar proposal he made in 2009. Florida
Governor Rick Scott has made a similar push, proposing to divert state funds from disciplines like anthropology and
psychology “to degrees where people can get jobs,” especially in technology and
medicine. Those are fighting words, but they’re also simple-minded.

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Social science
may sound like a frivolous expenditure to legislative budget hawks, but far
from trimming fat, defunding these programs would fundamentally undercut core
national interests. Like it or not, social science research informs everything from national
security to technology development to healthcare and economic management. For example, we can’t decide which drugs to take, unless their risks and benefits are properly assessed, and we can’t
know how much faith to have in a given science or engineering project, unless
we know how much to trust expert judgment. Likewise, we can’t fully prepare to
stop our adversaries, unless we understand the limits of our own ability to see
why others see the world differently. Despite hundreds of billions of taxpayer
dollars poured into the global war on terrorism, radicalization against our
country’s core interests continues to spread — and social science offers better
ways than war to turn the tide. 

In support of Rep. Cantor’s
push to defund political and social science, a recent article in the Atlantic notes that “money [that] could
have gone to towards life-saving cancer research” instead went to NSF-sponsored
projects that “lack real-world impact” such as “the $750,000 spent studying the ‘sacred values‘ involved in cultural
conflict.” Perhaps the use of words like “sacred” or “culture” incites such scorn,
but as often occurs in many denunciations of social science, scant attention is
actually paid to what the science proposes or produces. In fact, the results of
this particular project — which I direct — have figured into numerous
briefings to the National Security Staff at the White House, Senate and House committees, the Department of State and
Britain’s Parliament,
and the Israeli Knesset (including the prime minister and defense minister). In
addition, the research offices of the Department of Defense have also supported my
team’s work, which figures prominently in recent strategy assessments that
focus on al Qaeda and broader problems of
radicalization and
political violence.

Let me try to explain just
exactly what it is that we do. My research team conducts laboratory experiments, including
brain imaging studies — supported by field work with
political leaders, revolutionaries, terrorists, and others — that show sacred
values to be core determinants of personal and social identity (“who I am” and
“who we are”). Humans process these identities as moral rules, duties, and
obligations that defy the utilitarian and instrumental calculations of realpolitik or the marketplace. Simply
put, people defending a sacred value
will not trade its incarnation (Israel’s settlements, Iran’s nuclear fuel rods,
America’s guns) for any number of iPads, or even for peace.

The sacred values of “devoted
actors,” it turns out, generate actions independent of calculated risks, costs,
and consequences — a direct contradiction of prevailing “rational actor” models
of politics and economics, which focus on material interests. Devoted actors,
in contrast, act because they sincerely and deeply believe “it’s the right
thing to do,” regardless of risks or rewards. Practically, this means that such
actors often harness deep and abiding social and political commitments to
confront much stronger foes. Think of the American revolutionaries, who were
willing to sacrifice “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” in the
fight for liberty against the greatest military power of the age — or modern
suicide bombers willing to sacrifice everything for their cause.

123NEXT

Article source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/03/15/social_warfare_budget_republicans

Steve Scalise, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, would like President Barack Obama to “greenlight the Keystone pipeline.”

“With one stroke of the pen,” he claimed, “the president could create over 25,000 jobs.”

Off by several thousand, actually.

According to a study conducted by the Cornell University Global Labor Institute, “The project will create no more than 2,500-4,650 temporary direct construction jobs for two years, according to TransCanada’s own data supplied to the State Department,” and, “The company’s claim that KXL will create 20,000 direct construction and manufacturing jobs in the U.S is not substantiated.”

More to the point, we are talking about jobs that are “temporary” and “non-local:”

In its application to the NEB, TransCanada stated:

“Total direct and indirect construction employment that will amount to about 5310 person- months of employment and an estimated $58 million in wages and salaries. This includes the Hardisty B terminal, pipeline and eight pump stations and their associated power lines… Construction is short term, workers’ families are not expected to move into the area and area medical facilities are adequate to deal with any on-the-job injuries.”

In the US, construction jobs will be created in the 6 states along the pipeline’s route. Based on the FEIS estimates, there would also be between 3 and 7 person-years of construction labor per mile of new pipeline construction in 5 states—Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. There would also be about 60-120 person-years of construction labor to upgrade the existing Keystone pipeline in Kansas.

The State Department’s FEIS states that “the proposed Project has the potential to generate substantial direct and indirect economic benefits for local and regional economies along the pipeline route.” However, the report also estimates that just 500 to 900 workers are expected to be hired locally—roughly 10-15% of the total workers hired. In some states, this could mean that the number of local workers hired for the project could be fewer than 100.

Based on data provided by TransCanada to the State Department, only between 506 and 1,387 workers would be hired locally.

The Cornell University study goes on to note that “the industry’s claim that KXL will create 119,000 total jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) is based on a flawed and poorly documented study commissioned by TransCanada,” and that “KXL will not be a major source of US jobs, nor will it play any substantial role at all in putting Americans back to work. Even if the Perryman figures were accurate, and all of the workers for the next phase of the project were hired immediately, the US seasonally adjusted unemployment rate would remain at 9.1 percent — exactly where it is now.”

In their own draft environmental impact statement, approving of the pipeline, the State Department acknowledges that “after construction is completed, the project would generate 35 permanent and 15 temporary jobs, primarily for routine inspections, maintenance and repairs.”

– Jason Linkins

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/eric-cantor-cpac_n_2857500.html

(CNN) –

Even after a meeting with President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor couldn’t say for sure whether the new effort by the White House to reach out to Republicans is genuine.

“I hope that he is sincere in wanting to work together. Because the fact is, there are a lot of things that we do agree on. We know we’ve got to balance the budget. We know that there are things in common within his proposals and in ours,” Cantor said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Obama met Wednesday with House Republicans in a meeting that began with lawmakers giving the president a standing ovation, though afterwards there was little evidence the meeting yielded much in the way of compromise.

Cantor said Thursday “the tone and the reception was appropriate” at the meeting with the House GOP, adding that the two sides could agree “that we all want to do right by the people that elect us.”

“There’s a lot of disaffected Americans out there, working families, who just want to see their life work again,” Cantor said. “And I believe that all of us want to see folks who are in failing schools to have parents have the ability to give their children an opportunity to a quality education.”

Some Republicans have been skeptical of Obama’s recent “charm offensive,” suggesting it’s merely a political move to appear more conciliatory. Asked again whether he thought Obama’s outreach was sincere, Cantor would only say “I certainly hope so.”

“It would be a good thing, I think for the country,” he continued. “And, you know, the problem is, you have some fundamental disagreements there.”

Article source: http://www.ksat.com/news/politics/Cantor-on-Obama-outreach-I-hope-he-is-sincere/-/2567674/19321982/-/fxcblm/-/index.html

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Article source: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/14/gop-leader-eric-cantor-talks-with-cnn-about-rep-paul-ryans-budget-and-tax-increases/

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

Protesters display placards while demonstrating during an address by House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. The demonstrators called attention to what they describe as Cantor’s opposition to funding syringe exchange programs for people with HIV and AIDS. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Steven Senne

Cantor offers softer GOP message

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Posted: Monday, March 11, 2013 7:53 pm
|


Updated: 10:12 pm, Mon Mar 11, 2013.

Cantor offers softer GOP message

Associated Press |

0 comments

Pushing his party to do some “soul searching,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday night outlined a softer Republican message on immigration, education and government support for vulnerable Americans.

The Virginia Republican said the GOP needs to work harder to connect with “an increasingly diverse country.”

© 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Posted in
Nation world

on

Monday, March 11, 2013 7:53 pm.

Updated: 10:12 pm.

Article source: http://www.eastoregonian.com/news/nation_world/cantor-offers-softer-gop-message/article_7c7615fa-9d98-5588-94fd-ffbad6a49be4.html

Eric Cantor has spent the last four years carefully cultivating his image as a foil to President Barack Obama and the conservative conscience of House Speaker John Boehner.

No more.

Continue Reading

The man who once threatened to block emergency aid for tornado victims unless Congress found an “offset” is now pitching himself as a man just looking to get important issues like job training and education reform through a partisan Congress.

So far this year, Cantor has maneuvered behind the scenes to push the Violence Against Women Act through the House — scheduling a vote on the floor before an angry Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy had a chance to gauge its support.

He kept lawmakers in town during a storm chiefly to mark up job education legislation.

He made a high-profile visit to Selma, Ala., with Democratic Rep. and civil rights icon John Lewis.

And he spoke on education at a school in New Orleans and – wait for it – Harvard.

In case anyone misses the message, it’s tough to find a Cantor press release these days without some mention of “moms,” “dads” and “families.”

Cantor’s move to the middle comes as many national Republicans are looking to broaden the party’s appeal after a disastrous election in which they failed to win the White House or the Senate and lost seats in the House. A message beyond balancing budgets and fiscal brinksmanship could help on that front.

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said Monday at Harvard, the AP reported. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Cantor later added, “One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable.”

Of course, he has personal motivations. Boehner won’t be in that job forever, and Cantor would be a natural candidate for the job should it become available. A few legislative achievements on the national level could bolster his résumé in what could be a crowded race for speaker.

Cantor isn’t the only one trying to figure things out for the GOP. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus visited Brooklyn, N.Y., on Monday as part of his effort to figure out just why minorities are driven away from the party.

But much of the direction of the House Republicans came from Cantor. He famously burnished his anti-Obama credentials in 2009, when he held all Republicans together against voting for the stimulus. Cantor also became the anchor to the right of Boehner, pulling him away from a large-scale deficit compromise with Obama in 2011. Cantor even demanded that Congress should offset federal money meant to aid victims of a Missouri tornado — a position he’s now completely abandoned.

A post-election poll in 2009 — it cost Cantor around $35,000 — helped him craft his anti-spending message. Obama was seen as popular, the poll showed, but his policies were not.

Four years later, Cantor paid $66,500 to a polling firm ahead of his policy tour. His office declined to say what that expenditure was for, but in an email said, “Like every elected leader and political and policy organization in Washington, we examined public opinion after the election in order to learn lessons.”

The behind-the-scenes machinations are rich with Capitol Hill intrigue.

Last week, so eager was Cantor to pass VAWA — originally penned by then-Sen. Joe Biden — he scheduled a vote on the GOP alternative on the House floor before McCarthy could gauge whether it would pass , according to more than a half-dozen aides and lawmakers.

When McCarthy had whipped the bill, it was clear that it would fall way short. But Cantor pressed ahead, telling colleagues he wanted a vote on the GOP plan even if only 100 Republicans were on board, knowing that would lead to the House passing the bipartisan Senate measure with Democrats on board. Boehner caught flak for violating the so-called Hastert Rule — passing legislation a majority of Republicans opposed.

McCarthy didn’t want to get blamed for the speed with which Cantor was moving, those present said.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/cantors-move-to-middle-rankles-gop-leaders-88791.html

By Scott Malone
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 11 (Reuters) – Both U.S. political parties need to do a better job connecting with moderate Americans rather than staking out extreme positions, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives said on Monday.
Representative Eric Cantor’s comments came as Republicans and Democrats are trying to strike a more conciliatory tone after more than two years at loggerheads over how to begin to pay down the $16.7 trillion federal debt.
“There is a need for us, either side, to go and convince the middle that you’re right because most people are not so partisan or ideological,” Cantor, the House majority leader known for his combative style, said at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, outside Boston.
“I don’t necessarily believe that demagoguery or fire with fire is the way to convince the independents, if you will, that there’s a better way.”
Both the Republicans and President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party in recent weeks have signaled a new willingness to at least listen to each other, with Obama last week holding a series of meetings and a dinner with Republican lawmakers in a bid to thaw icy relations.
“The president has embarked on what the media claims is a charm offensive. I think it is overdue that he does that,” said Cantor, of Virginia, who has taken more conservative than moderate positions in past political fights.
“It’s about getting to know one another, it’s about developing a knowledge of how far you can go, what the sensitivities are, politically and personally … every time we revert to campaign mode it’s very difficult to get anything done on policy,” Cantor said.
The 2012 elections were a blow to the Republican Party, which failed to unseat Obama and lost seats in both the House of Representatives and Senate.
Cantor last month gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, in which he tried to soften his party’s tone of opposition to Obama, while balancing the need to stay true to its ideals.
The Republicans need to balance their conservative economic policies with a changing society, Cantor said.
“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said, adding that Republicans could “do some real soul searching in terms of how we can connect with an increasingly diverse country.” (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Todd Eastham)

Also on HuffPost:

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• Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 112th Congress (2011-present)

• Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 110th 111th Congress (2007-2011)

• John Boehner (R-Ohio)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 109th Congress (2006-07). Boehner was elected by the Republican conference in Feb. 2006, replacing Roy Blunt. Blunt served as interim Majority Leader after Tom DeLay stepped down in Sept. 2005.

• Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 109th Congress (2005-06). Blunt was elected as interim leader in Sept. 2005 after Tom DeLay stepped down.

• Tom DeLay (R-Texas)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 108th 109th Congress (2003-05). DeLay stepped aside in September 2005.

• Dick Armey (R-Texas)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 104th-107th Congress (1995-2005)

• Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 101st-103rd Congress (1989-95). Gephardt was lifted to the role of House Majority Leader in June 1989, when Tom Foley took over the role of Speaker of the House.

• Thomas Foley (D-Wash.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 100th 101st Congress (1987-89). Foley was elevated to Speaker of the House in June 1989 after James Wright resigned.

• James C. Wright Jr. (D-Texas)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 95th-99th Congress (1977-87)

• Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 93rd 94th Congress (1973-77)

• Hale Boggs (D-La.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 92nd Congress (1971). Boggs (pictured middle) was presumed dead in an Oct. 1972 plane crash.

• Carl Albert (D-Okla.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 87th-91st Congress (1962-1971). Albert was elected to the post after John McCormack’s Jan. 1962 rise to Speaker of the House.

• John W. McCormack (D-Mass.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 76th-79th Congress (1940-47), 81st 82nd Congress (1949-53), and 84th-87th Congress (1955-62). After the death of Sam Rayburn, McCormack was lifted to a new role in Jan. 1962 as Speaker of the House.

• Charles Halleck (R-Ind.)

  (Pictured center) a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 80th 83rd Congress (1947-49, 1953-55).

• Sam Rayburn (D-Texas)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 75th 76th Congress (1937-40). Elected Speaker of the House in September 1940 after the death of William Bankhead.

• William Bankhead (D-Ala.)

  (Pictured far right) a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 74th Congress (1935-36). Elected Speaker of the House after the death of Joseph Byrns. According to Congressional records, John J. O’Connor served the final 14 days of Bankhead’s term, but was never formally elected.

• Joseph W. Byrns (D-Tenn.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 73rd Congress (1933-35). In Jan. 1935, Byrns was sworn in as House Speaker.

• Henry Rainey (D-Ill.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 72nd Congress (1931-33)

• John Tilson (R-Conn.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 69th-71st Congress (1925-31)

• Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio)

  (Back row, 2nd from right) a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 68th Congress (1923-25)

• Frank Mondell (R-Wyo.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 66th 67th Congress (1919-23)

• Claude Kitchin (D-N.C.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 64th 65th Congress (1915-19)

• Oscar Underwood (D-Ala.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 62nd 63rd Congress (1911-15)

• Sereno Payne (R-N.Y.)

  a href=”http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/leaders.aspx”House Majority Leader/a, 56th-61st Congress (1899-1911)

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/12/eric-cantor-moderates_n_2857228.html

House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor called for improvements to the American education system in an address at the Institute of Politics Monday evening.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” Cantor said, advocating for the charter school concept.

