Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Talking the Talk

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor promises to bring a results-oriented approach to governing in Washington, reports Tyler Whitley with the Times-Dispatch.

“This will not be a spring of 100 days or 100 hours, but rather a long march, requiring top-to-bottom reform, focused on producing results in three key areas,” he said: cutting spending, shrinking the size of government, and removing the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the private sector.

He’s talking the talk. Let’s hope he walks the walk.

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6 responses to “Talking the Talk”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Eric Cantor promises to bring a results-oriented approach to governing in Washington while providing zero in the way of specifics going back many, many years.

  2. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    ditto. WHERE did Eric Cantor promise to deliver a balanced budget?

    Where are the SPECIFICS of the cuts that will balance the budget?

    The man has had how many years to think about the deficit and how to turn it back to a balanced budget?

    The ONLY Republican with any plan at all is Paul Ryan and his plan is CRAP because he fundamentally believes that Medicare can be transformed in such a way as to cut the 1.3 trillion deficit that has nothing to do with FICA and Medicare.

    He also fundamentally fails to understand the DIFFERENCE between a defined benefit or a defined contribution FUND and Insurance.

    With Insurance, you pay a premium – and then you collect benefits when you suffer a loss.

    With Insurance, if you die before you collect – you do't get any of it back and neither do your heirs because the whole thing is structured just like auto or fire insurance – actuarially to balance the premiums with the total payouts.

    In Eric Cantor/Paul Ryan and the Republican world in general.. Insurance is a Socialist Scheme…..that must be stamped out.

    These guys are total losers and I'm betting Mr. Bacon pretty much agrees despite his tepid proffer.

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    you would think his pr crowd could come up with a phot that does not make him look like a weasel

  4. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    I think even with his best shots – they look like a weasel….

    and then… all doubt is removed… when he speaks…

    and this is the "leader" of the Republicans…..

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Cantor is another who professes to want to cut government spending but NEVER puts forth what he wants to cut. 80%+/- of the budget is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid(80% of which goes to long term care) and defense, these areas are where the cuts will need to come from if we're serious about reducing the deficit, ALL, Cantor declares are off limits. Cantor is nothing more than another hack whose singular goal is to be re-elected and screw America in the long term.

  6. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    I highly recommend anyone who wants to be better informed about the budget – FIRST understand that Social Security / Medicare are funded from FICA taxes NOT Income taxes and that you could do away with Medicare and SS altogether – just wipe them out – and STILL not touch the 1.3 discretionary budget deficit.

    The 1.3 trillion dollar deficit comes from non-SS/Medicare side of the budget – primarily the military, the war on terror, homeland security and the rest of the govt like Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, etc.

    All of the non-military parts of govt barely add up to a trillion.

    You'd have to wipe out all govt except for defense to balance the budget.

    Don't take my word for it – go read the Deficit Commission DRAFT or the Domenici/Rivlin balanced budget proposal and they'll show in chapter and verse the real problem.

    SS/Medicare are SOLVABLE demographic problems related to life expectancy and an aging population. Bumping the retirement age, expanding the income subject to FICA and co-pays for non-essential benefits can make SS/Medicare sustainable for generations.

    The other side of the budget is not so easy. The 1.3 trillion deficit cannot be as easily reduced – but at least two groups have proffered actual balanced budget proposals complete with specified cuts and elimination of tax breaks for things like home mortgages beyond a primary residence median price, farm subsidies, and the hundreds of pages of what are essentially tax loopholes that allow companies like Exxon to end up pay ZERO taxes even though our Corporate Tax rate is higher than most other countries.

    In other words, few pay those rates anyhow.

    Cantor and his fellow Republicans have yet to say what they would cut to get to a balanced budget and it's not like he just got elected – he's been in Congress since 2001 and is intimately familiar with the deficits because he voted for them.

    The man, the Republican leader (re-elected with 60% of the vote) has offered no plan of his own for balancing the budget nor supported any other plan to balance the budget.

    the most amazing thing to me is that the average person does not seem to know even the most basic facts about the deficit and the debt and many are convinced that Obama has caused the problem even though when he assumed office the debt was ALREADY at 10 trillion.

    People like Cantor hammer this President for ballooning the debt
    but offers no specifics on what spending cuts he would make to balance the budget and start reducing the debt – and yet more than 60% of people in his district think he is a principled deficit hawk.

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