• Eric Cantor,  GOP,  John Boehner

    The GOP’s Payroll Tax Fiasco – Yeah Boehner and Cantor Blew It

    Flanked by House GOP members, Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner speaks during a media availability on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. President Barack Obama Tuesday warned Republican “brinksmanship” could hurt the fragile US economy, doubling down in a pre-Christmas power duel over taxes which has deep political implications

    The House GOP leadership have created a fiasco out of a win-win compromise on the payroll tax cut extension – and they did it right before Christmas.

    Bravo, GOP establishment morons in Washington.

    Even the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page is giving you an #EPICFAIL.

    GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest.

    The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play.

    Republicans have also achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter, although he’s spent most of his Presidency promoting tax increases and he would hit the economy with one of the largest tax increases ever in 2013. This should be impossible.

    The House GOP should reconsider their position, pass the two month extension and go home for Christmas.

    What a CLUSTER……

  • Barack Obama,  Eric Cantor

    Poker Player Obama Warns Eric Cantor: “Don’t Call My Bluff”

    President Obama at the WSOP

    Sounds like President Obama is taking after WSOP Main Event winner Jaime Gold.

    Republicans said tense negotiations over raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit at the White House ended when President Obama stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.): “Don’t call my bluff.”

    “It ended with the president abruptly walking out of the meeting,” Cantor told reporters upon returning to the Capitol Wednesday.

    Democrats immediately disputed the GOP account, saying Obama had sought to end a meeting when Cantor interrupted him to get a final word. “No. Absolutely not,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told The Hill in a brief interview when asked about Cantor’s description.

    A Democratic source familiar with the negotiations said the reports of a dramatic or abrupt walk-out by Obama were overblown, but the source acknowledged that the president “said what he was going to say, he got up and walked out.”

    “The climax of the meeting was the president basically saying ‘what’s happening in this room confirms what everybody across the country thinks about Washington, D.C.,’” the official said. “Which is that people are more interested in protecting their base and political positioning than solving problems.”

    The differing accounts came after the fourth day of White House debt talks in a row.

    Cantor said Obama became “agitated” when the House majority leader said Republicans were now open to holding two votes to increase the debt ceiling between now and the 2012 elections, which the president has rejected.

    Obama said he wanted congressional leaders to decide by Friday what approach to take on the debt limit. The Treasury Department has set an Aug. 2 deadline for lifting the ceiling, and ratings agencies are warning that they will downgrade U.S. credit if Congress doesn’t act — an action that could send markets tumbling.

    “We are very far apart right now,” Cantor said he told the president. “I don’t know if we can get there.”

    Conflicting accounts of the meeting or not, Mr. President you ain’t Jaime Gold and you are not supposed to let on that you are bluffing.

    Some poker player…..

  • California Budget,  Eric Cantor,  State Bankruptcy

    Rep. Eric Cantor: No State Bailouts and No State Bankruptcy

    House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, looks on as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011

    In other words, the state as soverign entities in the government will have to figure out their own fiscal solutions for budget shortfalls.

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) issued a new threat against a federal bailout for ailing state governments Monday as GOP leaders girded for a confrontation with President Obama over spending.

    Heading into Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Cantor showed no desire for increases in virtually any area of the federal government, and he doubled down on his opposition to new proposed spending on infrastructure and education, even in areas, like transportation, where he acknowledged there were deficiencies.

    Cantor flatly rejected any changes in the law that would allow state governments struggling with record budget deficits brought on by the economic recession and rising pension costs to restructure debt, including allowing them to declare bankruptcy.

    “I don’t think that that is necessary, because state governments have at their disposal the requisite tools to address their fiscal ills,” the majority leader said, before going a step further.

    “I think some … have mentioned this Chapter 9 equivalent for states is somehow going to stave off some kind of federal bailout — we don’t need that to stave off a federal bailout. There will be no bailout of the states,” Cantor said. “States can deal with this and have the ability to do so on their own.”

    As it should be.

    In California, the Democrat Legislature and Democrat Governor Jerry Brown have the ability to balance the budget without either asking Washington for a bailout or defaulting on its contractual obligations through a state bankruptcy law – which would need to be enacted by Congess and President Obama anyway.

    They just need to have the political will.

    What Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader is saying is: Man up =“States can deal with this and have the ability to do so on their own.”

  • Barack Obama,  Ecstasy,  Eric Cantor

    Obama: $ 787 Billion Economic Stimulus “Has Worked As Intended”

    Obama It's Working

    The President might try a different embellishment.

    President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

    “It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession,” Obama, who is traveling today in Ghana, said in his weekly Saturday radio and Web address. “It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and business.”

    Were it not for the stimulus program, the president said, “state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs — layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.”

    In the weekly Republican response, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said the stimulus bill was “full of pork- barrel spending, government waste and massive borrowing cleverly called ‘stimulus.’”

    “The plain truth is that President Obama’s economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and have not worked,” Cantor said.

    He said the Republicans want reductions in tax rates that he said would help middle-class families.

    In asking for public patience, Obama said the recovery act “wasn’t designed to restore the economy to full health on its own, but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall.”

    I thought the economic stimulus pushed by the Democrats and Obama was all about JOBS? You know, like in putting people back to work.

    Not to bailout bloated state governments, like California, who refuse to live within their means without more and more taxes.

    The spin is not going to play too well and the polls reflect the public’s displeasure. But, to spin results and ask for patience?

    This is not going to fly, Mr. President.

    Listen to Republican Congressman Eric Cantor from Virginia:

    House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) delivers the weekly Republican address on the economy, the Obama Administrations trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill that isnt working, and Republican efforts to offer better solutions.

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  • economics,  Eric Cantor,  Humour

    GOP Rep. Eric Cantor’s Effin’ Reponse to AFSCME/AUC Ad Blitz – Updated with Apology

    +++++Update+++++

    Now Rep. Eric Cantor’s spokesman has apologized.

    “I would like to apologize for a joke that was in no way an official response from Congressman Cantor, but instead an inappropriate email. I apologize to AFSCME for my inappropriate email containing an old video. Let me be clear, we know people are hurting in these trying times and House Republicans completely agree that we must pass an economic recovery bill that preserves, protects and create jobs for Americans facing these economic challenges,” said Brad Dayspring.

    Quite a F**KIN’ response, Eric.

    Of course, the AFSCME and Americans United for Change have complained.

    Brad Woodhouse, President of Americans United for Change, responded more forcefully:

    “Does Eric Cantor believe that peddling profanity-laced filth around the Internet is consistent with the values of the people of Virginia or the country? This is childish, inappropriate and disgusting behavior from someone who is supposed to be a leader in Congress and a role model to others. Eric Cantor’s response to one of the most serious crises facing America in our lifetimes is to spread this filth, denigrate government employees and treat the current economic crisis like a joke. This video has been floating around on YouTube for years – but Eric Cantor’s use of it in this context shows how completely and utterly out of touch he is with the current economic crisis and the lives of his constituents. Eric Cantor should be ashamed and he should apologize.”

    And AFL-CIO President John Sweeney added: “During these tough economic times the last thing hard working Americans need is to be ridiculed by a member of the Republican leadership. Rep. Cantor should apologize for insulting America’s workers with this profane video.”

    It probably wasn’t wise for Eric Cantor’s office to respond in this way.

    But, you have to admit it is funny.

    Here is the ad that started the entire Flap:


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