But the news of the night came as a protest staged by a campaign led by the Harvard College Global Health and AIDS Coalition interrupted Cantor’s appearance. After the group refused requests by Institute of Politics moderator C. M. Trey Grayson ’94 to return to their seats and cease their chorus of, “Lift the ban”, they were escorted out of the forum by security personnel.

Coalition members, who were not forcibly removed, primarily protested Cantor’s support for a two-year-old ban on federal funding of a needle exchange program that allows drug users to trade in dirty needles for new ones, thus preventing the spread of blood-borne diseases like HIV.

When asked whether he would vote to lift the appropriations ban if it is brought back before Congress on March 27, Cantor said, “No, I won’t.”

To this, protesters replied, “Shame on you!” and began their chant of, “Lift the ban!”

The coalition was participating in a campaign with Harvard Medical School students and members of local AIDS awareness group ACTUP/Boston.

The protest launched when coalition member Darshali A. Vyas ’14 made the first statement of the post-speech discussion, asking fellow campaigners to stand up with her. After the delegation had risen, Vyas recounted Cantor’s last visit to the IOP, which the group also protested.

During that visit, Cantor stated that the government did not have the money to fund certain AIDS research and treatment funding.

Vyas said that after being escorted out, she and fellow demonstrators “chanted in front of the window until [HUPD] asked us to stop” and told them to move away from the Kennedy School’s Littauer Building.

Indoors, Cantor continued to participate in the question and answer session, remarking that “As far as the activists who just left, it wouldn’t be Harvard without that.”

Cantor’s address, which preceded the protest, focused primarily on federal spending cuts and the importance of medical advancements, something he said would be aided by improvements to the American education system.

Cantor also discussed the need to fix the higher education system, saying that this issue was at the center of his conversation with University President Drew G. Faust earlier Monday morning.

In addition to discussing general goals for the country during his speech, Cantor also stated his positions on a number of contentious political issues currently plaguing leaders in Washington. He stressed that mental health care reform deserves prominent attention in the gun control debate that has developed since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, pointing to Virginia’s response to the 2007 shooting at Virginia Technical University. After the shooting, the state mandated updates to its mental health databases, thus improving the gun-buyer background check system.

—Staff writer Steven R. Watros can be reached at watros@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @SteveWatros.

Article source: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/3/12/protest-cantor-aids-address/

BOSTON —
Pushing his party to do some “soul searching,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday night outlined a softer Republican message on immigration, education and government support for vulnerable Americans.

The Virginia Republican said the GOP needs to work harder to connect with “an increasingly diverse country.”

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said while speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Cantor’s remarks were part of an ongoing effort to improve the GOP’s image after painful election losses last November. National Republican leaders next week will release a plan – known as the “Growth and Opportunity Project” – designed to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal among minorities and lower-income Americans.

Cantor said that millions of Americans need help because they’re suffering from a lack of education, skills, resources or time.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” he said, endorsing plans for a new funding formula now being used in San Francisco public schools.

On immigration, Cantor stopped short of endorsing a comprehensive package, but said children of illegal immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship.

“I say if we’re unable to get a comprehensive bill done first, at least we can start with the kids,” he said.

The House Republican leader also called for prioritizing federal investment in medical research. Specifically, he called for shifting federal funding away from “less immediate” needs and toward finding cures for diseases.

The policy prescriptions are consistent with his message in recent public appearances.

Cantor only briefly mentioned Congress’ recent inability to avert deep federal spending cuts – known in Washington-speak as “the sequester.” They included sweeping reductions to some of the same policy priorities in Cantor’s speech – education and scientific research, in particular.

Facing protesters who challenged him to support federal funding for a syringe exchange program, Cantor said the recent spending cuts require certain “tradeoffs.”

“Unfortunately, that sequester takes a very blunt instrument and says across-the-board cuts to all of government,” he said. “It eliminates or reduces, if you will, good programs the same way that it reduces bad. So I support research dollars. I support investment in the kinds of programs you’re talking about. But yes, there are tradeoffs.”

The Associated Press

Article source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/11/cantor-offers-softer-gop-message/

By Scott Malone

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) – Both political parties need to do a better job connecting with moderate Americans rather than staking out extreme positions, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives said on Monday.

Representative Eric Cantor‘s comments came as Republicans and Democrats are trying to strike a more conciliatory tone after more than two years at loggerheads over how to begin to pay down the $16.7 trillion federal debt.

“There is a need for us, either side, to go and convince the middle that you’re right because most people are not so partisan or ideological,” Cantor, the House majority leader known for his combative style, said at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, outside Boston.

“I don’t necessarily believe that demagoguery or fire with fire is the way to convince the independents, if you will, that there’s a better way.”

Both the Republicans and President Barack Obama‘s Democratic Party in recent weeks have signaled a new willingness to at least listen to each other, with Obama last week holding a series of meetings and a dinner with Republican lawmakers in a bid to thaw icy relations.

“The president has embarked on what the media claims is a charm offensive. I think it is overdue that he does that,” said Cantor, of Virginia, who has taken more conservative than moderate positions in past political fights.

“It’s about getting to know one another, it’s about developing a knowledge of how far you can go, what the sensitivities are, politically and personally … every time we revert to campaign mode it’s very difficult to get anything done on policy,” Cantor said.

The 2012 elections were a blow to the Republican Party, which failed to unseat Obama and lost seats in both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Cantor last month gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank, in which he tried to soften his party’s tone of opposition to Obama, while balancing the need to stay true to its ideals.

The Republicans need to balance their conservative economic policies with a changing society, Cantor said.

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said, adding that Republicans could “do some real soul searching in terms of how we can connect with an increasingly diverse country.”

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Todd Eastham)

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-ignore-moderates-republican-cantor-warns-023140285--business.html

House majority leader Eric Cantor, of Va., speaks at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., Monday, March 11, 2013. (Steven Senne/AP)

BOSTON — Pushing his party to do some “soul searching,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday night outlined a softer Republican message on immigration, education and government support for vulnerable Americans.

The Virginia Republican said the GOP needs to work harder to connect with “an increasingly diverse country.”

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said while speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Cantor’s remarks were part of an ongoing effort to improve the GOP’s image after painful election losses last November. National Republican leaders next week will release a plan – known as the “Growth and Opportunity Project” – designed to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal among minorities and lower-income Americans.

Cantor said that millions of Americans need help because they’re suffering from a lack of education, skills, resources or time.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” he said, endorsing plans for a new funding formula now being used in San Francisco public schools.

On immigration, Cantor stopped short of endorsing a comprehensive package, but said children of illegal immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship.

“I say if we’re unable to get a comprehensive bill done first, at least we can start with the kids,” he said.

The House Republican leader also called for prioritizing federal investment in medical research. Specifically, he called for shifting federal funding away from “less immediate” needs and toward finding cures for diseases.

The policy prescriptions are consistent with his message in recent public appearances.

Cantor only briefly mentioned Congress’ recent inability to avert deep federal spending cuts – known in Washington-speak as “the sequester.” They included sweeping reductions to some of the same policy priorities in Cantor’s speech – education and scientific research, in particular.

Facing protesters who challenged him to support federal funding for a syringe exchange program, Cantor said the recent spending cuts require certain “tradeoffs.”

“Unfortunately, that sequester takes a very blunt instrument and says across-the-board cuts to all of government,” he said. “It eliminates or reduces, if you will, good programs the same way that it reduces bad. So I support research dollars. I support investment in the kinds of programs you’re talking about. But yes, there are tradeoffs.”

Article source: http://www.wbur.org/2013/03/11/cantor-harvard

BOSTON (AP) — Pushing his party to do some “soul searching,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Monday night outlined a softer Republican message on immigration, education and government support for vulnerable Americans.

The Virginia Republican said the GOP needs to work harder to connect with “an increasingly diverse country.”

“Our party needs to do a better job at getting to know different constituencies,” Cantor said while speaking at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “I am much about trying to force that to happen.”

Cantor’s remarks were part of an ongoing effort to improve the GOP’s image after painful election losses last November. National Republican leaders next week will release a plan — known as the “Growth and Opportunity Project” — designed to broaden the Republican Party‘s appeal among minorities and lower-income Americans.

Cantor said that millions of Americans need help because they’re suffering from a lack of education, skills, resources or time.

“One of my priorities this Congress will be to move heaven and earth to fix our education system for the most vulnerable,” he said, endorsing plans for a new funding formula now being used in San Francisco public schools.

On immigration, Cantor stopped short of endorsing a comprehensive package, but said children of illegal immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship.

“I say if we’re unable to get a comprehensive bill done first, at least we can start with the kids,” he said.

The House Republican leader also called for prioritizing federal investment in medical research. Specifically, he called for shifting federal funding away from “less immediate” needs and toward finding cures for diseases.

The policy prescriptions are consistent with his message in recent public appearances.

Cantor only briefly mentioned Congress’ recent inability to avert deep federal spending cuts — known in Washington-speak as “the sequester.” They included sweeping reductions to some of the same policy priorities in Cantor’s speech — education and scientific research, in particular.

Facing protesters who challenged him to support federal funding for a syringe exchange program, Cantor said the recent spending cuts require certain “tradeoffs.”

“Unfortunately, that sequester takes a very blunt instrument and says across-the-board cuts to all of government,” he said. “It eliminates or reduces, if you will, good programs the same way that it reduces bad. So I support research dollars. I support investment in the kinds of programs you’re talking about. But yes, there are tradeoffs.”

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/cantor-offers-softer-gop-message-014627626.html

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Hear House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Feb. 5, 2013 speech to the American Enterprise Institute, titled “Making Life Work for More People.” He set out priorities for government to make the American Dream possible for more people.

Guests

• Eric Cantor: House Majority Leader. US Representative (R-VA) (2001-present. Co-author “Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders.”

Resources

• American Enterprise Institute website– video of the speech
• about Eric Cantor

<!– Listen to call-in show audio –>

Article source: http://feeds.mpr.org/~r/MPR_NewsFeatures/~3/xdt1LMM5ZHQ/mpr_news_presents

In Switch, Backs Citizenship for Children of Illegal Aliens

By Reuters

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A top U.S. Republican lawmaker said on Sunday he would support granting citizenship to children who are in the country illegally in a sign that conservatives who oppose immigration amnesty will be playing defense as Congress takes on immigration reform in the coming months.

Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, said Congress could make quick progress on immigration if lawmakers agreed to give citizenship to children – an idea he opposed when it came up for a vote in 2010 as the DREAM Act.

“The best place to begin, I think, is with the children. Let’s go ahead and get that under our belt, put a win on the board,” Cantor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Cantor is leading an effort to improve his party’s image as many Republicans worry they will be consigned to irrelevancy in coming years if they do not reach out to the fast-growing Latino electorate, which strongly supports immigration reform.

President Barack Obama has made immigration reform a top priority of his second term in office and a bipartisan group of senators is working to draft legislation that would tackle the issue in a comprehensive manner, rather than the piecemeal approach that Cantor suggested.

Republican Senator John McCain, who is involved in that effort, said his group aims to provide a path to citizenship for all of those who are in the United States illegally, not just children, as long as border security is tightened.

“There are 11 million people living in the shadows. I believe that they deserve to come out of the shadows,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.”

That could be a tough sell for many of Cantor’s Republicans in the House, who say it would amount to amnesty for those who willingly broke the law.

“We want to make sure we’re compassionate and sensitive to their plight – these kids know no other place as home. On the other hand, we are a country of laws,” Cantor said.

Cantor declined to say whether he would support a pathway to citizenship for adults as well. He could be forced to take a stand one way or the other if McCain and his colleagues manage to pass their legislation out of the Senate.

Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said Cantor’s support for citizenship for children was a positive sign. But he said his colleagues in the Senate would be pushing for more.

“I’ve met these young people, and they will tell you, yes, I want a future, but what about my mom and dad?” Durbin said on “Meet the Press.” “We’re not stopping with the DREAM act, we’re beginning with the DREAM act and pushing forward.”

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The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.

Article source: http://forward.com/articles/170883/

Gov. Bobby Jindal‘s
voucher program could serve as a model for education reform and school choice nationwide,
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said during a visit to New Orleans
on Friday. Speaking with educators and parents at St. Mary’s Academy, Cantor said
he came to the city both to understand its complex educational policies as well
as review how federal dollars are being spent at the local level.

“We’re in New Orleans because education reform has really
taken hold here,” Cantor said, surrounded by parents and educators from St.
Mary’s Academy as well as representatives from the Recovery School District,
Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Louisiana Black Alliance for Educational
Options, a pro-school choice advocacy group.

“That’s really why we’re here — to try explore what has
been gained in terms of experience, to see how we can learn from this at the
federal level so we can help kids across the country like they’re being helped
here by this tremendous program that Gov. Jindal has put in place,” Cantor
added.

Cantor spent roughly an hour and a half at the private
Catholic girls school in New Orleans East. Run by the Archdiocese of New
Orleans, St. Mary’s opted into the state voucher program and now boasts a large
number of the scholarship students.

The Virginia Republican, who laid out his support for
vouchers during a January speech at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington, DC, said his visit to New Orleans only strengthened his belief in
school choice.

“I’ve seen today proof that the scholarship program that the
governor put into place is working,” Cantor said. “Parents do have and
should have the right to quality education for their kids.”

Gov. Jindal welcomed Cantor’s visit, saying he supported Cantor’s “efforts to start a national conversation about the importance of empowering parents and children with educational choice.”

The visit comes on the
same day the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a plan
that pays for vouchers through each student’s annual per-pupil allotment.

This funding mechanism, in which public funds follow voucher
students to private and parochial schools, was ruled
unconstitutional by a district judge in Baton Rouge in December. The
program remains in effect until the state Supreme Court rules on the issue in a
trial scheduled to begin March 19.

Black Alliance for Educational
Options State Director Eric Lewis, who also was at St. Mary’s
on Friday, said his organization has faith the Supreme Court will rule in favor of
the Jindal administration, adding “these individuals are taxpayers and their
money should be used to fund their child’s education.”

But Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of
Teachers, one of the parties in the Supreme Court case against the Jindal
administration, disagrees.

“An ideologue comes to New Orleans and pronounces public
education dead and says the model in New Orleans is the model for the United
States of America — and then he gets on a plane and goes to Washington,”
Monaghan said in a phone interview, referring to Cantor.

“(This) adds nothing to the conversation,” he said, saying a
more moderate, less partisan voice touting the plan would carry more value.”

March 15 is the last day for
families to apply for next year’s voucher program, which includes 134
schools statewide. Almost 5,000 students were enrolled for the program
in 118 schools during the 2012-2013 school year.

Orleans Parish education reporter Danielle Dreilinger
contributed reporting to this article.

Article source: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/03/eric_cantor_touts_gov_jindals.html

Gov. Bobby Jindal‘s
voucher program could serve as a model for education reform and school choice nationwide,
U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said during a visit to New Orleans
on Friday. Speaking with educators and parents at St. Mary’s Academy, Cantor said
he came to the city both to understand its complex educational policies as well
as review how federal dollars are being spent at the local level.

