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Frank Thorp, NBC News
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)
As Congressional leaders meet today at the White House for the third time in the past week to discuss a deal to decrease the deficit, the gap between Democrats and Republicans appears wider than ever.
With President Obama telling reporters that there is no path to a deal if the GOP won't budge on revenue increases, the question looms if a deal will be made at all by the Aug. 2nd deadline that the Obama administration has imposed for when the nation's debt limit must be raised.
During a pen-and-pad news conference with reporters today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reiterated his stance that the tax increases Obama is calling for will not pass the House.
"The votes aren't in the House to raise taxes," he explained emphatically. "If they want to vote on the debt ceiling, they're going to have to come meet us, and we're going to have a package that does not have any net new revenues, period."
Cantor, who is one of eight members of Congress who are regularly meeting with the president in an effort to strike a deal, said that Monday's meeting at the White House will focus on the details that came out of the Biden group meetings, which were disbanded after Cantor left over continued talks of increasing revenue.
Obama has called out Republicans, who he believes are not playing fair, saying his proposed concessions involving entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security are not matching their unwillingness to budge on increasing revenues. Cantor doesn't see it that way.
"The fact that we're even discussing voting for a debt-ceiling increase [is a concession]," he contended. "Again, what I don't think the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say that they're going to vote for a debt-ceiling increase."
The big question is whether a deal, if one ever comes forth, could garner the 218 votes it would need to pass in the House. Many Republicans have already expressed their intention to vote down a deal that includes tax hikes, and then there is the Tea Party members, who will refuse to vote to increase the debt limit no matter what the deal includes.
House Democrats have also made it clear that a deal which includes changes to Medicare or Social Security would be almost impossible to support as well.
"There is a fundamental preset to being a Democrat that involves a commitment to Medicare, and to that safety net, and we ain't going to give that up," said Rep. Jerry Connolly (D-VA) late last week.
He anticipates that Speaker John Boehner will need between 68 and 90 Democratic votes to pass any deal that is brought forth.
The vote will, no doubt, have implications in the 2012 election, as any concessions either party decides to make could be campaign fodder for opponents to use in attack ads.
"This will be, I think, the biggest issue that we'll face that comes from Congress in the reelection," Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) said.
Cantor reiterated that concern today: "The election battle in 2012 is going to be much about the future of how this country runs it's entitlements programs and constructs a safety net for those who need it, and frankly not for those who don't."
But, according to Cantor, there's no question that the increasing the debt limit by the Aug. 2nd deadline is necessary, explaining that interests rates could "quickly wipe out any savings potential that we're working on here."
He also admitted that a "clean vote" to raise the debt ceiling (which would simply be done to avert the crisis and wouldn't include any deficit reduction plans), would be fruitless. "The markets are smarter than to just accept a, as you call it, clean vote on the debt ceiling," he said. "Just checking the box and making the payment, if you will, is not going to satisfy savvy investors out there, who know the fiscal situation of this country."
Today's meeting will be the start of daily meetings the president has called for to bridge the gap between the two sides, and while Cantor has expressed his intentions to negotiate, he also didn't rule out the idea of leaving the talks if President Obama continued to press for an increase in revenues.
"We certainly don't want to walk out of these talks," he said, "but I think the message has been heard at the White House from what I stated yesterday that we're not going to raise taxes."
Leave a Comment:
Tell him, OK you win Cantor. So we’ll have deficit reduction. No tax increases,…… right?
And I’m the Commander –in-Chief,……right? OK here’s what happens now:
All U.S. personnel will receive a ride home, and one chance and only one chance to get on the plane. After that, it’s a long hitch hike home.
All Congressional and White House Staff paychecks are suspended pending budget resolution.
Oh dear Representative Cantor, Boehner,…it would appear that a great, great many military arms manufacturing facilities and Federal offices are located, in Ohio and Virginia, and concentrated in Red States. Sorry. Thing of the past. Closed until further notice as are all U.S. Naval facilities and yards in San Diego and Electric Boat in Bath, Maine.
The U.S. can no longer afford to be “World Cop”.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments will continue as they are not part of the Federal budget, and draw no funds from there. Except checks to Tea Party districts. Want smaller government? Here ya’ go,...your checks are cancelled. Enjoy smaller government. V.A. bennies/hospitals will continue uninterrupted.
