Eric Cantor

The GOP’s Sequester

February 26, 2013 By mario piperni

Thanks to Eric Cantor, everyone can now put the Sequester Blame Game to rest. In a remarkable moment of candor, the Republican House Majority Leader opened up on exactly what led to the latest fiscal crisis. First a recap:

John Boehner’s story on who is to blame via an op-ed he wrote in the WSJ last week.

“During the summer of 2011, as Washington worked toward a plan to reduce the deficit to allow for an increase in the federal debt limit, President Obama and I very nearly came to a historic agreement. Unfortunately our deal fell apart at the last minute when the president demanded an extra $400 billion in new tax revenue—50% more than we had shaken hands on just days before.”

“It was a disappointing decision by the president, but with just days until a breach of the debt limit, a solution was still required—and fast. I immediately got together with Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to forge a bipartisan congressional plan. It would be called the Budget Control Act.”

Dem’s story via Steve Benen:

The Democratic version of events happens to be the accurate one: Republicans had threatened to crash the economy on purpose unless their debt-ceiling demands were met, and in the hopes of resolving the crisis, President Obama offered Republicans an overly-generous, $4 trillion “Grand Bargain,” which included entitlement cuts and new revenue. Boehner was inclined to accept it, but his caucus balked, forcing the Speaker to walk away from the table.

So who got the story right? Dems, of course…and Republicans need not take the word of anyone other than Eric Cantor (via The New Yorker) that John Boehner is lying through his teeth.

In June of 2011, the President and the Speaker began working toward a Grand Bargain of major tax increases and spending cuts to address the government’s long-term budget deficits. Until late June, Boehner had managed to keep these talks secret from Cantor. On July 21st, Boehner paused in his discussions with Obama to talk to Cantor and outline the proposed deal. As Obama waited by the phone for a response from the Speaker, Cantor struck. Cantor told me 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.

And the sequester was born…

The failure of the Grand Bargain led to a byzantine deal: if the two parties could not agree on a new deficit plan, then a combination of tax increases and spending cuts—cuts known, in budget jargon, as a “sequester”—would automatically kick in on New Year’s Day. (The sequester was postponed until March 1st.)

How soon before wingers start referring to Cantor as a lying liar?

___

Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
.

Filed Under: conservatism Tagged With: Eric Cantor, john boehner, sequester

Repubs Idea Factory Shuts Down

May 7, 2010 By mario piperni

When in doubt, blame the dems.

It was supposed to be a GOP ideas factory that would fill the leadership vacuum on the right after Barack Obama’s landslide election. The National Council for a New America was supposed to be, in the words of founder Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), “a conversation with the American people” to “develop innovative solutions that meet the serious challenges confronting our country.”

But, Roll Call reports, the group is now dead one year after it launched to what, in hindsight, appears to be excessive media coverage of an entity that hadn’t actually done anything.

So, what happened?

Despite all that, the national conversation never really happened. There was only one town hall meeting attended by GOP heavyweights, in Arlington, Virginia.

Roll Call reports that the Cantor camp is blaming “liberals” for killing the group:

Right. Good one, Cantor camp. The evil libruls somehow found a way to shut down your constitutionally protected right to assemble and speak.

Idiots.

The truth of course is that Republicans have no “innovative solutions” to the troubles which ail the country. These clowns have spent a year and a half saying ‘no’ with little to offer in terms of counter proposals. They failed to understand that ‘idea factories’ actually need ideas to operate successfully.

___

To receive new posts directly on your Facebook page, become a member of MarioPiperniDotCom’s fan page by clicking on the ‘Thumbs Up – Like” icon here

Filed Under: Republican Idiocy Tagged With: Eric Cantor, political issues, politics, Republican Party

Cantor-bury Tales

March 26, 2010 By mario piperni

Eric Cantor is a liar.

The bullet that hit U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor’s campaign office in downtown Richmond early Tuesday was random, Richmond police spokesman Gene Lepley said this morning.

“It is a stray bullet as part of random gunfire,” Lepley said. Police said they have no suspects.

Cantor’s office declined comment.

Cantor announced Thursday at a news conference in Washington that his office had been fired at. Police confirmed that, saying that a bullet struck a window, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the window but did not penetrate the blinds. The bullet triggered an alarm and the police were notified immediatedly.

Cantor’s office is in a small building several blocks from Capitol Square. It has several small offices in it. There are no Cantor signs on the doors or windows.

This was another feeble attempt by Republicans to divert attention from the threats of violence emanating from the right. Unwilling to admit that their overheated rhetoric has placed Democratic politicians at risk, Republicans are trying to portray it as a “hey, both sides do it” sort of affair. Bull. There is only one side in a fanatical rage, not two. Furthermore, the rage is based on lies and misinformation which Republicans and the conservative media are purposely promoting.

For Eric Cantor to bring up his Jewishness and then lie so blatantly is despicable…but not surprising. It appears to be the only thing Republicans are doing well these days.

___

To receive new posts directly on your Facebook page, become a member of MarioPiperniDotCom’s fan page by clicking here or to receive email notifications of new posts, click on Subscribe.
.

Filed Under: Republican Dicks Tagged With: Eric Cantor, lie, political issues, politics, Republicans

Eric Cantor’s Selective Condemnation

November 7, 2009 By mario piperni

hypocrisy

Congressman Eric Cantor demonstrates what hypocrisy is all about.

At yesterday’s tea party rally on Capitol Hill, at least one protester brandished a large graphic photograph of the victims of the Dachau Nazi concentration camp, comparing health care reform to Nazi policies. Today, Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) spokesman called the photograph “inappropriate.”

Also, in an interview with Bloomberg, Cantor denounced Rush Limbaugh for comparing President Obama to Adolf Hitler.

“Do I condone the mention of Hitler in any discussion about politics? No, I don’t, because obviously that is something that conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful.”

Ok, wonderful of Cantor to speak out…except this: Where the hell was he for the last year and a half when Obama was being compared to not only Hitler but to Mao, Lenin, Stalin and Satan himself? Where was he when his party remained silent when Obama was being called a terrorist and Muslim? Where was he when members of his own party made false claims of death panels in the health bill?

By way of his silence, Cantor was signaling that he had no problem with the smear and lies. And now, the only Jewish Republican in Congress finds it offensive when Dachau is brought up by crazed teabaggers but yet every other ridiculous assertion by these ignorant mental midgets was not worthy of condemnation.

Go climb back under your rock, Cantor.

___

To receive email notifications of new posts from MarioPiperniDotCom, click on Subscribe.

.