“We’re in New Orleans because education reform has really
taken hold here,” Cantor said, surrounded by parents and educators from St.
Mary’s Academy as well as representatives from the Recovery School District,
Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Louisiana Black Alliance for Educational
Options, a pro-school choice advocacy group.

“That’s really why we’re here — to try explore what has
been gained in terms of experience, to see how we can learn from this at the
federal level so we can help kids across the country like they’re being helped
here by this tremendous program that Gov. Jindal has put in place,” Cantor
added.

Cantor spent roughly an hour and a half at the private
Catholic girls school in New Orleans East. Run by the Archdiocese of New
Orleans, St. Mary’s opted into the state voucher program and now boasts a large
number of the scholarship students.

The Virginia Republican, who laid out his support for
vouchers during a January speech at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington, DC, said his visit to New Orleans only strengthened his belief in
school choice.

“I’ve seen today proof that the scholarship program that the
governor put into place is working,” Cantor said. “Parents do have and
should have the right to quality education for their kids.”

Gov. Jindal welcomed Cantor’s visit, saying he supported Cantor’s “efforts to start a national conversation about the importance of empowering parents and children with educational choice.”

The visit comes on the
same day the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a plan
that pays for vouchers through each student’s annual per-pupil allotment.

This funding mechanism, in which public funds follow voucher
students to private and parochial schools, was ruled
unconstitutional by a district judge in Baton Rouge in December. The
program remains in effect until the state Supreme Court rules on the issue in a
trial scheduled to begin March 19.

Black Alliance for Educational
Options State Director Eric Lewis, who also was at St. Mary’s
on Friday, said his organization has faith the Supreme Court will rule in favor of
the Jindal administration, adding “these individuals are taxpayers and their
money should be used to fund their child’s education.”

But Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of
Teachers, one of the parties in the Supreme Court case against the Jindal
administration, disagrees.

“An ideologue comes to New Orleans and pronounces public
education dead and says the model in New Orleans is the model for the United
States of America — and then he gets on a plane and goes to Washington,”
Monaghan said in a phone interview, referring to Cantor.

“(This) adds nothing to the conversation,” he said, saying a
more moderate, less partisan voice touting the plan would carry more value.”

March 15 is the last day for
families to apply for next year’s voucher program, which includes 134
schools statewide. Almost 5,000 students were enrolled for the program
in 118 schools during the 2012-2013 school year.

Orleans Parish education reporter Danielle Dreilinger
contributed reporting to this article.

Article source: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/03/eric_cantor_touts_gov_jindals.html

Laying a wreath during a moving ceremony at a Civil Rights Memorial where House Majority Leader Eric Cantor locked arms with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and held hands Rep. John Lewis — that’s not a picture that is common in highly partisan Washington.

Cantor, along with Hoyer and Lewis, joined more than 30 members of the House and Senate on the annual bipartisan Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama over the weekend, led by Lewis and organized by the nonprofit Faith and Politics Institute. Cantor is the highest-ranking Republican to go on the trip, a notable development at a time when the GOP is figuring out how to make inroads with minorities and how to expand its appeal.

“As human beings, I think all of us, Democrat or Republican, need to experience the pilgrimage to Montgomery and Selma. And I think, as a Republican, I want us to be able to find areas where we can go forward together,” Cantor said. “Really, it’s the spirit of the weekend that I take, and with that, find together what we can do and what we can accomplish.”

Cantor has recently been arguing that his party cares about everyday Americans and has solutions to their problems — focusing on jobs and education reform. But the trip wasn’t an out-of-the-blue foray for Cantor. Last year, he and Lewis led the effort to instruct the House historian to compile accounts of past and current House members involved with the civil-rights movement. The first installation of the project launches today, on the anniversary of the voting-rights march along the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where authorities attacked marchers, including Lewis.

On Sunday, pilgrimage participants, including Vice President Joe Biden, went to that bridge. Images from the attacks on marchers in 1965 helped create the momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court is considering ruling against Section 5 of the law, which requires certain states (mostly in the South) to get preclearance from the Justice Department or a federal court before implementing changes in voting laws and regulations.

“A lot of us were struck by that irony, but clearly Sunday was a day of atonement and reconciliation, and really, acknowledgment of the movement,” said Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, whose congressional district includes Selma.

Cantor said that the connection between the march in Selma and the court case was noted while on the trip. When asked whether the Voting Rights Act was still needed, he said, “I support the Voting Rights Act. I voted for it. We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court does.”

The bipartisan nature of the trip, which often includes family members (Cantor brought his son, Mikey), allows members of Congress to get to know each other outside of Washington, Sewell said.

She also had glowing praise for Cantor’s joining the trip, saying it was a “powerful testament” to him and showed “the significance that the fight for equality and justice is a bipartisan cause, it’s not just a Republican or Democratic issue.”

The trip even included Cantor giving a speech at the Alabama State Capitol not necessarily known for broad bipartisan gestures, about bringing that spirit of bipartisanship back to Washington.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be some break of sorts in the partisan wall. President Obama dined with a group of Senate Republicans Wednesday night, and he will be making trips to the Hill to speak with Republican and Democratic caucuses of both chambers.

“I welcome any and all of that,” Cantor said of Obama’s efforts. “I have always said we are ready and willing to engage with the White House and see how we can talk about those issues,” he said. “But it’s not just the fiscal issues that we’re concerned about. Yes, we have big differences there…. But there are other things that people face every day that need addressing.”

Sign up for The Edge,
National Journal’s afternoon newsletter delivered to your inbox, to get the latest take on what happened
in Washington today – and what’s coming next. Subscribe here.

Article source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/cantor-embarks-on-annual-civil-rights-pilgrimage-20130306

NBC

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor conceded that the across-the-board spending cuts of the upcoming sequester don’t “make any sense.” But he blamed President Barack Obama for proposing it and suggested that Republicans would be OK with the cuts kicking in.

“Clearly, this is not the best way to go about controlling spending,” Cantor said on “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Cantor pushed the argument that the House has taken up alternative measures to avoid the cuts in the sequester. The problem, he said, is that Obama wants to raise taxes “every three months.”

“The problem is every time you turn around, the answer is to raise taxes,” Cantor said. “He just got his tax hike on the wealthy. And you can’t in this town every three months raise taxes. Again, every time, that’s his response.”

“We’ve got a spending problem — everybody knows it,” Cantor added. “The House has put forward an alternative plan, and there’s been no response in any serious way from the Senate and the White House. And it’s time, we’ve really got to do it.”

Watch the clip of Cantor’s interview below, courtesy of NBC:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

SEE ALSO: 
Democratic Congressman tells Republican that the sequester wouldn’t be happening without GOP’s debt ceiling hostage-taking

Article source: http://www.businessinsider.com/eric-cantor-sequester-cuts-defense-obama-proposal-2013-2

Laying a wreath during a moving ceremony at a Civil Rights Memorial where House Majority Leader Eric Cantor locked arms with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and held hands Rep. John Lewis — that’s not a picture that is common in highly partisan Washington.

Cantor, along with Hoyer and Lewis, joined more than 30 members of the House and Senate on the annual bipartisan Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama over the weekend, led by Lewis and organized by the nonprofit Faith and Politics Institute. Cantor is the highest-ranking Republican to go on the trip, a notable development at a time when the GOP is figuring out how to make inroads with minorities and how to expand its appeal.

“As human beings, I think all of us, Democrat or Republican, need to experience the pilgrimage to Montgomery and Selma. And I think, as a Republican, I want us to be able to find areas where we can go forward together,” Cantor said. “Really, it’s the spirit of the weekend that I take, and with that, find together what we can do and what we can accomplish.”

Cantor has recently been arguing that his party cares about everyday Americans and has solutions to their problems — focusing on jobs and education reform. But the trip wasn’t an out-of-the-blue foray for Cantor. Last year, he and Lewis led the effort to instruct the House historian to compile accounts of past and current House members involved with the civil-rights movement. The first installation of the project launches today, on the anniversary of the voting-rights march along the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where authorities attacked marchers, including Lewis.

On Sunday, pilgrimage participants, including Vice President Joe Biden, went to that bridge. Images from the attacks on marchers in 1965 helped create the momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court is considering ruling against Section 5 of the law, which requires certain states (mostly in the South) to get preclearance from the Justice Department or a federal court before implementing changes in voting laws and regulations.

“A lot of us were struck by that irony, but clearly Sunday was a day of atonement and reconciliation, and really, acknowledgment of the movement,” said Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, whose congressional district includes Selma.

Cantor said that the connection between the march in Selma and the court case was noted while on the trip. When asked whether the Voting Rights Act was still needed, he said, “I support the Voting Rights Act. I voted for it. We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court does.”

The bipartisan nature of the trip, which often includes family members (Cantor brought his son, Mikey), allows members of Congress to get to know each other outside of Washington, Sewell said.

She also had glowing praise for Cantor’s joining the trip, saying it was a “powerful testament” to him and showed “the significance that the fight for equality and justice is a bipartisan cause, it’s not just a Republican or Democratic issue.”

The trip even included Cantor giving a speech at the Alabama State Capitol not necessarily known for broad bipartisan gestures, about bringing that spirit of bipartisanship back to Washington.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be some break of sorts in the partisan wall. President Obama dined with a group of Senate Republicans Wednesday night, and he will be making trips to the Hill to speak with Republican and Democratic caucuses of both chambers.

“I welcome any and all of that,” Cantor said of Obama’s efforts. “I have always said we are ready and willing to engage with the White House and see how we can talk about those issues,” he said. “But it’s not just the fiscal issues that we’re concerned about. Yes, we have big differences there…. But there are other things that people face every day that need addressing.”

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/cantor-embarks-annual-civil-rights-pilgrimage-062455011--politics.html

Laying a wreath during a moving ceremony at a Civil Rights Memorial where House Majority Leader Eric Cantor locked arms with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and held hands Rep. John Lewis — that’s not a picturethat is common in highly partisan Washington.

Cantor, along with Hoyer and Lewis, joined more than 30 members of the House and Senate on the annual bipartisan Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama over the weekend, led by Lewis and organized by the nonprofit Faith and Politics Institute. Cantor is the highest ranking Republican to have ever gone on the trip, a notable development at a time when the GOP is figuring out how to make inroads with minorities and how to expand its appeal.

“As human beings I think all of us, Democrat or Republican, need to experience the pilgrimage to Montgomery and Selma. And I think, as a Republican, I want us to be able to find areas where we can go forward together,” Cantor said. “Really, it’s the spirit of the weekend that I take, and with that, find together what we can do and what we can accomplish.”

Cantor has recently been arguing that his party cares about everyday Americans and has solutions to their problems — focusing on jobs and education reform. But the trip wasn’t an out-of-the-blue foray for Cantor. Last year, he and Lewis led the effort to instruct the House historian to compile accounts of past and current House members involved with the civil rights movement. The first installation of the project launches today, on the anniversary of the voting rights march along the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where authorities attacked marchers, including Lewis.

On Sunday, pilgrimage participants, including Vice President Joe Biden, went to that bridge. Images from the attacks on marchers in 1965 helped create the momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court is considering ruling against Section 5 of the law, which requires certain states (mostly in the South) to get “preclearance” from the Justice Department or a federal court before implementing changes in laws and regulations related to voting.

“A lot of us were struck by that irony, but clearly Sunday was a day of atonement and reconciliation, and really, acknowledgment of the movement,” said Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, whose Alabama Congressional district includes Selma.

Cantor said that the connection between the march in Selma and the court case was noted while on the trip. When asked whether the Voting Rights Act was still needed, he said, “I support the Voting Rights Act. I voted for it. We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court does.”

The bipartisan nature of the trip, which often includes family members (Cantor brought his son, Mikey), allows members of Congress to get to know each other outside of Washington, Sewell said.

She also had glowing praise for Cantor coming on trip, saying it was a “powerful testament” to him and showed “the significance that the fight for equality and justice is a bipartisan cause, it’s not just a Republican or Democratic issue.”

The trip even included a speech at the Alabama State Capitol by Cantor, not necessarily known for broad bipartisan gestures, about bringing that spirit of bipartisanship back to Washington.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be some break of sorts in the partisan wall in Washington. President Obama dined with a group of Senate Republicans last night, and he will be making trips to the Hill to speak with Republican and Democratic caucuses of both chambers.

“I welcome any and all of that,” Cantor said of Obama’s efforts. “I have always said we are ready and willing to engage with the White House and see how we can talk about those issues,” he said. “But it’s not just the fiscal issues that we’re concerned about. Yes, we have big differences there… But there are other things that people face every day that need addressing.”

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/behind-cantors-civil-rights-pilgrimage-alabama-113941814--politics.html

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s big speech at the American Enterprise Institute has been analyzed for its tone (warm), its rhetoric (soothing) and its intent (to show that Republicans want to improve life for everyday Americans). What about its ideas? Here is an (admittedly subjective) evaluation of the policy proposals Cantor laid out. Some of them are new, many of them are familiar, and what he has left out on several big issues gives his party some room to maneuver.

1. Give low-income parents school vouchers to help them pay for private schools. Cantor presented Joseph Kelly, “a heroic Dad,” who used the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to make sure his three children went to a school that would put them on a path to college. This is a traditional pillar of GOP education policy, but it has problems. Among them: Voucher programs are small-scale, and they are of most help to students whose parents already are heroic — engaged, motivated and invested in their children’s success. Grade: C.

2. Let federal education money follow students to whatever school they choose. In a similar proposal last year, Mitt Romney would have required states to let low income and disadvantaged students choose any school in the state, and their federal money would follow them. The approach raises a number of thorny logistical questions and entails a federal mandate to states, usually anathema to the GOP. In addition, like vouchers, it may not benefit the students most in need — that is those without involved parents. Grade: C.

3. Encourage or require colleges to provide information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major, and cost breakdowns between academic studies and amenities. There is no parent or prospective student who wouldn’t welcome this data, if only to go for that classics major with eyes wide open. Grade: A+.

4. Reduce tuition costs. Cantor mentioned this in the context of a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio. However, that proposal is about transparency, not low tuition costs. Cantor also mentioned reforming the student aid process to “give students a financial incentive to finish their studies sooner,” and encouraging “entrepreneurship in higher education, including for-profit schools.” Finishing faster is always a good idea from a cost standpoint, as long as low-income and non-traditional students have time for jobs that enable them to stay in school. For-profit colleges are a dicey proposition, under scrutiny as a result of high dropout and loan default rates, and misrepresentation in general. Grade: Incomplete.

5. Expand visa slots so foreign nationals with U.S. graduate degrees are allowed to stay in America to create their businesses and inventions here instead of somewhere else. This is a longstanding idea with broad bipartisan support, and is all but certain to be part of any immigration reform bill before Congress. Grade: A.

6. Streamline 47 different, overlapping federal job training programs. House Republicans have proposed a bill that consolidates 27 of the programs. President Obama has talked about consolidation but hasn’t made it a priority. With nine federal agencies and who knows how many congressional subcommittees involved, this is a heavy lift. But it is a sensible idea. Grade: B+.

7. Give working parents more flexibility. Cantor said state and municipal employees with hourly jobs are allowed to convert overtime into comp-time or flex-time. He said private-sector workers should be able to the same, so they can go to parent-teacher conferences without worrying about losing pay. Grade: A, as long as workers are able to choose the money or the time.

