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He said, “It’s amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a website can drive that type of story into the mainstream. But that’s what they've done successfully. Now nobody can find them, no one ever met them, no one can talk to them, but that’s where we’re at. The bottom line is all of those smears are absolutely false.”
House Majority Leader Eric “Cantor plans to introduce his vision of America in a Tuesday speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute,” Politico notes. “It includes granting more visas for highly educated workers, eliminating medical-device taxes and simplifying tax filings. His aides concede that all he’s doing is ‘taking policies that have been on the shelf for a while, or back burner, and elevating them.’ He’s not completely abandoning Republicans’ core focus on slashing spending, just pairing it with other more palatable talk. Call this Cantor 4.0 — just the latest twist in the majority leader’s attempt to hit on a winning conservative agenda at a time when Republicans are trying to regain their footing in the midst of a political pummeling at the ballot box and fiscal fights that haven’t worked to their advantage.
This isn’t Cantor’s first crack at repackaging Republicanism. Or second. Or third.”
There will be a House Republican-led hearing on immigration today. House Republicans are very slow to embrace immigration reform and are not endorsing the Senate plan right away.
The New York Times has more on the hearing: “The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, said on Monday that a series of hearings he will schedule in the coming months would examine different pieces of a possible overhaul of the immigration system, including proposals for a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.”
“Republicans in Congress are much better armed than their Democratic counterparts — a fact that helps explain the deep partisan divide as Congress gears up for its first major votes on gun control in a decade. One hundred nineteen Republicans and 46 Democrats declared themselves as gun owners in a USA TODAY survey of lawmakers.”
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Here are the 2 biggest problems facing the United States today;
1) - The National Debt is projected to be $20.392 Trillion in 2016 - if Obama gets all of the tax increases he's asked for and the economy suddenly starts growing at 5% per year instead of the 2% of the last 4 years (Source - Obama's 2013 Budget). Presidential Budget projections are very optimistic.
Interest Rates on the Debt over the last 30 years before Obama averaged 4.92% per year.
If history is a guide, at $20.392 Trillion of Debt in 2016, we can expect the Interest alone on the National Debt to increase to slightly over $1 Trillion per year in 2016, an increase of over $800 Billion per year above the average of $199 Billion per year paid under Bush. That's an increase of more than $8 TRILLION over 10 years - just for Interest expense. The current 'haggling' over a few hundred $Billion in taxes and spending cuts over 10 years is insignificant compared with this problem.
And the portion of Federal revenues required for Interest expense could increase from 10.02% of ALL Federal receipts in 2008 to 27.6% of Federal receipts in 2016. That dramatic increase in revenues dedicated to Interest expense will crowd out huge amounts of spending that could be used for 'entitlements' and running the government (causing Austerity). That dramatic increase in money spent for Interest will also require huge tax increases, which will cause a huge drop in consumer spending, which will stagnate the economy and cause high Unemployment (ala Greece).
No matter what happens over the next 4 years, EVERYONE will face huge tax increases – just to pay the Interest expense.
2) - Inflation (and Interest Rates) are poised to skyrocket. Any student of Economics is taught that there is a very simple formula that predicts general price levels (Inflation) – Here it is;
M x V = P x Q
In the preceding equation, M is the money supply, V is the velocity of money, as measured by the number of times the money supply turns over in a year, P is the general level of prices, and Q is the quantity of goods and services available, which changes very slowly over time (w/ productivity).
Applying this simple formula, it's easy to see that a significant change in any of these 'variables' will have a direct impact on Prices, as reflected in the inflation rate. Doubling the money supply (M) ultimately leads to a doubling of prices (P) over a relatively short period of time.
What's happening right now is that the Money Supply (M1) has been increasing dramatically over the last few years ($1.4 Trillion in 2008 vs $2.5 Trillion now) because the Federal Reserve has been 'creating' more money to fund the huge current government Deficits. Ultimately, this will be highly inflationary, and if/when the Federal Reserve has to reverse course to counter inflation by reducing the money supply, it will lead to high interest rates and an economic contraction (recession). Generally, the greater the reduction in the money supply, the greater the contraction. In Milton Friedman's book "Money Mischief" he devotes chapter 8 to this subject – 'The Cause and Cure of Inflation'. History has shown that this is a 'Truism' – it has ALWAYS happened in the past.
The main reason that we have not experienced an inflationary spiral to date is the recession, which has resulted in a slowing in the Velocity (V) of money, and the 'lag time' between an increased money supply and its effects, but when inflation begins and people start 'getting rid' of Dollars that are declining in value by buying things, Prices (P) will quickly rise ever faster, thus forcing the Federal Reserve to intervene. A classic example of this process in action occurred in the early 1980s, when Paul Volker (then the head of the Federal Reserve) reduced the money supply, which forced consumer interest rates up to about 18% per year to combat the 14% inflation rate in late 1980. The result was a sharp recession and high unemployment. Interesting point - $1.00 from 1970 is currently worth only 17 cents in equivalent value because of inflation.
For an interesting 'read' on the relationship between M1 and Inflation, I would recommend the following link;
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation/Money_Supply_and_Inflation.asp
And the reason that it will happen is political ineptness, as shown by a N Y Times article, linked below;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/opinion/04meltzer.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&th&emc=th
Forewarned is forearmed, and 'Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it'.
What Cantor will say and what he really believes may well be different. From his actions (actions speak louder than words) and past statements etc. his real vision of America would be that a very, very small number of extremely rich industrial giants who hold mega monopolies will own everything and control everything while the average person is nothing more than a peon ekeing by on whatever they can scrape together. There would be guys in brown shirts marching in the streets, their jackboots making a definate clop, clop, clop as they march by. Prisons will be filled with debtors and those who dare even express any opposition will never be seen or heard from again. That is not only the view of Eric Cantor but the view of the extreme elements of the Republican party.