Then I’d take my phone off the hook and wait about a week. At the end of it the repubs would be groveling to do a deal.
Problem solved.
We have 22 days from here to 8/2/2011.
It may be a "catch 22" scenario.
you teabaggers and repubilican shorthairs wanted big big cuts obama 4 trillion gave them to you and you chicken sh*t out and only want 2 trillion so the rich can use their yacht as a tax deduction and the jet.... yet you're really interested in the debt .....jerks your only interest in your pocketbook not the country's....to the back of the bus america we can't have the rich not have loopholes that subside their enjoy ment of life....loser's loser's loser's if you repb can't see that you can't see. your liar's all of you... complaint about obama all you want he put it on the table ...justify the small repbn package republicans explain....how their not selling the 98% out for the rich 2%
Hey Cantor you sissy looking FRUITCAKE,as soon as the house is back in demo hands Nancy Pelosi will grab you by the ears ,drag you to a chair ,pull down your pants and SPANK YOU. You are the most sissified GOPer since Larry Craig. You do not have as much common sense as a Jackass. Your Tea party association can hold hands and JUMP into the River in Boston. Like the original tea party nuts.
tell me the country can afford the oil subsides,,,ethanaol...corporate jets...and personal yacht exemption...it's only 100 billion bucks a year ...we can't use that money for something that acutually benefits society...like pay our bills...
cantor throwing old buddy john boy under the bus....so much for republican loyalty
This is all about repealing health care, and doing away with medicare as we know it they are not going to stop going after SS, and medicare, and the health care until they start voting out the Republicans they are willing to bring the country down to repeal health care and destroy medicare, get ready for another recession!!!
Believe it or not, I see the President, making a unilateral decision to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt limit without congressional approval.. After all, Congress appropriated and approved the spending bills but not the debt limit to pay for it. I would tell them here is the clean bill - anyone who will not vote for it, I would have the Justice department file sedition charges against and have the trials public before the end of August, once convicted the Reps and Senators must be expelled and a new election held. Sounds good.
Turning down an offer to cut spending by $4 trillion because they had to defend corporate subsidies and low tax rates on the wealthy makes one wonder just where Eric the Terrible thinks that "meeting" should take place. If Republicans fail to fund the budget they, themselves, passed and force default--they will bear the brunt of voter dissatisfaction, and they know it. They built a trap which they promptly stepped in themselves, and now have to gnaw off one of their own feet-- and I don't think it'll be Boehner's.
Do you people understand what will happen if we do not raise the debt ceiling. It is laughable to think that the republicants care at all alout the people. They are so beholden to a few well financd special interest groups. remember during the bush years when these same so-called republicant leaders voted for increasing the debt ceiling. and that liberal who said the debt doesn't matter you know who I mean - Dick Cheney!!!
Wake up people. THis is not a game
I would say the republicans are being so uncooperative here is becuase they see the handwriting on the wall. They know it is now or never.
As Franklin Roosevelt said " You can't fool all the people all the time." People are starting to really catch on, and the repulicants are going to get clobered in 2012!!
If the GOP succeeds in taking over the country in 2012, prepare your children to speak Chinese-that's where they'll have to go to get a job---Thanks alot Boehner, Mitch, Cantor--you can't see past beating Obama, even at the cost of destroyng American democracy.....God help us...!
I am ready for the revolution-my pitch fork is ready...the GOP has thrown down the gauntlet, DARING the POTUS to defy their intent to take America all the way down to less than a third-world country, and create a two-class society; the very rich, and their lackeys, being served by the economically enslaved who are tied to "trickle-down" Reagan-Bush wages..The GOP-T-Party is willing to destroy democracy as we know it simply to get Obama out of the way , on their way to satisfying Wall Sleazy Street . How dare Obama suggest that the top 5% of the population pay their fair share ! The impudence ! That upstart will rue the day he picked a fight with the super-rich ! Hang tough, Obama, our democracy is in your hands ! You can't compromise with fascists, you can't win an argument with the ignorant, and you can't convince the GOP leadership that America is of, by, and for ALL Americans. This Independent is voting a straight Dem ticket in 2012-for the very first time !