8. Simplify the tax code, make it more fair, and keep the child tax credit. “Loopholes and gimmicks benefitting those who’ve come to know how to work the system in Washington” are indefensible, Cantor said. “Working families should come first.” There’s broad agreement on these principles, but the details are sticky – for instance, what loopholes should be eliminated, and should increased revenue be a goal of any comprehensive reform? Grade: Incomplete.

9. Repeal the new 2.3 percent excise tax on manufacturers of medical devices. Cantor says the tax makes it harder for researchers to develop innovative devices. Obama says the cost of the tax – projected to raise $29 billion over 10 years — will be offset by business from a pool of 30 million people newly insured under the new health law. Cantor brought up the device tax in connection with rising health costs. Regardless of what happens to it, it’s only a tiny slice of that problem. Grade: C.

10. Modernize Medicare. Cantor proposed ending “the arbitrary division” between Part A payments to hospitals and Part B payments to doctors. He also said seniors should share in savings if their doctors and hospitals control costs. Would that destabilize Medicare finances? Would streamlining and modernizing involve Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan, endorsed by most of the GOP, to give seniors vouchers to buy private insurance? Grade: Incomplete.

11. Give states more flexibility on Medicaid, including the ability to offer patient-directed health coverage (health savings accounts and the like) and flexible benefit programs (consumers choose the benefits they want). These are longstanding conservative ideas that don’t sound particularly suited to a population that by definition is poor, in many cases is old or disabled, and overall is unlikely to get online to painstakingly research and compare plans, prices and treatments. Grade: D.

12. Make smarter federal investments in basic medical research. Cantor said he would redirect money currently spent on social science (including economics, psychology and demographics) to helping find cures for diseases. That’s a GOP cause and a fair point in an age of deficits. Grade: A.

13. Offer legal residency and citizenship to people illegally “brought to this country as children and who know no other home” (the DREAM Act), and include in any immigration bill border security, employment verification and a workable guest worker program. Cantor left out a pathway to citizenship for all illegal immigrants in the country, which is under discussion in the Senate and which polls show is supported by a large majority of Americans. Grade: B.

 

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Article source: http://www.nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/grading-13-ideas-from-eric-cantor-s-big-speech-20130206

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he hopes to work with President Obama on education, health care, immigration, and other issues, but House Whip Steny Hoyer dismisses this ‘fourth rebranding.’

By

Thomas Ferraro, Reuters /
February 5, 2013

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) of Virginia spoke tonight at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington. Rep. Cantor, one of President Obama’s chief critics, now says he wants to work with the president on immigration, health care, education, and more.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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Washington

Eric Cantor, the often combative second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, sought on Tuesday to rebrand himself and his party, voicing hope that they can work with President Barack Obama for the sake of all Americans.

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While not wavering from his conservative principles and desire to tame the record U.S. debt, Cantor expressed a new eagerness to help the needy in such areas as education, health care, immigration and moving up the economic ladder.

“Over the next two years, the House (Republican) majority will pursue an agenda based on a shared vision of creating the conditions for health, happiness and prosperity for more Americans and their families,” Cantor said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.

RECOMMENDED: 14 Republicans who might run in 2016

Some Democrats mocked Cantor’s bid to “rebrand” his party, with House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer noting that it was at least Cantor’s fourth time to do so.

But Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, hailed the House Republican leader’s tone and message.

“If House Republicans can adapt their agenda to match Leader Cantor’s words, this Congress could surprise people with how productive it can be,” Schumer said.

The House Republican leader did not endorse immigration reforms backed by Obama but voiced an openness on the matter.

Cantor said he favored providing “an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home.”

That appeared to represent a reversal for Cantor, who in 2010 voted against the Dream Act, which would have cleared the way for such young people to remain in the United States.

Cantor gave little ground on any of the other differences between House Republicans and Obama in his speech, which his office billed as a major policy address. But he offered a marked change in tone and a new willingness to get things done on a number of fronts important to voters.

Republicans were hammered in the 2012 election, which saw Obama win a second term and Democrats gain seats in the House and Senate. The Republican Party was labeled by some critics as “The Party of No,” one that preferred gridlock to compromise.

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Article source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0205/Can-a-kinder-gentler-Eric-Cantor-rebrand-Republicans

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s big speech at the American Enterprise Institute has been analyzed for its tone (warm), its rhetoric (soothing) and its intent (to show that Republicans want to improve life for everyday Americans). What about its ideas? Here is an (admittedly subjective) evaluation of the policy proposals Cantor laid out. Some of them are new, many of them are familiar, and what he has left out on several big issues gives his party some room to maneuver.

1. Give low-income parents school vouchers to help them pay for private schools. Cantor presented Joseph Kelly, “a heroic Dad,” who used the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to make sure his three children went to a school that would put them on a path to college. This is a traditional pillar of GOP education policy, but it has problems. Among them: Voucher programs are small-scale, and they are of most help to students whose parents already are heroic — engaged, motivated and invested in their children’s success. Grade: C.

2. Let federal education money follow students to whatever school they choose. In a similar proposal last year, Mitt Romney would have required states to let low income and disadvantaged students choose any school in the state, and their federal money would follow them. The approach raises a number of thorny logistical questions and entails a federal mandate to states, usually anathema to the GOP. In addition, like vouchers, it may not benefit the students most in need — that is those without involved parents. Grade: C.

3. Encourage or require colleges to provide information on the unemployment rate and potential earnings by major, and cost breakdowns between academic studies and amenities. There is no parent or prospective student who wouldn’t welcome this data, if only to go for that classics major with eyes wide open. Grade: A+.

4. Reduce tuition costs. Cantor mentioned this in the context of a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Ron Wyden and Marco Rubio. However, that proposal is about transparency, not low tuition costs. Cantor also mentioned reforming the student aid process to “give students a financial incentive to finish their studies sooner,” and encouraging “entrepreneurship in higher education, including for-profit schools.” Finishing faster is always a good idea from a cost standpoint, as long as low-income and non-traditional students have time for jobs that enable them to stay in school. For-profit colleges are a dicey proposition, under scrutiny as a result of high dropout and loan default rates, and misrepresentation in general. Grade: Incomplete.

5. Expand visa slots so foreign nationals with U.S. graduate degrees are allowed to stay in America to create their businesses and inventions here instead of somewhere else. This is a longstanding idea with broad bipartisan support, and is all but certain to be part of any immigration reform bill before Congress. Grade: A.

6. Streamline 47 different, overlapping federal job training programs. House Republicans have proposed a bill that consolidates 27 of the programs. President Obama has talked about consolidation but hasn’t made it a priority. With nine federal agencies and who knows how many congressional subcommittees involved, this is a heavy lift. But it is a sensible idea. Grade: B+.

7. Give working parents more flexibility. Cantor said state and municipal employees with hourly jobs are allowed to convert overtime into comp-time or flex-time. He said private-sector workers should be able to the same, so they can go to parent-teacher conferences without worrying about losing pay. Grade: A, as long as workers are able to choose the money or the time.

8. Simplify the tax code, make it more fair, and keep the child tax credit. “Loopholes and gimmicks benefitting those who’ve come to know how to work the system in Washington” are indefensible, Cantor said. “Working families should come first.” There’s broad agreement on these principles, but the details are sticky – for instance, what loopholes should be eliminated, and should increased revenue be a goal of any comprehensive reform? Grade: Incomplete.

9. Repeal the new 2.3 percent excise tax on manufacturers of medical devices. Cantor says the tax makes it harder for researchers to develop innovative devices. Obama says the cost of the tax – projected to raise $29 billion over 10 years — will be offset by business from a pool of 30 million people newly insured under the new health law. Cantor brought up the device tax in connection with rising health costs. Regardless of what happens to it, it’s only a tiny slice of that problem. Grade: C.

10. Modernize Medicare. Cantor proposed ending “the arbitrary division” between Part A payments to hospitals and Part B payments to doctors. He also said seniors should share in savings if their doctors and hospitals control costs. Would that destabilize Medicare finances? Would streamlining and modernizing involve Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan, endorsed by most of the GOP, to give seniors vouchers to buy private insurance? Grade: Incomplete.

11. Give states more flexibility on Medicaid, including the ability to offer patient-directed health coverage (health savings accounts and the like) and flexible benefit programs (consumers choose the benefits they want). These are longstanding conservative ideas that don’t sound particularly suited to a population that by definition is poor, in many cases is old or disabled, and overall is unlikely to get online to painstakingly research and compare plans, prices and treatments. Grade: D.

12. Make smarter federal investments in basic medical research. Cantor said he would redirect money currently spent on social science (including economics, psychology and demographics) to helping find cures for diseases. That’s a GOP cause and a fair point in an age of deficits. Grade: A.

13. Offer legal residency and citizenship to people illegally “brought to this country as children and who know no other home” (the DREAM Act), and include in any immigration bill border security, employment verification and a workable guest worker program. Cantor left out a pathway to citizenship for all illegal immigrants in the country, which is under discussion in the Senate and which polls show is supported by a large majority of Americans. Grade: B.

 

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/grading-13-ideas-eric-cantors-big-speech-125124264--politics.html

DAVID GREGORY:

Is the tax fight really over? Is there not even tax reform that’s possible?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

So well, first of all, you know, the tax fight for the president means higher taxes, more revenue. Again, we can’t be raising taxes every three months in this town, David. And the bottom line is we want tax reform, but we want to go plug those loopholes that the president talks about to bring down tax rates. Because we believe that’s pro-growth, and we can get an economy growing again, let people who earn the money keep more of it. The President’s not talking about that. What he’s talking about is trying to raise more taxes for Washington to spend the money.

DAVID GREGORY:

So then how does this end? I mean, in the end, Republicans, from everybody I’ve talked to, they could live with this across-the-board cutting. It would hurt your state deeply, it would hurt the defense industry. But are you willing to just live with it?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

Well, here’s what I hope will happen. You know, we have, in our alternative, several proposals that the president has actually come out in favor of. There are improvements to what’s called The Medicare Provider tax, to get rid of the gimmick that states are playing. The president supports that.

And our plan says we have to bring federal employee pension benefits down in line with the market rates. Those are the kind of things that we’re talking about as alternatives that make a lot more sense, that won’t have the impact on the people who are out there working.

And, you know, the president, he’s the one who proposed this sequester in the first place. So again, I’m questioning where this thing is going, because he’s not moved in any serious way. But we remain anxiously waiting for him to come to the table to work with us to solve this problem.

DAVID GREGORY:

Bottom line, you could live with the sequester if it happens?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

I don’t want to live with the sequester. I want reductions in spending that make sense. These indiscriminate reductions do not make sense. And we’re going to hurt a lot of people. And it’s up to the president, really, to act now.

DAVID GREGORY:

Let me talk about immigration. This is going to be a big focus. You gave a big speech this week where you talked about the future of the Republican Party. And to a lot of people listening, they heard a shift in position from you about– how to deal with those illegal immigrants who are now in the country. Maybe they were the children of illegal immigrants. This is what you said on Tuesday.

(Videotape)

REP. ERIC CANTOR: One of the great founding principles of our country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents, and it is time to provide an opportunity for legal residents and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home.

(End videotape)

DAVID GREGORY:

So the question is are you changing your position, are you moving to the middle, and are you willing to go all in to bring conservatives in the House to the table to support a pathway to citizenship for those illegal immigrants who are already here?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

David, it’s been over ten years now where this problem has not been dealt with. And we’ve been unable to find any common ground. And what I said this week at The American Enterprise Institute was that I thought the best place to start was with children. You know, these are children who, due to no fault of their own, were brought here. And we do have a tradition in our country.

We’re a country of immigrants. You know, I’m a second-generation American. My grandparents left the pogrom, the anti-Semitic pogrom from Russia to come here to realize a better life. In the same way, these children were taken, again, due to no fault of their own. It seems to me that’s the best place to start. But–

DAVID GREGORY:

So you could support The Dream Act?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

I have put out a proposal. I don’t know what The Dream Act, at this point, is. What I say is we’ve got a place I think all of us can come together, and that is for the kids. Now–

DAVID GREGORY:

Can you bring conservatives along to supporting a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are here without having to first leave the country?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

There is a lot of movement right now in the House and the Senate on both sides of the aisle with folks having a lot of different ideas. I think–

DAVID GREGORY:

But yes or no to that question?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

I– I–

DAVID GREGORY:

Because you could really do it. If you went all in, (CHUCKLE) you could bring along the right in the House, couldn’t you?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

I think that a good place to start is with children. And listen, we’ve got– you know, here’s the difficulty in this issue, I think. And it is because we’ve got families who are here that become part of the fabric of our country, right? And we want to make sure that we’re compassionate and sensitive to their plight. I mean these kids know no other place as home.

On the other hand, we are a country of laws. You know, we have a situation of border security that we’ve got to get straight. We have to secure our borders. And there is this balance that needs to take place. But the best place to begin, I think, is with the children. Let’s go ahead and get that under our belt, put a win on the board, and so we can promise a better life for those kids who are here due to no fault of their own.

DAVID GREGORY:

Part of what you’re talking about is re-branding the Republican Party. And that was, in part, what your speech was about. And there’s a lot of ferment right now in the Republican Party. What’s the right direction for the party to get back into power beyond controlling the House, but to win national elections?

A political team, on first read, had its own reality check for what you and other Republicans face. And I’ll put it up on the screen. Talking about the challenge for the Republicans as they focus more on tone than policies. “Majority of Americans rejected some of the party’s central principles, according to the exit polls from the November presidential election.

“For instance, 60% said income tax rates should either go up on all Americans, or those with incomes above $250,000. 59% said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 65% favored giving illegal immigrants a path to a legal status. It’s rare to find politicians in Washington who believe their political beliefs cost them an election or a policy defeat. They almost always blame communication.” Isn’t this more than tone that’s an issue? Isn’t it more than re-branding? Isn’t it some of the central beliefs in the Republican Party that have hurt it with the electorate?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

David, what I talked about this week at AEI was the need for us to connect our conservative principles with helping people and making their life work again. And I’ve talked about a man who is a dad here in the inner city of the District of Columbia who, all he wanted was to find a safe place for his kids to learn. He’s got four kids.

And he discovered, after having fought with the local school system, The Opportunity Scholarship Program here in DC, something that Speaker Boehner has been an extraordinary champion on. And he realized the benefits of that. And now all of his kids have had an opportunity to start in that school. One is at The University of District of Columbia today.

I talked about working parents who are hourly wage earners who are having a tough time getting through the month right now. Those are the things that people– that we’ve got to be concerned about. I don’t think that Joseph Kelly, the dad here in The District of Columbia, cares one iota about re-branding the Republican or the Democratic Party.

I think what we care about, and what he cares about, is his kids. And that’s where Washington really needs to remember is these are real problems. These people are having a tough time. And we ought to be about providing relief to those who don’t have a job and those who do.

DAVID GREGORY:

But Leader–

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

And making their life work again.

DAVID GREGORY:

These core beliefs, I mean what you’re talking about, as you admitted after your speech, is not really something that’s going to be captured in new legislation. There are core beliefs of the Republican Party that the polls show were rejected by a national electorate that you want to try to recapture some of if you’re going to get to become a national party.

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

Not quite sure about legislation. We are going to have follow-up legislation to pretty much everything I spoke of this year. And that’s the point. The point is we’ve got to be talking about helping folks. You know, I’ve got a constituent, she’s 12 years old, her name is Katie. She was diagnosed with cancer at age one. I mean can you imagine? That is a parent’s nightmare, the worst nightmare.

