Here's House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), arguing that sequestration cuts are dangerous:
And here's House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) yesterday, complaining that it's irresponsible to say that sequestration cuts are dangerous:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Thursday blasted President Obama for touring around the country "scaring people, creating havoc" instead of working on a replacement for the sequester. [...]
Cantor said Obama's warnings ignore the fact that discretionary federal spending will be cut to 2009 levels when the $85 billion in cuts begin on Friday. But he said the federal government was able to provide many of these services in 2009.
"Was the food not inspected? Because that's what the claim is. That somehow if we were to reduce spending at all we couldn't have food inspectors," he said. "Did we have any border patrol agents in 2009? Of course we did."
I know Cantor often struggles with the basics of public policy, but no one is saying food inspections and border patrol will simply cease to be. Rather, the point is, Republican budget cuts are going to force reductions -- there will be fewer food inspectors and border-patrol agents doing their jobs because their budgets were indiscriminately slashed.
But even putting that aside, Cantor's contradiction reinforces a larger point: the GOP has absolutely no idea what it wants to say about sequestration. The Majority Leader offers an extreme example -- few have gone quite as far as Cantor to say the sequester is both dangerous and not dangerous at the same time -- but he's not the only one struggling with coherence.
As best as I can tell, the latest Republican message is this: the sequester is a terrible idea, which President Obama came up with, which will slash key investments, which is a great idea, which Republicans have championed. The policy will both help and hurt the economy, strengthen and weaken national defense, and hurt domestic priorities while leaving them unaffected.
Thank goodness we have policy wonks like Eric Cantor to help the public straighten this out.
Leave a Comment:
Cantor personifies the modern Republican, zero ideas to offer except for tax and budget cuts.
Cantor is dangerous. If he gets Boehner's position, our country will be in big trouble. We'd better hope John Boehner remains speaker.
If you think it can't be worse, think Speaker Cantor.
A bit late on this, but Cantor and the TPubs (and their followers) remind me of Edward Scissor-hands.
Only without any creativity whatsoever, just flailing and running with scissors.
Yes, that's dangerous.
he obviously has two messages to send...one for those inside the bubble and one for those of us living in the "evidence based world"
I swear the stupid is spreading!!! It's broken containment and is becoming pandemic!
“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”
Bertrand Russell
Today is March 1st. The first day we begin to be ruled by the right-wing extremists in Boehner's T-Party house. Our election has now been nullified.
I always loved March first as it meant the end of the worst of Winter. I think this may be a very long Winter.
I hope the people who voted these obstructionists into the House are deeply affected with the results of their ill informed choices. I really hope it hurts them.
I know that sounds harsh, but they are about to harm this country and they should suffer for that. So many others will. Thankfully I am not one of them, but I feel for those who are hurt by the T-Party's stupidity and ignorance.
Re: #2.2
I disagree. I think we have been "ruled by the ... T-Party house" since the 2010 election.
But, take a look at the votes that Boehner has allowed to take place - most recently VAWA.
It looks to me like there is hope that the extreme right wing may becoming marginalized.
I hope......no, I pray you are right, Maphi. I just can't see it happening.
Clearly we've been ruled by them since 2010, but this latest decision gives them real power. It is a real coup for them, and trust me, they are celebrating their victory over the president and the Democrats.
They'll toast each other with their Kool-aid and plan their next attack on the government of the United States.
#2 Dragoon,
Unfortunately, it is spreading and you can't fix stupid. Apparently you can't stop it, either.
How do we adjust to living in a non-evidence based world, in the alternate reality of the ill informed?
Epidemiologists have been searching for a vector. There is reason to believe that it's spread by a variety of fox: vulpes murdochii.
The Republican constituency are suffering from something akin to battered woman syndrome, no matter how badly they are treated they keep going back for more, they are like junkies, they thrive on stupidity, and hatred.
Tastes great, and less filling.
...but no one is saying food inspections and border patrol will simply cease to be.
Typical GOP hyperbole.
"Common-sense gun control" becomes "THEY"RE GONNA TAKE ALL OUR GUNS AWAY"
"ObamaCare" becomes "COMPLETE GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER BY THE TAKERS AND THE NANNY STATE
"Gay Marriage" becomes "APOCALYPSE!!!!"
"Black President" becomes "APOCALYPSE!!!!"
Rinse, repeat.
It's not just the GOTP. The entire array of right-wingers can be found on this very blog engaging in just the sort of rhetoric you describe.
...And this is not to say that the Sequester will not hurt...It will, clearly.