Seems to me that the Republicans tried something like this once before, during the Clinton admin, it did not seem to work to well for them then. The Republicans are playing a dangerous game, and should the debt ceiling not get raised, should the U.S. not be able to pay for things, like Social Security, pay the military and their dependents, but continue to pay for executive jets, tax breaks for the rich, etc., the Republicans may find themselves somewhere they may not want to be, out of office and in the wilds for a very long time. In 2010 the Republicans campaigned on a promise to get jobs for this country and to get the country moving. So far, they have tried to cut funding for planned parenthood, PBS, and strangely seem to have forgotten about jobs. With that unfullfilled promise, and the game playing with the debt ceiling, they may once again be the party outside looking in.
GOP patron saint Reagan raised taxes 11 times. The GOP raised the debt ceiling 5 times under Bush without so much as a blink of the eye. Let's get real here. They have publicly stated that their goal is to make Obama a one-term President and that high unemployment will be good for them in the 2012 elections. So it's in the GOP best interests to keep the economy TANKED. If anyone thinks they care one whit about the average American, they don't. Their voting record on jobs bills, all proposed by Democrats for the last 2 years, is abysmal, and they have had not ONE jobs proposal since the midterms.
"Again, what I don't think the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say that they're going to vote for a debt-ceiling increase." - Rep. Cantor
Considering how many times this has been done in the past as just a matter of fact, the above statement easily qualifies as the biggest crock of bull I've ever heard.
me thinks they should not wrap themselves in their rhetoric and perhaps study up on the issue so it isn't so 'difficult' to do the right thing.
Candice@#25.2===Where did you get your information of G.W. Bush having credit for creating 8.2 million jobs? I checked wikipedia and they showed 0 jobs created during 2001/2005 and only 1.1 jobs credited to Bush 43 during 2005/2009. Please let me know where that information is.
The Debt ceiling?? isn't that a result of all the spending on both sides that has been done over the years. It is not O bama's fault, it is not Boehner's fault. Eric Cantor was not in office for most of it, but is quick to lay blame on O who also was not present for a lot of it.
quit bitchin and fix it. The US can't get a second job like an idividual can. If we need more money we need to ask for a bigger allowance. Simple concept. To get more allowance you go to the parent that controls the purse in this case big corporations and the over wealthy.
We need to cut the BS spending. But get me if I am wrong though. Isn't this spendthrift congress the same ones that refused to halt funding on the bridge to nowhere. Or was that the BS senate??
wish the 2012 election was much closer. oh well cantor, it will be a short stay
My question to all who support cutting spending and not raising taxes is and always has been, what are you personally prepared to give up?
Well, to all of you greedy, self centered Republicans that think we have a spending problem, I would like to show you that REPUBLICAN presidents have been to blame for ALL of the debt increases in this country going back 30 years while Republicans have not voted to raise taxes since 1990. So follow my link to see who really is to blame for our national Debt Crisis.
And Spanky, that gr8 job of yours is 24/7 every day of every week on here?????????? LOL.
Your in a squeaky wheel chair in a senior center working away at blogging crap on their computer while living it
up on all the big Government entitlements plus social security payments and medicare.
Get lost you lil weasel! You and Cantor are running 1, 2 for weasels of the year.
I know the right-wing worships money and power despite their public professions of religion, but it's still odd that they are so stupid that they believe, as if it's gospel, that lower taxes = better economy. Particularly since we have the last twenty years as a test case. So the evidence is: higher taxes = more jobs. Bush tax cuts (to help pay for the war to increase Iranian power) = worst decade for job creation in the last 40 years.
Nonetheless, we have them repeating this ad nauseum, and we have a national media that will not call them on it - or on the rest of their lies. So now we're stuck with a crowd of teabagging, money licking s8heads dragging the country down.
spanky, your one of a sinking, or is it stinking, minority.
STFU and forgedddddddabbbbouddddddd all that Fox News crap.
Cause its just more of that anti-american Rupert Murdoch sh_t.
And your part of it.
Go outside today so one of your neighbors can catch you and hang your butt from a flagpole.
Hello, you will need to reconnect the address below.
http://
gvdc.googlegroups.com/web/Natl_Debt_Chart.pdf?gda=Jv2M1kUAAAA6cly71EkEvWWKypGY5eOTp3pSn3HP8P3Z2oTPQe2mbKSnkb4Ii_lFitJlLxZPBkAcn8WIbWh5zqeDKtDBmq67Gu1iLHeqhw4ZZRj3RjJ_-A