And the federal government’s got a role in research, in basic medical research, trying to find cures for disease. We can work together on something like that. You know, we’ve got so many issues. We know, on the bigger macroeconomic issues, there’s a real disagreement between us and the president. We ought to be making sure we manage down the debt and deficit. He doesn’t share the commitment with us on that.

So okay, we’re going to keep at it on that. But at the same time, you’ve got so many millions of Americans who feel that they have become an afterthought. My purpose in saying this is we have conservative principles that actually can work for their life again. And that’s what we’re going to be about promoting.

DAVID GREGORY:

And before you go, I want to ask you about the debate over drones as a key part of the President’s national security policy. Why hasn’t Congress passed any additional legislation to review drone policy, to really understand where there ought to be checks and balances in the time that’s passed since the original authorization post-9-11 that gave the president the authority to have a kill list as the president works off of for drones?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

You know, I’m glad to hear that the administration has released the memo that is under discussion to intelligence commitments in both the House and the Senate. We’re going to be about oversight and getting into examining that memo. But, you know, let’s just say, suffice to say, I guess, David, is that, you know, we have a terrorist threat out there. Islamist extremists are out there still trying to kill Americans and go after what we stand for in this world.

And if we’re going to continue to be the leading force for peace, prosperity and security in this world, we’re going to have to have the tools necessary to do so. And I believe, just as in the prior administration, this administration, we can strike that balance to protect America, to employ technologies to do that, at the same time, upholding constitutional right.

DAVID GREGORY:

And you’re not concerned about the current policy, even where it might target Americans who join the enemy?

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

Again, this is no different than the policy, perhaps, that was in place before. We’ll find out about that in the oversight that we’ll pursue.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right. Leader Cantor, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

REP. ERIC CANTOR:

David, thanks.

DAVID GREGORY:

Coming up here, we’re going to preview the President’s State of the Union address. I’ll talk with one of his closest allies in the Senate, as I mentioned, the assistant Democratic leader, Senator Dick Durbin. Plus, our political roundtable is here with reaction to Leader Cantor, as well as insights and analysis of all the politics behind the big issues: Gun control, immigration reform and more that the president will pursue in his second term.

Joining me, Democratic Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Michael Gerson, Republican strategist Mike Murphy and the BBC’s Katty Kay, as well as NBC’s investigative correspondent, Michael Isikoff, who broke the exclusive this week that generated headlines about America’s drone policy. It’s all coming up after this short commercial break.

(COMMERCIAL OMITTED)

DAVID GREGORY:

It’s unofficial creed is “Rain, or shine, snow or sleet, we deliver your mail.” But apparently The United States Postal Service was no match for Saturdays. This week, it announced that, starting in August, Saturday delivery will be no more. For many the decision to cut back to five days carries more symbolic consequences than practical.

In this information age of e-mails, tweets and text messages, what we affectionately call “snail mail” seems somewhat impractical. But the bigger question is this: Is the current model sustainable, even with the most recent change? While we increasingly live in a digital age, we still rely on the Postal Service’s sprawling network that connects even the most remote areas of the country.

In fact, even FedEx relies on the Postal Service. 21% of its shipments are ultimately delivered by the mailmen. And if you take into consideration what it costs the consumer to mail a first class letter from Talkeetna, Alaska to Tallahassee, Florida, the U.S. Postal Service does it at the bargain price of less than 50 cents, while that same letter, if sent using a private carrier, would cost 50 to 100 times as much.

Nevertheless, the Postal Service handles 45 billion fewer pieces of mail today than just five years ago. After last year, suffering a nearly $16 billion shortfall, slashing Saturdays will only save The Post Office $2 billion and strip anywhere from 20 to 25,000 jobs from the payroll. (MUSIC) We’ll be back here on Meet the Press to talk to Senator Dick Durbin and our political roundtable after this short commercial break.

(COMMERCIAL OMITTED)

DAVID GREGORY:

We are back. We’re going to speak to the assistant Democratic leader, Senator Dick Durbin, in just a moment. But I want to begin with our roundtable. Joining me here, Republican strategist, our friend, Mike Murphy, Democratic Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed, NBC News national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, who of course broke the drone story this week, anchor of BBC World News America, Katty Kay, former speechwriter for President Bush and columnist for The Washington Post, Michael Gerson. Welcome to all of you.

So here we are. I wanted to get everyone to weigh in on this moment, the president and how he approaches the legislative end of his second term and his State of the Union address. And I thought The Washington Post summed it up well in the Fix column. This is how they wrote about it this week, capturing the moment.

“This time it’s not about George W. Bush’s impact, or an upcoming election, or recovering from major setbacks from the last one. Obama’s trying to advance his most ambitious legislative agenda since his first year in office. And he’s doing it on the heels of a reelection victory. The country just doubled down on Obama’s agenda, which isn’t something the president could have said even at his peak of popularity in early 2009.” Mike Murphy, that’s the backdrop. How do you see his approach?

MIKE MURPHY:

Well, I’m a critic of it. And I hope he changes it with the State of the Union for this reason: There’s no doubt he won fair and square. He got 66 million votes. But 61 million people voted to fire him. And they’re in about 230 Republican Congressional districts where those incumbents don’t care about getting the e-mails from the president or Michelle, they don’t care about speeches.

The President’s got to do a “Nixon to China” move to get anything done. And that’s good for the country to get something done. He’s got to get out of the way on immigrant, quit wagging his finger, or the deal will blow up. And the Republicans, in the short term, have the politics to hunker down.

In the midterm election, some of those Senate races are in places where the President’s unpopular. So the path he started on, which was, “I’ve got a very broad agenda, and I’m going to still keep a campaign style thing pressuring you,” is not going to work with these guys. And that will result in gridlock for the country, which is horrible. If he does Nixon to China, he can have a historic stuff.

DAVID GREGORY:

Katty Kay, I guess the question is how much does he feel he has to do when he feels at the height of his confidence at the moment?

KATTY KAY:

Yeah, he’s got this kind of fairly short window where he’s just been reelected, it’s his first State of the Union where he’s not running for reelection. He can take that on board and decide he’s going to try and push his agenda. But the window is short because, fairly soon, all of the members of the House are going to start thinking about those midterm elections.

If he wants to get big things done, he’s going to have to get them done fairly soon. In 2012, he promised a fairer America. He raised taxes with the House, at the end of the year. And we’ll see where inequality levels start to come down in America. But the big thing he’s going to have to do is promise to get jobs for the country.

We’re living in a world where robots are cheap and efficient and people are expensive and inefficient. And he’s got to find a post-manufacturing America and lay out a plan for it where there is job growth. And that’s the single biggest priority of his second.

DAVID GREGORY:

Well, and that’s where the pivot’s going to be, Mike Gerson. After the inaugural, this is part two, he wants to get back to economic growth.

MICHAEL GERSON:

Yeah, and I agree with that. I think that that’s a smart part of the agenda. I’m not sure how much you get down with– of that, though, with this outside game he’s been pursuing. You’re just constantly beating up on the Congress, a highly ideological inaugural address.

He has to make the choice in this speech, what I’m watching for, is whether he tries to continue that dynamic, which is highly polarized and doesn’t get anything done, or whether he tries to break the dynamic. And on economic issues, I’m talking about long-term economic growth, you can’t make that dynamic without talking in realistic ways about entitlement reform, realistic ways about tax reform that’s just not progressivity, but actually, pro-growth tax reform. And that would be a huge concession for the president. He’s going to have to do that in order to make this system work.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right, we’re hear from more around the table in just a couple of minutes. I want to bring in the assistant majority leader now of the Senate. And that is the Democrat from Illinois, Senator Dick Durbin. Senator, welcome back.

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Good to be with you.

DAVID GREGORY:

You just heard Leader Cantor a couple of minutes ago. And I want to get your take on how this standoff, this new standoff on fiscal matters ends over these automatic spending cuts. To hear the leader say, “We’re not going to deal with anymore tax hikes,” but that’s what the president wants. He wants a different way of going about the spending cuts, and some way to find some additional revenue. How is it going to end?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

David, sequestration was designed as a budget threat, not as a budget strategy. And I think all of us understand, if it goes forward in less than three weeks, it’s going to have a dramatic negative impact on many agencies, equally important, on the economy. So we need to come together.

What the President’s proposing, for the rest of this year, at least, is that we deal with the sequester the same way we have the first two months: evenly split between revenue and cuts. I think that’s a sensible approach. It’s consistent with Simpson Bowles, which many Republicans say should be our standard. And it doesn’t really impose a tax burden on middle income families.

DAVID GREGORY:

The president, a year ago in his State of the Union, laid out a kind of battle line in terms of how he would deal with Republicans. Here’s what he said.

(Videotape)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: As long as I’m President, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.

(End videotape)

DAVID GREGORY:

But let me ask you what he has to show for that. One year later, we’re back to lurching from crisis to crisis. You know, it’s so absurd to people outside Washington who have to scratch their heads and say, “Wait a minute. Which is the White House that proposed these automatic spending cuts, and now they’re saying it would be so awful.” As Leon Panetta, the defense security, outgoing, saying it would hollow out the military and have grave reaction. I mean this is not how Washington is supposed to operate, is it?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

No, it’s not. And let me explain. When the president proposed the sequester, it was as an incentive to those of us in Congress to work together on a bipartisan basis to solve these problems. It was supposed to be so awful that the super committee would finally reach a bipartisan agreement.

But because they completely rejected revenue, it’s never happened. Now we’ve got through the fiscal cliff. We have imposed about, roughly $700 billion in new taxes on the wealthiest Americans over the next ten years. The president believes, and I agree, within tax reform, we can find additional savings over the next ten years. Use that to move toward deficit reduction and still keep this economy moving forward.

DAVID GREGORY:

So how do you– gain this out? Again, I go back to what the president said a year ago, that he was going to fight obstruction with action. What is it that he has to show for that? The one piece of action he got a year later was increased revenues, which is what he campaigned on. What else does he have to show for it?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Well, I can tell you, we went through an election, David. Don’t forget, (CHUCKLE) that was a pretty divisive time here in America when we made our choices. And the American people made a clear choice, I might say to Mr. Murphy. He did win fair and square. And I think his values and his policies he spoke to in the inaugural address were the same he took to the country.

So where are we today? There are positive signs. I listened to Eric Cantor. He’s for The Dream Act. I introduced this 12 years ago. He’s voted against it. Now he’s for it. I believe he’s for it. And that’s progress. But I might say to him, for example, on immigration, we’re moving on a bipartisan basis in the Senate. Senator McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake joining Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, Michael Bennett and myself, in a group trying to come up with a bipartisan solution.

But it won’t just apply to children. Eric Cantor’s speech that he gave to The American Enterprise Institute, he quoted Emma Lazarus. And that great quotation that is found on The Statue of Liberty, it doesn’t say, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door for children only.” We have 11 million people in this country who need a pathway to citizenship. I hope that the Republicans in the House and Mr. Cantor will embrace that as part of immigration reform.

DAVID GREGORY:

And I want to get back to spending, but just continue that on that point, what I heard from him today was, “Look, we can get something along the lines of The Dream Act passed right away. And we may have to come back to this business of a pathway to citizenship for everybody else.” But you think there’s momentum on the Senate side to deal with everybody– and deal with this pathway without illegal immigrants having to first go home?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Let me tell you this, David. The Dream Act means more to me than I can express. I met these young people. But they will tell you, “Yes, I want a future. But what about my mom and dad?” You know, they understand full well that these family structures are critically important to the future of America. In the Senate, we have a bipartisan goal of a pathway to citizenship, not stopping at The Dream Act, beginning with The Dream Act, and pushing forward.

DAVID GREGORY:

I want to get back to the automatic spending cuts and ask a fundamental question that I think Republican critics of this president are asking. Do you not concede that there is a spending problem in Washington? Even when it comes to the 50% cuts out of the sequester that are for the Defense Department. You have said in recent interviews you could live with those. You don’t like the manner in which the cuts would be made, but you could live with those cutbacks to the Pentagon. So isn’t there a spending problem here that must be addressed?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Absolutely. And I believe, as chairman of The Defense Appropriation Subcommittee in– in the Senate, that we can save money, cut waste in the Pentagon, and not compromise our national security. But to do this in such a haphazard way over the remaining six or seven months is going to be unfair to the military and their families.

Think about this for a second. Cutting back on psychological counseling for the members of the military and their family during the remainder of this year, when we have this grievous problem of suicides in the military and readjustment when they come home from battle? We can’t do that.

DAVID GREGORY:

But isn’t there always a reason–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

Isn’t there always a reason to spend the money in Washington?

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

Can’t you always find a reason not to cut? Isn’t this the Republican argument that, at least here, if worse comes to worse and the sequester passes, at least we’ll get spending cuts, how else to force the President’s hand?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

But listen. Do we really want to base our spending cuts on reducing medical research in America, on eliminating 70,000 children from Head Start, that early learning program that’s so important? These things don’t make sense. Let’s sit down and do this in a thoughtful manner. And let’s include revenue. We should have half of this as revenue from tax reform and the other half in spending cuts. And I support those spending cuts.

DAVID GREGORY:

Let me talk to you about the drone controversy and the debate in Washington. The Wall Street Journal, in its editorial on Thursday, wrote the following about sort of paybacks here and the hypocrisy argument. “You may recall that Mr. Obama and Eric Holder, before he became attorney general, denounced the Justice Department memos, the OLC memos, that explained why waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques were legal.

“Once he became attorney general, Mr. Holder ostentatiously made four of those memos public on April 16th of ’09, along with plenty of moral preening about how the new administration had banned that sort of barbarism. Yes, this crowd doesn’t arrest and interrogate suspected terrorists, it merely blows them away with missiles from the sky.

“Here’s the political reality. This president, like the president before him, a Republican, they both believe that in the war on terror you should have strong executive power which includes the ability that Congress authorized for the president to independently kill people associated with al-Qaeda as he sees fit.” Do you believe there should be a change in that authorization? Is that the debate we ought to have?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Let me tell you, David, two things. First, this president came to office. He’s kept us safe with the best military in the world and the best intelligence agencies. And of course we know the fate of Osama bin Laden. And the same time, he’s kept us out of further war. He understands that is something that shouldn’t be done except in the most extreme circumstances.

He made it clear that he would prohibit torture. He wanted to close Guantanamo, and I supported it. But the rest of Congress did not. And now he’s trying to come up with a legal architecture to deal with this new war on terrorism. I’m chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee in Judiciary. We’re going to hold hearings to work on this element: How to mesh the constitutional principles and values with the new mode of war. It isn’t just drones. It’s a cyber war that is going on as we speak. It is a raging war between the United States and other countries that could be–

DAVID GREGORY:

But I–

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

–very damaging to us.

DAVID GREGORY:

But the fundamental question is: Do have a problem with the policy? Do you want to do, as a lawmaker? Will you do anything to change the policy? Or do you think Congress should have changed the law, in some fashion, to strip the use of drones against even American citizens who join the enemy?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Here’s the balance we have to strike. The constitution said the American people will decide whether we go to war. The American people, through Congress, will vote on this.

DAVID GREGORY:

Right.

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

The question is: When it comes to drones, these remote strikes, or cyber security, are we at war? Is this an act of war? We’re going to get into this constitutional question.

