Cantor, Rigell, House Republicans discuss jobs on Capitol Hill
By JR Hoeft | Friday, May 27th, 2011 | Policy
Majority Leader Eric Cantor delivers remarks at a press conference revealing the GOP's new jobs plan
A review of the key components of the plan sounds much like what we heard last week at the jobs creation forum in Richmond, including:
* reducing regulatory burdens on small business owners
* reforming the tax code and lowering the tax rate to no more than 25%
* advocating for free trade with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea
* modernizing the patent system
* increasing the production of domestic energy
* cutting spending
“Our focus in the House since January has been passing reforms that would take a different approach – policies aimed that would create an environment for long term job growth,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner. “Helping Americans get back to work is our number one priority.”
View Speaker Boehner’s remarks:
Majority Leader Eric Cantor echoed the Speaker’s remarks, but also made clear that Republicans have been taking action towards cutting spending and proposing plans to increase jobs since gaining the majority only to be road-blocked by the administration and Senate Democrats.
“Now more than ever, our nation needs small businesses and entrepreneurs to get people back to work. That’s why we are presenting today a Plan for America’s Job Creators,” said Cantor. “This [plan] represents a real contrast, there is a choice, which the American public will see. We have a spending reduction plan in the Ryan budget. It’s clear that the President, former Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader in the Senate do not have a spending plan. We have a growth plan, they do not. We are focused on the economy and jobs – and have been since day one – and Leader Reid, Leader Pelosi and the President are not.”
View Leader Cantor’s remarks:
Rigell added that the Republican jobs plan is designed to foster innovation and investment, tackle our debt, and help business owners create jobs without raising taxes on working families and small businesses. He is part of the “Job Creators Caucus” – a group of congressmen with experience as small business owners.
The plan has been in the works since the Republican majority was sworn in this past January and marks the culmination of five months worth of committee hearings. It is meant to deliver on promises made by the GOP during the campaign in the Pledge to America.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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14 Responses to "Cantor, Rigell, House Republicans discuss jobs on Capitol Hill"
Anything to take the focus off the blunder made by Ryan and the House which appears to have lost its collective mind and forgot they are there to serve the public interest. Fact is, the meat ax approach to cuts laid out by Ryan will put the economy back into recession, which last time I checked, is not the way to spur job growth. Neither is a forum put together at the last minute with one politician talking to another. Fact is, stop with the PR, sit down and negotiate spending reductions and revenue increases that will reduce debt over the next decade without putting our nation back into recession. It must be done with negotiation and leadership, not press conferences to try to take attention off Medicare.
The Repubs unfortunately are doing things backwards and they are headed for a debacle if they keep this up. This kind of initiative (not arguing the details) should have been the centerpiece and face of the Repubs in the House. Instead it looks like they have rushed out a figleaf. Yes they have tried to restrain a spending a tiny bit and backed down when the Dems said “Boo.”
The Ryan budget is symptomatic of the institutional tunnel vision that afflicts both parties in the Congress. I assume the aggressive gerrymandering is fueling this. Reps basically talk to the partisans on each side and don’t get the kind of crosstalk that would happen in more varied districts.
It says more or less that deficit spending is a crisis and then balances the budget in 2035 thereabouts. It says Medicare is a crisis and then says we’ll do something in 10 years that will change it dramatically details to follow. I don’t question Ryan’s integrity but the PR aspects of this bill seem difficult to say the least.
Maybe someone can explain why the Ryan budget was rushed through without any serious debate and ahead of any major jobs program? That’s not my opinion. Denney Rehberg of Montana said he voted against the Ryan budget because “It’s being rushed through with little to no public input. That’s just plain wrong.” Maybe he should be Speaker.
You can always tell when a stupid Dem gets the podium they always spew a bunch BS why dont you take your stupid bs on over to the Dem side where it belongs it is beneth us to read such garbage
Quote: “Maybe someone can explain why the Ryan budget was rushed through without any serious debate and ahead of any major jobs program?”
Maybe someone can explain why Paul Ryan’s budget proposal as well as Rand Paul’s, Pat Tooney’s and Obama’s 2012 budget DID NOT receive a SINGLE Democratic Vote when submitted to Senate yesterday. Where is the Democrat’s alternative to the Republican proposals.
The Senate Democrats has not passed a budget in more than 2 years. Could it be that Democrats are trying to side-step their responsibilities and refused to attach their name to any formal budget so voters will not hold them responsible for any of the fiscal mess we are in? If that’s their plan, here’s a news flash . . . . American voters are not as stupid as Democrats think we are.
John
Do you think I’m a Dem? You’re very mistaken.