I think the issue is that the GOP is now raising a lot of hue and cry about it, while simutaneously saying that we need it, while simutaneously saying that it's not their fault, while simutaneously saying that the cuts must go on because they won't hurt, as long as Obama makes the cuts that hurt.
This victory today will greatly boost their morale and encourage them to do even more damage to the country, knowing we have no power to stop them.
We have to find a way to stop this madness.
We have ways, India but no one wants to do what it takes: things like boycotts and walk-outs and letter writing campaigns.
Half this nation voted for Obama, that is a lot of folks who could make a peaceful difference with their wallets and their feet.
Shut off any cable or direct TV with Fox on it, and tell your subscriber why. Don't buy one more Koch product and tell your retailer why. Look up those who supported Romney and drop their business.
Hitting these rich a-holes in their wallets is all they'll listen to. Doing so before now wouldn't have been a matter of life or death, it would have been just inconvenient for consumers...but now the Republicans have attacked our paychecks, our jobs, our standard of living, and WE NEED TO SPEAK UP.
We could have done things before now, but we wanted Obama to save us...I still stand behind him, but now We, the People have to do something to make a statement, to save ourselves, to show we aren't going to take this treatment anymore from our own government.
We have to speak up as a people and now...because we are on a down-hill slide with these treasonists and they show no signs of humanitarianism for anyone but themselves.
Needmore coffee (So do I), I just ground some.
Those are some excellent ideas. I do boycott Koch products. I do not shop at Walmart, ever. (They carry Koch products and have unfair labour practices.) I call my reps and the Governor of my state and complain. I vote straight Democrat ticket.
These people in the right wing of the GOP really are terrorists. They are liars. They will say they are for no taxes, but what they are really saying is, NO TAXES on the wealthy. The GOP has always protected the wealthy, but this is ridiculous. We are at war and in a flagging recovery. We need to make the rich pay their fair share. We need to close those loopholes and stop subsidizing the wealthy oil companies and Wall Street. We need to persuade these T-party terrorists that Main Street matters!
I know their constituents are the 99% of Americans. How are they being persuaded to vote against themselves? That s mindlessly stupid! What causes that strange phenomenon where the poor and working class sacrifice for the wealthy?!
By the same token, these are the same people who believe they should be allowed to have military assault weapons in their homes. (Hellooo?)
largenose,#4
You forgot: Taxing the wealthy: Armageddon. Grover will be angry.
Not subsidizing the profitable oil companies with our tax money: Apocalypse.
Gotta take care of those wealthy corporations and the richest 1% of the country! That's what Republicans are paid to do.
Thanks, India. I shouldn't post when I'm riled up by the headlines...I shouldn't have said "no one wants to do"...people do want to stand against this hijacking of our nation but we've no grass roots leadership to organize the masses against this party gone mad.
I apologize for that statement but stand by the need for action. There's enough of us angry that we could really hurt them in the wallet. I myself have no TV, no Koch products, and am waiting to refinance my mortgage away from Chase.
needmore coffee, @4.7
You'd love living with my husband. He hates TV. He'd never have one if I didn't insist. I like MSNBC and am a political junkie. He is a Democrat but hates to talk politics. LOL
He doesn't like the computer either. Amazingly, we get along really well, though.
We can't divorce, so it's good we get along. (No, not because we are Catholic. Neither of us could live without the cat.)
LOL, thank heavens for the cat...
It's obvious what happened isn't it. First republicans were trying to blame Obama for the sequester i.e. "obama sequester obama's sequester . . ." and when that was their message it had to be coupled with 'oh and it's really bad because he's really bad and it's his." Now that they've seen polling demonstrating that the public will overwhelmingly blame them for the sequester they have to change the rhetoric from "it's horrible" to "it's not that bad and Obama is a boogie man trying to make you hate us, since it's our sequester."
It's the same old story from these windbags..they were against it before they were for it.
Sorry, but I don't trust President Obama in all of this one iota.
I see his "grand bargain" (there's a euphemism if I've ever see one) becoming a solution in all of this. He'll be able to argue that it has to be done to end the sequester. He'll beat opposing Democrats over the head with this. And of course, the Democrats (such as mine, Dick Durbin) will fold.
dogjudge,
I am uneasy about Obama, as well. He's let us down before, as has Harry Reid. You never know anymore what to expect.
I do agree, but Obama is one man, standing against not only a Congress full of enemies, but Wallstreet, lobbiests, Big Business, Big Oil, governers, pundits, MSM, and 48% of the nation who actually, laughably, voted for Mitt Romney.
We have to help him now.
Needmorecoffe, (Just had some)
Yeah, that;s a damn fact. These are powerful forces running our government. It is still hard to imagine 48% of the country voting against their own best interests and for Romney. Unbelievable.