DAVID GREGORY:

Do you believe we’re at war? Do you believe we’re at war still?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

We are in a different kind of war. We’re not sending troops. We’re not sending manned bombers. And we’re dealing with the enemy where we find them to keep America safe. We’ve got to strike a new constitutional balance with the challenges we face today.

DAVID GREGORY:

But I just want to pin you down. You don’t believe the policy should be changed, do you?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Well, I can tell you the policy is really unfolding. Most of this has not been disclosed. I joined those other senators in writing a letter to the president asking for more detail. The policy’s unfolding. But at least the president is engaged in this conversation to establish this legal architecture. That is a dramatic change from the past.

DAVID GREGORY:

Before you go, Senator, two quick ones. Should Senator Menendez, your colleague, who’s facing questions from the ethics committee about dealing with some financial donors and other questions, should he retain his chairmanship?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Well, Senator Menendez has given us assurance that there is no substance to these charges. It’s being looked at by the ethics committee. Of course I can’t comment beyond that.

DAVID GREGORY:

What about Senator Hagel? Will he be confirmed or is there some discussion that he should pull back from this nomination and allow the president to nominate someone else?

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

I think Senator Hagel will be confirmed. And Republican senators have told me privately they are not going to initiate the first filibuster in history on a secretary of defense nominee. He’s taken a lot of grief from members of his own political party, many of whom he served with in the Senate. At the end, I believe he’s going to receive the necessary votes to be the next secretary of defense.

DAVID GREGORY:

Including the former vice president, Dick Cheney, who said that he was among those national security nominees who are, quote, “second rate choices by the president.”

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

I’m not going to comment on Vice President Cheney’s views of public service at this point.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right. Senator Durbin, we will leave it there. Thank you very much for your views.

(OVERTALK)

SEN. DICK DURBIN:

Thank you.

DAVID GREGORY:

We’re back now with the roundtable. Mayor Reed, we’re going to get to drones in just a few minutes, even though we ended there. I want to pick up back on this politics now in Washington over these automatic spending cuts, and whether there’s a spending problem. What’s your reaction to what you heard?

MAYOR KASIM REED:

My sense is there is. But we have cut, the President’s led $2.5 million in cuts, working with Republicans so far. I want to talk a bit about this notion of the president conceding, or him taking a more conciliatory tone. I don’t agree with that. I mean I certainly believe he needs to reach out.

But the President spent his first term reaching out repeatedly, and he got the back of his hand from the Republicans at every turn, all the way up through the reelection. He won the election. So the notion that he should stay in Washington, not be out having a public conversation, I disagree with that. He stayed in Washington in the first term. And at the midterms, we got killed. He’s going to be out talking to folks, and he’s going to be inside of Washington.

MIKE MURPHY:

David–

MAYOR KASIM REED:

But he’s cut $2.5 trillion. He’s generated six million new jobs. And he’s prepared to do more.

DAVID GREGORY:

Right. Why–

MAYOR KASIM REED:

That to go back when he was meeting with Mr. Boehner, they had a deal in 2011, right, that they likely would have loved during the most recent budget negotiations.

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

Right. Well, let me bring in Mike Isikoff. Here’s the issue. And the political pressure that’s being brought to bear, you heard it from Senator Durbin, there’s always a reason not to cut, because it’s the worst kind of cut, right? So here’s the calculus. And Politico writes about it on Friday for Republicans.

“Several polls released since November’s election show Republicans would get the bulk of the blame if the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ hit. If sequestration happens now, House Democrats say they’ll have tangible proof that that GOP is a dysfunctional party that can’t even tie its own shoelaces on something as essentially to its longstanding traditional as the Pentagon budget.” Is that where the pressure is?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF:

Yeah. I think the president clearly has the upper hand on the budget. Look, he won reelection. He won on the issues that he thought about and that were debated most heatedly. Revenues being a part of the equation for cutting the budget, the president won on that. So I think, you know, on that particular issue, he’s got the upper hand. And it makes sense for him politically to hammer it strongly.

MICHAEL GERSON:

Well, I don’t think that the deal being offered makes any sense for Republicans, because the deal that he’s saying is: Give up spending cuts in trade for tax increases. Okay? There’s literally no Republicans in the House or Senate that would support such a deal because of the preconditions of the sequester.

You know, I don’t know if we end up there. I mean Republicans don’t really remember how bad ’96 was with the shutdown of the government, many of them. And the president can apply pain in cuts throughout districts across this country. He has a risk, though, as well, of an economic slowdown from these things. So I think that they may end up doing a three month extension, some kind of incremental reform on the European model, where we don’t solve problems, we just kick them down the road. (LAUGHTER)

DAVID GREGORY:

But that– I mean this is what– you know–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

Mike, you’re outside Washington now. I mean you tell anybody outside of Washington, “Well, here’s how we’ll solve this.”

MIKE MURPHY:

Yeah.

DAVID GREGORY:

“We’re going to wait a few months to solve this.”

MIKE MURPHY:

We’re designing a perfect incremental stall–

(OVERTALK) (LAUGHTER)

MIKE MURPHY:

–core competency is DC, which is why we wind up with sequesters running the country, because we can’t. But the president has a problem here. He thinks the first step to flying a plane is to cut off one wing. He’s not a candidate anymore. It’s not about moving day to day polling numbers. Those Republicans are hunkered down. They can’t care how unpopular they are, because in those 230 districts, they’re pretty popular.

So the President’s got a pretty simple choice. And the clock is running. Politics will take over everything in two years. The presidential primaries and everything else, and the midterm elections. If he wants to move now, it’s got to be “Nixon to China.” And there are seven magic words. If he would say this, he would unlock a lot of Republican votes. He’d have to fight his own party. But it’s time for some of that. And those words are, “Change CPI and beneficiaries pay a little more.”

DAVID GREGORY:

Right.

MIKE MURPHY:

That’s what we pay–

DAVID GREGORY:

That’s for Medicare, that’s for Social Security.

MIKE MURPHY:

That’s the serious look at entitlements.

DAVID GREGORY:

Right.

MIKE MURPHY:

As the country needs.

DAVID GREGORY:

But Mayor–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

And they know how hard just the politics are on that. Plus the sense that the President’s feeling, “Look, I don’t have an opposition to trust in that if we move forward on something like that.”

MAYOR KASIM REED:

The President’s prepared to move. He showed, with Mr. Boehner, that he was prepared to do deals and then move. But he has to have a Republican Party that’s really willing to dance with him. I know that. Now everybody’s talking about sequestration and all of the needs for cuts and the rest. But we have a model in the U.K. where they have used this policy, and their growth in the U.K. Is about 1%.

KATTY KAY:

Yeah–

MAYOR KASIM REED:

So we’re rushing to do something in the United States that is failing in Britain as we speak–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

Britain is well represented here by Katty Kay. So–

KATTY KAY:

(LAUGHTER) Yeah, and we are looking–

(OVERTALK)

KATTY KAY:

We are looking in Britain at the prospect of a triple dip recession, not only a double dip recession, a trip– growth declined in America in the last quarter. What America need is investment in its future. The kinds of things that the sequester will cut are exactly the kind of things that are an investment in the future. R and D, education, infrastructure.

And what’s more, it doesn’t even tackle the long-term debt problem, because these cuts expire in ten years’ time. So you have– I mean of course America has to deal with entitlement reform. You’ve got to spend less on your health care. But this sequester is not the route to doing it.

DAVID GREGORY:

But–

KATTY KAY:

This sequester is–

DAVID GREGORY:

–can I ask?

KATTY KAY:

–killing growth.

DAVID GREGORY:

But Mike Gerson, can I ask you a question about– you look at the flurry of activity here. Yes, he’s going to have to deal with the budget in some fashion. They’re moving forward on immigration reform and taking on the gun issue. This is where the outside gain may be helping the president, where he’s got a real opportunity here. Even on guns, in a way that Bill Clinton didn’t in the mid-’90s, where it was such a toxic issue.

MICHAEL GERSON:

Well, there may be issues where the outside gain helps. Unfortunately on immigration, it doesn’t help at all. Right now, there are Republican partners like Senator Rubio that they don’t need pressure, they actually need cover in their own party.

MIKE MURPHY:

Exactly.

MICHAEL GERSON:

And when he increases the pressure, he’s actually empowering the critics, the conservative critics of immigration reform. So he’s going to have to take an approach. If he wants to do that on the economy, which he’s done, you know many times–

DAVID GREGORY:

Yes.

MICHAEL GERSON:

–and is likely to do in this speech, I hope he carves out immigration as an exception. Because that is both a huge need, a legacy issue for the president.

DAVID GREGORY:

Right.

MICHAEL GERSON:

It’s a right issue for the country. And but it’s going to require a legislative strategy of building coalitions, which he doesn’t seem particularly interested in.

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

But if he leads, Mike–

MIKE MURPHY:

Yeah.

DAVID GREGORY:

–he can face outright rejection–

(OVERTALK)

MIKE MURPHY:

He’s got to make a choice. Is he still a candidate? And what he is about is making political victories. Because he can score on immigration, he can isolate the Republicans, he can blow up the deal, which is what will happen. Or, if he would get out of his bubble and pick up the phone and call some of these heroes like Rubio and McCain and Jeb Bush and others, who are doing this stuff on immigration, ask them what they need privately, they would ask him to go away.

(OVERTALK)

MIKE MURPHY:

Get out of the way, stop the finger pointing, stop the speeches, stop the politicization, and let them try to get a very hard thing done–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

All right, quick point here.

MAYOR KASIM REED:

The president has certainly done that. He changed his speech in Nevada. He’s done that. He’s been listening to the Senate. And the only thing that he said is that he is definitely going to get a bill. So before we start calling other people heroes, all he said is he wants a bill. And he’s backed up, just as you all said. And the Republicans continue to attack him on it.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right, we’re going to take a–

MIKE MURPHY:

It’s going to take a bill that can pass. And he can ruin that.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right, let me get a break in here. We’re going to come back. I want to talk about drones. The president made the use of drones, of course, a cornerstone of national security policies. Is it time to rethink the rules? Should Americans be concerned? We get more from the roundtable on that right after this.

(COMMERCIAL)

(Videotape)

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Good evening. Some people regard death by drone as a necessary evil of our post-9/11 world, the way we have to do business against an enemy we can`t see, including, sometimes, Americans who have switched sides. Others see the use of drones by the United States as nothing more than execution by air, without due process, no court, no charges, no trial, and relatively little oversight. What`s beyond dispute is this — drone attacks have become a huge weapon for this country. And this president has made unprecedented use of them.

NBC News has obtained a government document that lays out the legal argument to justify the president`s use of drones to kill al Qaeda suspects, including, in some cases, U.S. citizens.

Our national investigative correspondent, Michael Isikoff, broke the story and has our report.

(End videotape)

DAVID GREGORY:

Nightly News on Tuesday. We’re back with our roundtable. And that document was obtained by our own investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, which spelled out the legal basis for even targeting Americans who join al-Qaeda. That’s where the debate has been. But after all this happened this week, Mike, as you look forward, where is this debate actually going? What is the debate that we are actually having?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF:

Well, it’s– it’s a very difficult one, legally and morally and strategically. First of all, what was significant about the document that we reported on is it really did go beyond, in certain respects, what had been said publicly about what the legal foundations were for targeting Americans who are suspected of being operational leaders of al-Qaeda.

Attorney General Holder had given a speech last year in which he set out a three-point test for this. Number one, that the target is believed to be– is going to pose an imminent threat of a violent attack. You read the memo, and you see there’s a great elasticity to how that’s defined. Imminent attack does not mean they have specific intelligence about an ongoing plot. It may only talk about recent activities and if that target hasn’t renounced those activities, then it can be assumed. It’s a broader definition of “imminence” than I think most people had realized.

The second part of the test is if capture is unfeasible. Well, what defines “Unfeasible?” And the memo talks about, “Well, if capture would pose an undue risk for U.S. personnel, that would be a factor in determining that it was unfeasible. These were issues that were not clearly spelled out by the administration beforehand. They use language that’s very ill defined and open to broad interpretations. And I think that’s why you’re seeing so much attention to this issue.

DAVID GREGORY:

But it’s still a question, Katty, as to whether lawmakers want to change the policy. Is the debate we’re hearing, which John Brennan and everybody else is: Are you getting access to the documents, how much oversight is there? And before you respond, let me play John Brennan, who tried to clear some of the air about how difficult the process is that they go through.

(Videotape)

JOHN BRENNAN: I think there is a misimpression on the part of some American people who believe that we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressions. Nothing could be further from the truth. We only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there is no other alternative to taking actions that is going to mitigate that threat.

(End videotape)

KATTY KAY:

Well, members of Congress hate not being informed. But the downside of being informed is that you don’t have some responsibility for the policy that’s happening. We are now starting to have a discussion about the drone strikes and the benefits and otherwise of them to America’s national security. I mean what struck me about those hearings, most of all, is we heard a lot about the legality or otherwise of striking American citizens, about how much information Congress was having or not having.

But we didn’t hear– what I’m hearing from national security is that there is a concern about that these drone strikes are not actually in America’s long-term political interest in areas of the world like Pakistan and Yemen. We are turning large numbers of moderate Pakistanis, journalists, politicians, lawyers, doctors, the kind of people that shape policy in those countries, against us. Admiral Mullen, General McChrystal, have all expressed concerns that every time we have a drone that mis-hits somebody, kills civilians, we set back our strategy in those countries by months, if not years.

DAVID GREGORY:

That’s the national security overseas. I guess, you know, Mayor Reed, there’s also a question about where this goes. I mean I think that, ultimately, a lot of liberal critics are saying if this becomes more elastic, if this is unchecked, what are the limits to it? I mean look what’s going on in Los Angeles, this pursuit of Chris Droner, who– Dorner, excuse me, who is the officer there and the subject of this manhunt. You know, could we ultimately use drone technology to both, you know, track him and ultimately kill him if he’s an imminent threat? Is that where it goes? And is that an appropriate use of it?

MAYOR KASIM REED:

I don’t think it goes there if we prevent it from going there. The President’s been very clear that he wants to create a structure that informs Congress appropriately. But we’ve got to remember, both President Bush and President Obama have kept this country safe.

And you know when you communicate with him personally, he takes nothing more seriously than being commander in chief. And he does not want to take a tool that saves American lives off the table. But he is open to having this conversation. He said it immediately and responded to Michael pretty quickly.

DAVID GREGORY:

But how open? I mean here’s the bottom line.

MAYOR KASIM REED:

Yeah.

DAVID GREGORY:

As executives, a Republican and a Democrat believe the same thing, which is when you’re fighting terror, the executive should have all the power. Because you know what? If something goes bad on your watch–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

–it’s really bad.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF:

Exactly. But the Obama people do have an incentive for trying to do something about this, to put some limits on it. And let me give you a statistic–

DAVID GREGORY:

Yeah.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF:

–that will illustrate that. You heard John Brennan’s comment about it’s only a last resort, it’s very rarely that we do this. The total number of Americans who have been killed by drone strikes under President Obama is three. That happens to be exactly the same number of high value detainees who were waterboarded under President Bush.

And as we all know, waterboarding is– and Michael will know this as well as anybody, is going to be part of the legacy of the Bush years. I don’t think the Obama people want targeted killing of Americans to be very high up on the list of their legacy in national security policy–

(OVERTALK)

MICHAEL ISIKOFF:

–which is why they have an incentive to try to figure out a way to do something about it.