Diane, I get it that the Dems are irresponsible and worse. But you evaded the question. Having the Repubs follow their methods of passing bills is not going to work on major policy because they don’t have the media, academia, Hollywood etc to cover for them. Many experienced people warned the Repubs about the Ryan budget. I hope things work out but Repubs passed it without the members really understanding it. This didn’t even do Pelosi et al much good. Repubs needed to emphasize jobs first second and always. No matter the topic bring in jobs. This announcement is good but does anyone think the timing is great? It looks like they rushed this out to change the subject quick, not that they are presenting a plan as scheduled. I fear that 2 weeks later it will be put on the backburner and they’ll be talking about something else. Rehberg was correct. Ryan needed to vet it more thoroughly and Repubs needed to understand what they were signing up for. What’s so outrageous about that? You may not like it but the public is quite willing to vote against something they don’t like even if the other side has nothing of its own.
Well apparently Valentinus, they don’t have the voter’s support as well. Ever since the new Congress was elected on a jobs agenda, that theme has been ignored as the far right’s extreme social engineering agenda has taken center front stage, and no PR appearance like the one engineered above can change that public perception. Frankly, the moment the new republicans were elected to the House, the importance of jobs and the economy went out the window, and that is about the time that extremism took over and pragmatic reform took a back seat. Overreaching is another way to state the obvious, and I don’t think they will recover. I certainly hope not.
Very well, Michael. Please, enlighten us with the Democratic alternative.
JR
That’s a reasonable question in a debating club but not politically effective. Did the public in 2010 worry about the exact alternative proposed by Repubs to the Dem agenda? Didn’t Obama (speciously) claim over and over (amplified by the media) that the Repubs had no ideas? What was the result? I really fear that the Repubs are going to think just like the Dems did that a better PR campaign is going to make things better. The GOP had a short time window to sell the Ryan plan after they foolishly voted on it. What did they do with their time? Initial opinions are hard to shake. Look at Obamacare which had tremendous support from the media. Do you think the GOP will get through all the negative leftist media and flip their numbers in the next month? Ryan showed his utter political ignorance saying he had 15 months to educate the public. Cantor should do a debrief immediately with the Repubs who voted against this, not to punish them them but to praise them. They are the ones who have a clue. If the Repubs can’t flip the numbers soon, Ryan should be told to withdraw it and have him or preferably somebody else work on a replacement.
Well J.R., I don’t speak for the democrats; I have just been labelled such herein by others on the forum. Having posted on this topic over and over again, as evidenced by the first post on this topic, I will not bore you again with my plan. Frankly, I am far less interested in which party is perceived to have won, and much more interested in pragmatic reform which over a decade, cuts expenditures and revenues to about 20% of GNP without plunging us back into recession. I acknowledge that to do so, entitlements and defense must be on the table. Those of either party who say that this must be done by cutting expenditures, with no reform of tax credits and the tax code to increase revenue, are not worthy of the high office they hold or aspire to hold.
Simply put: Big government does not create jobs or free enterprise. Ofcourse, some minor regulations may be needed to protect workers’ rights, environment and economic stability.
please take me off your mailing and phone list..i get
tired of the crap u spread
While Congressman Cantor’s points seem to be well made, our nation’s job profile must also be vigorously addressed before real progress can be made. The federal government accounts for approximately 25% of our country’s jobs,and when you add the state and local government jobs into the mix…many of which are required by the feds…the total government employment accounts for approximately 40% of all jobs. And many of these jobs are either redundant, non-productive, or even counterproductive while drawing total compensation that often far exceeds their private sector counterparts. It is indeed difficult to understand how any country’s economy can even survive, let alone thrive, when nearly half of the workers are employed by the government. By cutting the size of the federal government to 10%, or less, of the nation’s jobs we can begin getting the profile straight for real gains in the private sector. Otherwise, simply trying to add jobs is sort of like trying to run a marathon without proper preparation and training.
I think it is time that all politicians stop giving the pep talk to public, always criticizing the other party members, and making flowery statements and promises. The public I believe is increasingly becoming “anti-both parties”; and there doesn’t seem to be a real solution to resolve any critical issue! No doubt spending cuts, and in a significant manner, is the pressing need – and I believe it should start with major defense cuts – pull out all our young men & women from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, where they are losing their lives for nothing. People do not realize there is just no threat from any Iraqi, Afghani, or Pakistani, as such. The real threat is from the “Terrorists”, and let them fight among themselves and kill one another. All we need is to make sure that our inland and homeland security is perfect, so that no Terrorist can enter our land. Also, the investigative agencies, who seem to have unlimited budget, should work more prudently and effectively to root out even a semblance of threat from any person or group within our great country. Lastly, what is wrong in the super wealthy to pay a little more tax than what they have been paying – it is not going to make any significant kind of dent in their earnings or savings! Personally I feel that any real patriot American with real wealth wouldn’t mind paying a few thousand dollars more every year as tax. We also need to reevaluate our ‘donation’ to Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, etc, which accounts tens of billions of dollars every year!
The first words on both of these videos were out & out LIES.
Both boehner & cantor began with claiming focus on jobs & the economy, WE ALL know that the entire focus has been how to keep President Obama from being Reelected.
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