I'm trying to help Obama. I always have. No one hates Republican ideas more than I do. Believe it. I hate them with a passion.
My hair is on fire just thinking about the T-Party.
Obama has one thing none of those have: a voice. He refuses to use it to expose the complete responsibility of the failed conservative ideas that have caused *all* the country's problems.
Because nothing ensures Republican cooperation like blaming them for causing all the country's problems. Not that I don't agree with the diagnosis.
These are the people who simultaneously fervently believe that Obama is a ruthless and cunning thuggish product of their fantasies about Illinois politics who's conspiring with al qeada and the international communistic conspiracy to destroy America on the one hand and on the other hand just as fervently believe Obama is a bumbling affirmative action product in mom jeans who is thingy whipped by "Moochelle."
The problem for RW pols and pundits is that they've been getting away with selling contradictory messages to their base for generations. They are truly flummoxed when they have to try to communicate to, let alone persuade, people who are not so willingly ignorant and enthusiastically delusional.
It's as if they consider themselves master fishermen after only ever shooting fish in a barrel but now they're on an actual fishing trip. They have no clue what to do.
#8,
Worst of all, they believe they are right. They smile at how smart and right they are.
That sets my hair on fire.
Ya. One of the first things the deluded deluded themselves about is that they are right and everybody else is wrong. Their faith in their own righteousness is usually unassailable.
So, the GOP is against the sequester on even days and for it on odd days. Ok, got it. Need an Ovaltine decoder ring to keep up....
"I know Cantor often struggles with the basics of public policy,.."
It's hard to understand anything when your head is so far up your own arse and all WE can see is a hump on top of legs. And yet Singing boy isn't alone, there are a myriad of other GOTP'ers right up there with him, preening for the cameras babbling loudly.
Come on people - WAKE UP! The primary job of the congress is to create new laws, along with controlling the purse! The fact that these traitors don't know the basics and keep blaming the President means that they should be removed from office!
They should be arrested for treason.
Does anyone know how the sequester will be allocated? By law, does it take a specific amount away from particular agencies?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/23/us/politics/sequester.html
What Cantor fails to mention, among other things, is that the sequester blindly axes spending across the entire government. Sure, food was inspected in 2009, but the question would be, how will the sequester-modified food inspection budget of 2013 compare to the 2009 food inspection budget? Was the 2009 budget adequate, or was it just barely enough to do the job at that time? By the way, is Eric Cantor willing to go back to his 2009 salary? He obviously had enough money to eat and put a roof over his head then, so why can't he take that pay cut?
They put in a law that their pays are immune from these cuts. They look after themselves quite well. They'll cut COLA on SS, but never on their own salaries.
Of course, rats are excellent survivors in almost any circumstance.
It's pretty clear if you realize Cantor is a weather vane. Whichever way the political winds are blowing points to his position. It also illustrates the cynical Republican strategy of messages over policy.
If the cuts are seen as bad - cutting jobs and hurting the economy - it's all Obama's fault.
If the cuts are seen as good - reducing "wasteful" government spending - yay Republicans!
The Republicans have such confidence in their superior propaganda machine they believe they can hang this on Obama. In that case the worse it is the better.
Benen's drum beating about the doom and gloom of the sequester only plays into their hands - IF they can't be blamed for it.
Pointing out Cantor's hypocrisy, as in the post above, helps to dispel the message the GOP is trying to peddle.
He's blowing wind because Virginia is big on military spending. Anything else all we'd see is his middle finger, which is pretty much all he's good for.
I've been watching the news, and I am disappointed with MSNBC. Today I came to realized that this hosts, go in their box, and just read a computer. They don't challenge their guest and they don't understand what is really happening to real people. There is people who is losing their jobs, real people who is been furlough, soldiers with part time jobs are losing their positions. There is real people who is been affected at this moment. And what Chuck and joe and all the others said: It wont affect nothing, no one. It just show how out of touch your hosts are. Those host just keep reciting what one party of the other said no about the truth. That there is real people been affected. Get off your box and go and do some real reporting.
It's Schroedinger's Sequester.
People is losing their jobs and no one care. Congress went home. And the news makers don't even understand what's happening.
Ok, the statement above does not say the cuts are "dangerous", will they harm those areas? Sure, but that is not the same thing. Nice spin and it looks like the lemmings are lapping it up.
So you personally don't fit into any of these catagories, then?
Ah, another candidate for the ignore button!
Eric Cantor is one of the silliest people in Congress today maybe even ever.
Was I dreaming when I read that you were switching to disqus? This blog is driving me crazy. This is the second time I've had this hallucination.