Cantor Calls for Inclusive Party, Criticizes Limbaugh Rhetoric
By Lorraine Woellert
newser.com
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, Eric Cantor, criticized some comments by talk-show host Rush Limbaugh as inappropriate and said his party needs to be inclusive.
“The Republican Party in its roots is a party of inclusion and we ought to be promoting that and making sure that voices are heard,” Cantor, of Virginia, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
Cantor, when asked about Limbaugh’s comments that “Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate,” and his comparison of the administration’s health-care logo to a swastika, said the comparisons were wrong.
“Do I condone the mention of Hitler in any discussion about politics?” Cantor said. “No, I don’t, because obviously that is something that conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful.”
He also took issue with some of the harsher rhetoric of House Republican colleagues.
Cantor, 46, said Republicans must stay unified if they are to win elections. “That’s the lesson learned” from the Nov. 3 Republican gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia and the loss of a New York congressional seat in a race that divided the party, he said.
Tax Cuts
On the economy, the issue voters said was most important in the elections, Cantor said he would seek individual and corporate tax cuts as a way to boost the economy as unemployment breaks 10 percent, and align the U.S. tax structure with those of other developed countries. He said he also would cut federal spending.
“Right now the United States has one of the most disadvantaged tax structures in the industrialized world,” Cantor said. “We better start looking very seriously at reducing these tax rates to attract investments so we create jobs.”
Reducing the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from the current 35 percent would rank the U.S. in the middle of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, he said. He also proposed reducing the capital gains tax rate, even temporarily, to spur investment.
“If we could make sure that we maintain the lower capital gains rate that we have now, we provide a lot of certainty to investors that are on the sidelines,” Cantor said. “If we could lower it even further in the interim to jump-start some investment activity,” he said, “that should be priority one.”
Health Care
Cantor said the Republican gubernatorial victories by Christopher Christie, 47, in New Jersey, who defeated Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine, 62, and by Bob McDonnell, 55, who beat Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds, 51, in Virginia, will affect how the House votes on the Democrats’ $1.05 trillion health-care overhaul bill.
“The frustration exhibited among the voters in Virginia were focused on the policies in Washington and the government overreach,” Cantor said. “The sense really is that the agenda being pursued here is far outside the mainstream of what most people want.”
He called the Democratic plan “an expansion of government health care, period,” adding: “We know that there is an unsustainable system in the government right now. We can’t afford it.”
Obama has said that he wants a bill that won’t add to the federal budget deficit, currently about $1.4 trillion.
Republican Plan
A Republican alternative designed to lower health-care costs has a price tag of about $61 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposal would cover about 3 million additional Americans, or about one-tenth of those helped by the Democratic plan. The Republican plan would reduce the deficit by $68 billion between 2010 and 2019, the budget office said. The Democratic plan would reduce the deficit by $129 billion over the same period, according to the CBO.
“Our bill will reduce health-care costs,” Cantor said. “And if we go back to the very beginning of this debate, President Obama said this country can’t afford the rising health-care costs. And we can’t.”
At the same time, he refused to say whether he would cut entitlement spending to help reduce the deficit.
His comments about Limbaugh and other members of his party put him at odds with some party leaders. Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, took issue with Limbaugh remarks earlier this year, then relented.
Other Republicans
Cantor was critical of Republicans such as Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who called the Democratic health-care plan a greater threat to America than terrorists, and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who took fellow Republican Olympia Snowe to task for voting with Democrats. Pawlenty later said the Maine senator is “absolutely welcome” in the party.
Cantor defended Snowe, saying she “is talking to Democrats the way she does a lot, the way we all do.”
The House and Senate, Cantor said, are “plagued by a political mandate” from Democrats. “The only time that you would have a chance to get an insertion in the bill is to talk to a Democrat.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 7, 2009 00:01 EST |
