Cantor: Stimulus Spending Unacceptable

By Adrianna McGinley

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), said no to more stimulus spending at his weekly news briefing Monday.

Contributing to the overall sentiment of ‘no more of the same’ emanating from both sides of the aisle, Cantor said no form of stimulus spending will be accepted.

“Anything that is akin to the stimulus bill I think is not going to be acceptable to the American people. Most folks understand that the promises made around the stimulus program were not kept.”

Cantor pointed out several points on which he does agree with the president, including the need to focus  on small businesses when presenting jobs legislation.

“The fact is, we don’t have the money, and we got to prioritize and right now is about getting people back to work. Right now we want to focus on small businesses and the private sector because focusing on the stimulus and the public sector has not gotten us anywhere.”

Cantor also expressed worry over the “pay fors” that will not be included in the bill that the president is expected to present this week.

“I sure hope that the president is not suggesting that we pay for his proposals with a massive tax increase at the end of 2012 on job creators that we’re actually counting on to reduce unemployment.”

On the doubt regarding whether or not Congress will be willing to work across party lines to pass jobs legislation, Cantor said, “I think all of us are here to try and do right by the people that elect us and what’s right for this country.” He added, “when there is potential for areas of agreement, we’re going to work towards accomplishing that.”

He criticized President Obama, however, for taking an “all or nothing” approach.

“I do not think that the president’s all or nothing approach is something that is constructive. We have good ideas, he’s got some ideas that we think are good, we can bring these together, but let’s not allow the things in his bill that we disagree with to get in the way of producing some results.”

Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), also present at the briefing, said, “those of us who come from strong defense districts still believe that if we’re going to have the opportunity to engage the president, we have to do so with everything on that table to improve our spending,” when the two were presented with questions regarding possible cuts to national defense.