GOP Budget Won’t Include Funding For Healthcare Law, Says Cantor

By Mario Trujillo

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Tuesday that Republicans will not include funding for the Affordable Care Act in their budget.

“I expect to see, one way or another, the product coming out of the House to speak to that and preclude any funding to be used for that,” Cantor said during a briefing with reporters.

The House is expected to take up a measure next week aimed at funding the government through the end of the current fiscal year. Currently, both Houses in Congress are running on a temporary funding measure that was agreed to right before the end of last year. That resolution expires on March 4.

Not coincidentally, the president will release his 2012 budget proposal on February 14. An ensuing contentious battle between the two parties over what to cut and what to keep is certain to follow.

Cantor told reporters that the budget presented in the House will include provisions designed to roll back federal spending to 2008 levels. He added that the GOP bill will be open to amendments, which has the potential to introduce even more spending cuts. Already, it is known that Republicans will propose reducing discretionary spending levels by at least $32 billion.

When asked whether defense spending could be subjects to cuts, Cantor said everything is on the table.

The Virginia Republican, who along with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), will attend a lunch with President Obama at the White House tomorrow, said he hoped to discuss jobs and spending cuts with Obama.

The Majority Leader also said that he would like to discuss a speech Obama made to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Cantor said Obama’s tone missed the mark.

“What I heard is a sense that somehow business in America needs to respond to and act in a way that is somehow grateful to Washington’s acts,” he said. “That somehow business owes it to the country to do x,y,z.”