MICHAEL GERSON:

There is an additional incentive here, as well, though. Because drones are central to the Obama approach on national security, precisely because they want to disengage from what they reared as messy counterinsurgency operations, like in Afghanistan. So what do you do when you disengage from counterinsurgency operations?

You have to step up counterterrorism operations, which is what drones do, and what they’ve done, in order just not to surrender this ground. So I think that the use of drones, expanded use of drones, is actually related to their broader strategy in (INAUDIBLE PHRASE).

DAVID GREGORY:

Let me go quickly around the table and something. I just want to save what little time I have left, moving away from drones to some of the hot political topics that we’ve got to around the table with. And Mike, I’ll tee you up on these. There’s three of them. Well get through what we can. Rubio, the savior, Christie and his weight, and Ashley Judd in the crosshairs. First of all, the question, and here Marco Rubio is on the cover of Time Magazine. Is he a savior of the party on immigration and the rest? He’s giving a response to the State of the Union. He’s pretty out front there as a leading voice for 2016.

MIKE MURPHY:

He’s a huge Republican voice. And that’s a good thing for the party. I’m a fan. I would say, though, if he’s thinking of running for president, this is awful early.

DAVID GREGORY:

Yeah, it does seem–

MIKE MURPHY:

It’s way too early–

(OVERTALK)

DAVID GREGORY:

And is this over-exposure?

MIKE MURPHY:

He should win this immigration fight. The best thing for the party, best thing for the country.

(OVERTALK)

MICHAEL GERSON:

And by the way, Rubio is not going to be focused on immigration in his response to the State of the Union. He’s going to be talking about political philosophy, talking about how limited government helps the middle class. That would help him with conservatives, which I think is part of the goal here.

DAVID GREGORY:

Yeah. Katty Kay, here you have Chris Christie taking on his weight on his terms. Let me just show the pictures of him. On Letterman, he takes out the doughnut as he’s being asked– he said, “I’m the healthiest fat guy you know.” He’s taking this issue on. It would be an issue if he ran.

KATTY KAY:

Yeah, he jokes about it then. But he’s also spoken about it much more seriously, about his efforts to try and lose weight, how much it’s working, how much he identifies with other Americans. Clearly this is a huge problem for the country. People are dying, people– the cost of health care because of obesity.

I’m not sure that joking and taking out a doughnut helps his cause and helps his presidential standing. His opinion poll ratings are incredibly high. He’s shot back against Bush’s former doctor, who said that he was sitting on a time bomb because of his weight issues. He’s going to have to deal with it. I’m just not sure that dealing with a doughnut on Letterman is the way to do that.

DAVID GREGORY:

Mike Murphy, very quickly, Ashley Judd, is she a real threat down in Kentucky to Mitch McConnell, Carl Williams’ group?

MIKE MURPHY:

Yeah.

DAVID GREGORY:

They’re using that ad against her.

MIKE MURPHY:

Look, I think she could be– first-time candidates have a lot of trouble. I worked for a Hollywood star, got elected Governor of California. (CHUCKLE) (UNINTEL) a lot of– they can be very attractive. But I wouldn’t bet against Mitch McConnell in the political knife fight in Kentucky.

DAVID GREGORY:

All right. We’re going to leave it there. And by the way, Mayor, for you to be here on your mom, Sylvia’s birthday, that was a big deal. Happy birthday to her. And we’ll be right back.

MAYOR KASIM REED:

Happy birthday, mom. (CHUCKLE)

(COMMERCIAL OMITTED)

DAVID GREGORY:

Thank you all for our terrific conversation. We cover a lot of ground. Quick programming note here, Tuesday night, big one here in Washington. I’ll be joining Brian Williams and the rest of our political team for complete coverage of the President’s State of the Union address. It’s at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 Pacific. And we hope that you’ll join us. That’s all for today. We’ll be back next week. If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.

Article source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50760268/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/

Eric Cantor grabs a plastic dinosaur from the pile of toys in front of 1-year-old Mekhi Scott, taps the beast on the table and growls, “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Mekhi jumps — he’s startled at first — and smiles.

“You like dinosaurs?” coos Cantor, the House minority leader and one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the country. “So do I.”

Watching this weirdly cute exchange Monday at The Preparatory School of the District of Columbia, I realize just how hard it’s going to be for the GOP to rebrand itself after the 2012 election debacle. Republican leaders are a bit like Mekhi’s plastic dinosaurs: Even when they’re cute, they can be scary.

Cantor visited the school for more than an hour to gather information for a speech Tuesday that his aides are billing as an important shift of tone for the Republican Party. The speech will attempt to cast the House GOP’s traditionally conservative policy agenda in terms that appeal to parents, explaining why school vouchers, tax breaks, repealing the health care law, and other Republican standards would “make life work better.”

Will people buy a softer side of Cantor? The question is an important one because the second-most powerful House Republican is not the only GOP leader trying to soften the party’s image. In just the last few weeks:

• The GOP-controlled House capitulated to President Obama on the debt-ceiling debate. Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, cited the “realities of divided government” when he urged his rank and file to effectively eat crow.
• Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is quietly lobbying conservative lawmakers and commentators to consider immigration reforms. In the not-to-distant past, Rubio’s proposals would have been fatally labeled as stalking horses for amnesty.
• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told the Republican National Committee that the GOP must “stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults. It’s time for us to articulate our plans and visions for America in real terms. We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. We’ve had enough of that.”
• A group led by Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush, announced this week that it would spend money in Republican primaries to defeat far-right candidates whom the group considers unelectable. American Crossroads spent millions of dollars to defeat Democrats in the 2012 elections, and got little return on the investment.

In his speech Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, Cantor plans to ask Congress to require universities to warn students when their academic majors lack employment opportunities; to repeal the tax on medical devices, a provision of Obama’s health care overhaul; and to shift spending from political sciences to “hard” sciences such as cancer research. One thing he won’t do, aides said, is moderate GOP policies.

“He wants to build up trust so we’re not just talking about spending cuts and numbers that will hurt people. We’re also talking about how we’re going to help them,” said Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper.

Cantor also is expected to endorse the broad outlines of Rubio’s approach on immigration. He came to Mekhi’s school to underscore his support of a conservative approach to education: allowing federal money now spent in public schools to follow individual children, even if they enroll in private schools such at Mekhi’s.

The Preparatory School is based in a low-income section of the district, providing small classes and a safe environment to about 100 students. The average teacher salary is about $25 an hour, far below the rate at public schools.

The conservative Heritage Foundation estimates that about $1,100 of federal money goes toward the education of the average U.S. public school student. Cantor would like that money to be made available to parents unhappy with poor performing public schools.

Awaiting Cantor’s arrival, school vice principal Richard Reavis said that the parents who feel trapped in public schools generally can’t afford a private education. “That’s the challenge,” he said. “I don’t have Uncle Sam” funding his school.

Cantor, the father of three grown children and a representative from Virginia, seemed to genuinely enjoy the visit, wandering from class to class chatting with the students. His aides had to pull him away from conversations to keep him on schedule.

“Y’all keep up the good work, OK?” he told a class of teenagers while walking out of their class, past a bright yellow sign that said, “Bully Free Zone.”

Partisan Democrats love to call Republicans bullies, belittling GOP policies as cruel and heartless. Left unanswered, demagoguery sticks — which is the point of Cantor’s charm offensive.

 

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/softer-side-eric-cantor-raaaaaaaaaaa-144614223--politics.html

Eric Cantor grabs a plastic dinosaur from the pile of toys in front of 1-year-old Mekhi Scott, taps the beast on the table and growls, “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Mekhi jumps — he’s startled at first — and smiles.

“You like dinosaurs?” coos Cantor, the House minority leader and one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the country. “So do I.”

Watching this weirdly cute exchange Monday at The Preparatory School of the District of Columbia, I realize just how hard it’s going to be for the GOP to rebrand itself after the 2012 election debacle. Republican leaders are a bit like Mekhi’s plastic dinosaurs: Even when they’re cute, they can be scary.

Cantor visited the school for more than an hour to gather information for a speech Tuesday that his aides are billing as an important shift of tone for the Republican Party. The speech will attempt to cast the House GOP’s traditionally conservative policy agenda in terms that appeal to parents, explaining why school vouchers, tax breaks, repealing the health care law, and other Republican standards would “make life work better.”

Will people buy a softer side of Cantor? The question is an important one because the second-most powerful House Republican is not the only GOP leader trying to soften the party’s image. In just the last few weeks:

• The GOP-controlled House capitulated to President Obama on the debt-ceiling debate. Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, cited the “realities of divided government” when he urged his rank and file to effectively eat crow.
• Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is quietly lobbying conservative lawmakers and commentators to consider immigration reforms. In the not-to-distant past, Rubio’s proposals would have been fatally labeled as stalking horses for amnesty.
• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told the Republican National Committee that the GOP must “stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults. It’s time for us to articulate our plans and visions for America in real terms. We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. We’ve had enough of that.”
• A group led by Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush, announced this week that it would spend money in Republican primaries to defeat far-right candidates whom the group considers unelectable. American Crossroads spent millions of dollars to defeat Democrats in the 2012 elections, and got little return on the investment.

In his speech Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, Cantor plans to ask Congress to require universities to warn students when their academic majors lack employment opportunities; to repeal the tax on medical devices, a provision of Obama’s health care overhaul; and to shift spending from political sciences to “hard” sciences such as cancer research. One thing he won’t do, aides said, is moderate GOP policies.

“He wants to build up trust so we’re not just talking about spending cuts and numbers that will hurt people. We’re also talking about how we’re going to help them,” said Cantor spokesman Rory Cooper.

Cantor also is expected to endorse the broad outlines of Rubio’s approach on immigration. He came to Mekhi’s school to underscore his support of a conservative approach to education: allowing federal money now spent in public schools to follow individual children, even if they enroll in private schools such at Mekhi’s.

The Preparatory School is based in a low-income section of the district, providing small classes and a safe environment to about 100 students. The average teacher salary is about $25 an hour, far below the rate at public schools.

The conservative Heritage Foundation estimates that about $1,100 of federal money goes toward the education of the average U.S. public school student. Cantor would like that money to be made available to parents unhappy with poor performing public schools.

Awaiting Cantor’s arrival, school vice principal Richard Reavis said that the parents who feel trapped in public schools generally can’t afford a private education. “That’s the challenge,” he said. “I don’t have Uncle Sam” funding his school.

Cantor, the father of three grown children and a representative from Virginia, seemed to genuinely enjoy the visit, wandering from class to class chatting with the students. His aides had to pull him away from conversations to keep him on schedule.

“Y’all keep up the good work, OK?” he told a class of teenagers while walking out of their class, past a bright yellow sign that said, “Bully Free Zone.”

Partisan Democrats love to call Republicans bullies, belittling GOP policies as cruel and heartless. Left unanswered, demagoguery sticks — which is the point of Cantor’s charm offensive.

 

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/softer-side-eric-cantor-raaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-144537036--politics.html

click to enlarge

• Ash Daniel
• House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is attempting to recast the Republican Party.

Rep. Eric Cantor and ranking congressional Republicans, seeking to repair the party’s broken image, had a moment of clarity while attending a retreat in January at the upscale Kingsmill resort near Williamsburg.

According to a profile in The New Yorker last week, the chief executive of Domino’s Pizza, Patrick Doyle, told Republicans at the retreat that when customer surveys showed the public didn’t like the company’s pizzas, Domino’s changed its recipe and started making tastier pies. Faced with declining market share, the company had a choice: tweak the marketing or make better pizza.

Unfortunately, Cantor, the powerful House majority leader from Henrico County, is choosing to do the former, the magazine concludes. And as it turns out, many people believe the future of the Republican Party may depend on Cantor’s makeover attempts.

Reeling from federal sequestration cuts, especially in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, Cantor’s also fighting internal party discord at home. Although all sides share blame, the forced job furloughs and canceled government contracts can be laid at the feet of Cantor, who for months stubbornly has refused to compromise on budget matters. He paid a price: Polls last year found Cantor’s popularity rating in Virginia had fallen to 27 percent.

Other Virginia Republicans are caught in the middle while they struggle with the same contradictions. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell finally got the state off the dime on roads through a complicated tax-increase scheme. Doing so was popular with many voters, but while he “becomes a hero to the Virginia establishment,” political analyst Bob Holsworth says, “he’s seen as a traitor by his base.”

While Cantor and national Republicans try to soften the GOP image, Virginia Republicans are set to nominate hard-right maverick Kenneth Cuccinelli, the state attorney general, as their gubernatorial candidate this summer.

Article source: http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/can-eric-cantor-save-the-gop/Content?oid=1835591

Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday praised Eric Cantor for helping bring the Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act to the House floor for a vote, where it passed with mostly Democratic support.

Speaking at a Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month event in the White House, Biden, who wrote the original 1994 VAWA, described the House majority leader as “a man who has kept his word, a man who is viewed as sort of the anti-administration person but is a friend of mine, Eric Cantor.”

“He kept his word. He said he’d let the Congress speak. He could have prevented this from coming to a vote under the ordinary rules that had been employed in the past,” Biden said. “But he didn’t. So … I want to publicly thank him — because he kept his word. Where I come from, your word matters.”

Cantor voted against the Democratic version of VAWA. But during a closed-door Republican conference meeting earlier this week, he worked to persuade skeptical conservatives of the need to bring it to the floor, arguing that the GOP alternative didn’t have the votes, a source in the room said. Advocates have said he worked to bridge the divide between their wishes and those of the GOP’s right flank, but in the end, it apparently could not be done.

Article source: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/biden-praises-eric-cantor-for-letting-vawa-pass

Joe Quigley grew up on the South and North Shores of Massachusetts. He has taught in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Oklahoma City. He has been a successful Labor and GLBT rights activist and cartoonist in the places where he has taught, and has won awards for his teaching, activism, and cartooning on the local and national levels. He is the 2012 recipient of the Angie Debo Award of the ACLU of Oklahoma for his years working for the protection of GLBT students in the Oklahoma City Public Schools. Joe has many friends involved in local and national politics who keep him informed of what is going on. Yep, he is an unabashed liberal.

Article source: http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/quigley/2013/03/04/17433-eric-cantor-applying-his-c-castration-workers

Lawmakers and other gather for a wreath laying ceremony at the Civil Rights Memorial at the Souther Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., Saturday, March 2, 2013. The Faith and Politics Institute sponsored the event. Front row from left: U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., Sen. Kay Hagan, D-NC., U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Virginia Republican and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor joined his colleague Rep. John Lewis and other civil rights leaders to commemorate the 48th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” and the march from Selma to Montgomery.

“I am proud to participate in this year’s civil rights pilgrimage alongside Congressman John Lewis, who courageously paved the way for a better life for future generations,” Cantor said in a statement released this week. “We have the opportunity to come together and celebrate this powerful moment in history. I look forward to visiting the sites of so many landmark civil rights events and reflecting on the sacrifice that shaped the greater democracy we live in today.”

With the Republican-driven efforts to suppress minority voters in recent years, it’s refreshing to see a conservative join the event. Cantor has shown his appreciation for the history of the civil rights movement before. In 2012 he fought to have the Selma March chronicled by the House historian by collecting video testimony.

He said at the time that he wanted a record of the experiences of those congressional members who participated in the freedom march, admitting that, “the country didn’t always get it right” and reiterating ”our commitment to equal rights.”

But at this time, as the Supreme Court considers a major challenge to a key provision of the Voting Rights Act–the very law Lewis and others were fighting for that day–it’s worth asking how Cantor feels about that legislation?

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia made headlines this week as he called the law a “racial entitlement” and Chief Justice John Roberts has repeated suggested the law is outdated.

Requests to Cantor’s office for his current stance on the Voting Rights Act went unanswered Friday. So instead, we took a look at the last time Cantor voted on the act. He was one of the 192 Republicans who voted for the last re-authorization of the bill in 2006 (not one of the 33 Republicans who voted against it), but he also voted for four failed Republican amendments designed to weaken it. Those include:

• The Norwood Amendment, which sought to “revise the formula” that determines which states and jurisdictions will be covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
• The Gohmert Amendment, which would have shortened the re-authorization from 25 years down to only ten years.
• The King Amendment, which would have struck down the section of the bill requiring bilingual ballots under certain circumstances.
• The Westmoreland Amendment, which wanted to create an “expedited procedure for States and jurisdictions to bail out from coverage under the pre-clearance portions.”

In other words, while Cantor supported the Voting Rights Act, he wanted to get rid of ballots that help non-English speakers, and only reauthorize the act through the year 2016.

His support for the Norwood and Westmoreland amendments may be the most interesting in light of this week’s hearing, as Justice’s debate the merits of pre-clearance and the jurisdictions covered by it. His voting record seems to indicate he’d side with Roberts or Scalia before, perhaps, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

His colleague, Speaker John Boehner, hedged his support for the law  on Sunday’s Meet the Press, calling it ”something that has served our country well” and admitting there’s an argument “over a very small section” of the law, but refusing to indicate where he stands.

As Congressman Lewis said on PoliticsNation this week, ruling Section 5 unconstitutional would be “a dagger in the heart of the democratic process.” We hope as he marches alongside Lewis today, Cantor feels the same way.

Article source: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/03/cantor-commemorates-selma-march-but-how-does-he-feel-about-the-voting-rights-act/

Sahil Kapur

March 1, 2013, 12:35 PM

When House Republican leaders unveiled their more modest version of the Violence Against Women Act last Friday, the plan was to pass their bill and go to conference with the Senate, which had passed a more expansive reauthorization. But they soon found themselves cornered, and decided to back down entirely.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), along with Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Tom Cole (R-OK), worked with advocates to forge a compromise between the warring factions. When that failed, Cantor sought to persuade conservatives of the need to let the Democrats’ version pass.

“Leadership was quite purposeful,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) told TPM. “They did not want this issue to hang longer than this week.”

The rollout of their legislation last Friday was a disaster. Women’s advocates and domestic violence groups immediately excoriated it. Democrats swiftly rejected it. The weeks-long effort to find a middle ground between them and the conservative wing of the GOP had failed.

Even worse: it soon became evident that not even all House conservatives were on board with the GOP’s more modest reforms to accommodate vulnerable populations like gays, illegal immigrants and Native Americans. Democrats would vote against it en masse, and some conservative members would join them. The GOP’s version would fail on the floor and create an embarrassment.

Republican leaders searched for an escape route. The VAWA struggle, which had lasted for a year, had dogged them enough. And even if their version passed, Senate Democrats weren’t budging. There was no endgame. And with sequestration on the horizon and bigger budget battles as far as the eye could see, it was time to move on.

A Rules Committee meeting Tuesday began late after leaders mapped out their plan of action. Rather than simply bring up the House version, they would bring it up with a caveat: if it failed, the Senate-passed version would get a vote. The plan was deliberate. GOP leaders knew their bill would fail, and that the Democrats’ version would pass. The committee approved it.

Democrats were caught off guard, but they immediately understood the implications of the move, and began to spread the word that victory was on the horizon. “We kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, this is it,’” said a senior House Democratic aide.

Conservative members were angry. They didn’t want to have to vote on the Senate version of the bill and voiced their grievances during a private GOP conference meeting Tuesday. Leadership sought to placate their concerns by pointing out that the Republican version would not pass and the issue needed to be resolved. A faction of more moderate House Republicans backed them up, saying they preferred the Senate version and that it would lead to a quicker resolution.

“Cantor said repeatedly that the problem with this House alternative is we don’t have the votes,” a person in the room told TPM. “And I think it lost votes from those who are very conservative, and also they lost votes from the pragmatic Republicans. The Republican alternative was essentially defeated by the Democrats, pragmatic Republicans and conservative Republicans.”

Just nine Republicans voted against moving forward with the two-tier vote Wednesday. The following day, everything went according to plan, despite the protests of conservative activist groups like Heritage Action. The GOP’s version failed 166-257. The Democrats’ version passed 286-138, even as Republican members voted against it by a margin of 138-87. The legislation went straight to President Obama, who said he looked forward to signing it.

A Republican leadership aide conceded that Democrats had played hardball quite effectively throughout the battle. “We saw throughout this process that there were a lot of folks who would have liked to have a political issue rather than a bill,” the aide told TPM. “We wanted to move in December, but we were told by Senate Democrats the bill isn’t happening this year, that they wouldn’t work with us. But meanwhile they would continue attacking us for delaying the bill.”

Thursday afternoon, Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the author of VAWA, publicly praised Cole’s “steadfast dedication to help preserve the protections for Native women.” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) called Cole to thank him for helping pass the bill. Cole, a Native American, thanked her for championing protections for tribal women.

Cantor was the only member of Republican leadership who voted No on the final version, out of concerns with the constitutionality of provisions involving tribal lands. But that didn’t matter to Vice President Joe Biden, the author of the original 1994 VAWA, who recognized Cantor’s role in helping put the issue to rest, at long last.

“He kept his word. He said he’d let the Congress speak,” Biden said later that afternoon at a Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month event. “He could have prevented this from coming to a vote under the ordinary rules that had been employed in the past. But he didn’t. So … I want to publicly thank him — because he kept his word. Where I come from, your word matters.”

NEXT ON TPM

Conservative Pundits Wrote Malaysian Propaganda

Sahil Kapur

Sahil Kapur is a congressional reporter for TPM. He previously covered politics and public policy for numerous publications including The Guardian and The Huffington Post. He can be reached at sahil [at] talkingpointsmemo.com.

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Article source: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/how-house-republicans-caved-on-the-violence-against-women-act.php

Conservative radio host Mark Levin delivered a no holds barred monologue on Wednesday basting Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) for supporting the passage of the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). He outlined the many troubling and possibly unconstitutional provisions within the law as drafted by the Senate and slammed Cantor in the harshest of terms for being cowed into supporting its passage.

RELATED: MSNBC Host: GOP Leader’s ‘Dripping Virginia Drawl’ Makes Support For Domestic Violence Law ‘Unconvincing’

“There’s another threat that’s been made by that little weasel Eric Cantor,” Levin began. “He’s no conservative. He’s an operator. And [House Speaker John] Boehner better look over his shoulder.”

Levin went on to lambaste the Senate version of the VAWA. He said that the VAWA is popular because it has a “cool sounding name,” but was first declared unconstitutional in the 1990s by the Supreme Court because it nationalizes penalties for a crime that has no impact on interstate commerce.

Levin went on to slam the new version of the VAWA and lambasted the GOP for being “so scared of being accused of being against women that they will do anything.”

“The Senate bill expands coverage to men, homosexuals, transgendered individuals, and prisoners,” Levin said reading from an opinion piece by Daniel Horowitz. “It expands the definition of domestic violence to include causing emotional distress or using unpleasant speech.

“It ostensibly nullifies the legal presumption of innocence until proven guilty – this is going to be a disaster,” Levin added, breaking from the opinion piece.

He slammed the Senate bill’s provisions which allow Native Americans legal jurisdiction over non-Native Americans and provisions which extend visa access to illegal aliens who become victims of domestic violence.

“This is a disastrous law,” Levin continued. “It was passed by this left wing, Democrat-controlled Senate, and Eric Cantor is demanding that the conservatives vote for this, and if they don’t, there’s going to be a civil war.”

Levin trashed Cantor for not going on his program. “You’re a coward, Eric Cantor,” he said. “You’re no conservative alternative [to Boehner], you’re a hack!”

He concluded by calling on the “phony,” “fraud” House Majority Leader to step down.

Listen to the clip below via The Mark Levin Show:

h/t Daily Rushbo

Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter

Article source: http://www.mediaite.com/online/mark-levin-calls-on-weasel-coward-hack-gop-rep-eric-cantor-to-step-down/

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other members of Congress will spend the weekend on a civil rights pilgrimage, led by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a celebrated civil rights figure.

The annual pilgrimage, which will take place Friday to Sunday, is organized by the Faith and Politics Institute, a non-profit organization that offers bipartisan retreats such as this one.

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The bipartisan group will travel through Alabama where they plan to honor the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and mark the 50th anniversaries of the March on Washington, the desegregation of the University of Alabama, the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and the Martin Luther King letters from Birmingham Jail, among other civil rights milestones. The three-day journey will take the lawmakers through Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and Selma.

The trip will conclude by commemorating the 1965 march across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, in which Lewis led more than 600 peaceful protesters demonstrating for voting rights. The protesters were attacked by Alabama state troopers in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Vice President Joe Biden and wife, Jill, will be joining the annual march across the bridge.

“I am proud to participate in this year’s civil rights pilgrimage alongside Congressman John Lewis, who courageously paved the way for a better life for future generations. We have the opportunity to come together and celebrate this powerful moment in history. I look forward to visiting the sites of so many landmark civil rights events and reflecting on the sacrifice that shaped the greater democracy we live in today,” Cantor said in a statement.

Other lawmakers attending the pilgrimage include Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, and Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), Martha Roby (R-Ala.) and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.).

“As a Senator from North Carolina, I am fortunate to have many opportunities to pay tribute to our state’s rich civil rights history, and now I am truly honored to co-lead this year’s Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage alongside an American hero, Congressman John Lewis,” Hagan said in her own statement. “I look forward to participating in events and marches that commemorate some of the most pivotal moments in our country’s civil rights movement.”

Isakson echoed Hagan’s praise of Lewis and the Pilgrimage, releasing a statement saying, “I am extremely honored to be a Senate co-leader of this year’s Civil Rights pilgrimage to Alabama with my friend John Lewis. John is a hero for his bravery during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and his efforts continue to pave the way for equality, liberty and freedom for all. This is the 50th anniversary of so many pivotal Civil Rights events, and I am humbled to make this pilgrimage to Alabama alongside John Lewis.”

Article source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/eric-cantor-joining-civil-rights-trip-88202.html

It is trouble in vicious soulless eee-vil rightwing-hack-land, as radio weenie Mark Levin is calling on that dastardly anti-gun LIEBRUL Eric Cantor to go kill himself or something, because he allowed the Senate’s version of the Violence Against Women Act to come to the floor, even though some bitches be asking for it! But, like, even Republicans know they had to hold their snouts and vote for VAWA, or we would (rightfully!) call them wifebeaters every day until Jesus brings us home! So what is Marky Mark het up about this time? And why is he saying Cantor should commit seppuku and such? Because this terrible new VAWA says that if you beat your wife, you cain’t have no guns? HOW IS THAT EVEN FAIR????

The Stupidest Man on the Internet reports:

Conservative radio host and author Mark Levin called out “Little Weasel” Eric Cantor for his support of the flawed Violence Against Women Act that contains egregious anomalies. The bill’s language is so vague that if anyone is accused of violence under this law… then they would not have a right to a fire arm. Thus this is an under the radar means of confiscating guns. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wants the bill passed.

Mark Levin called out Cantor on his show for his support of this bill.
“You’re a coward! You’re a hack!”

On Tuesday House Republican leaders bowed to pressure from within their own party and cleared a path for House passage on Thursday of the Senate’s bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. In a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, Cantor told one GOP member that if they blocked the Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) from coming to the floor, they’d cause “civil war” in the ranks.

UPDATE: Mark Levin has called on Eric Cantor to step down.

Well it is a fine how-do-ye-do when you can’t even offer your little lady some guidance, in the shape and form of the Rod of Correction, without having to give all your guns to Tyrant Obama. Despite the fact that Cantor didn’t even vote for the bill, we are going to have to agree with Mark Levin on this one.

Surely Cantor can find his way to the Death Panel without us?

Article source: http://wonkette.com/503676/liberal-monster-eric-cantor-going-to-fema-camp-all-your-guns-if-you-offer-your-little-lady-some-guidance

LIZZA: There’s sort of a final meeting with Paul Ryan and you and Boehner where it seems like there’s a final sort of discussion about whether this offer needs to be rejected or not. The way it seems to be reported is—it seems like Boehner wanted to do it, you and Ryan sort of talked him out of it. Is that—

CANTOR: I would say it’s a fair assessment, because, in the end, we felt that—well, let me back up, this is probably a longer answer. Yes, it’s probably an accurate conclusion.

My question was imprecise; there were actually two sets of discussions, which I lumped together. There was a meeting on July 20th, with just Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Whip, at which the three men discussed their objections to the White House asking for $1.2 trillion in revenue rather than $800 billion, and their concern that Boehner might go along with such a plan. And on the following day, July 21st, Obama formally proposed a deal to Boehner that included the $1.2 trillion in new revenue that so concerned Boehner’s three Republican colleagues. Boehner then had the crucial conversation with Cantor in which he explained the details of the proposal.

But it’s clear from our exchange that Cantor agreed with the premise of my question: “Boehner wanted to do it”—accept Obama’s $1.2 trillion offer—and Cantor “talked him out of it.” Though, interestingly, Cantor also suggested that Paul Ryan deserves some of the credit.

After agreeing that he changed Boehner’s mind, Cantor went on to explain his thinking in some more detail, and spelled out why he wanted to take the issue of taxes and health care to the voters in the 2012 election rather than strike a big deal with Obama. Here’s what he said:

But when we got to the debt-ceiling negotiations, there was yet an analogous vein we could have proceeded on, which would’ve not gotten us this Grand Bargain big deal, but what could have gotten us a little step in the right direction toward trying to restrain costs and expenditures. So, in a way, that’s what I think that the reason why we said no in that meeting, “Don’t do this deal,” because what that deal was was basically going along with this sense that you had to increase taxes, you had to give on the question of middle-class tax cuts prior to the election, and you knew that they had said they weren’t giving on health care … In the end, we knew that they weren’t coming our way, and you were already going to cede all those tax dollars, you were going to take from people without having fixed the problem structurally. So that’s why we said, “Let’s just get what we can now, abide by our commitment of dollar-for-dollar, and we’ll have it out, as the President said, on these two issues in the election.”

Audio of the full exchange:

This history is important—the failure of the Grand Bargain and Cantor’s insistence to “have it out” on these issues in the election led to the Byzantine agreement that gave us sequestration and, more generally, the seemingly endless series of deadlines and potential fiscal crises that we have experienced ever since. The Obama-Boehner Grand Bargain proposal was not necessarily an ideal compromise (plenty of people on both the right and the left disliked it), but at least it would have given us a single, comprehensive solution to our fiscal issues rather than the serial brinksmanship and dysfunction that we have now. And according to Cantor, he was the main force in Washington that prevented that 2011 deal from happening.

Photograph by Christopher Morris/VII.

Article source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/02/eric-cantor-the-sequester-and-the-death-of-the-grand-bargain.html