Jan 3rd, 2011
In light of Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his press secretary denying that Reagan raised taxes...
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
-- George W. Bush
Showing posts with label Eric Cantor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eric Cantor. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Eric Cantor Vs. The Proven Truth
Jan 3rd, 2011
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) is the face of the modern GOP. When an Earthquake hit the eastern United States last year, he used it as bargaining chip. When thousands took to the streets to protest fraud and avarice on Wall Street, he called them "mobs."
Monday, October 10, 2011
The "Uncertainty" Lie
Oct 10th, 2011
To hear the Republican party's current ranking members tell it, everything wrong with the American economy stems from "over regulation." This has created too much "uncertainty" and is the reason the engine of job creation has collapsed.
In particular, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) entire economic message is based on this premise. A few weeks ago, he repeated his position, "By pursuing a steady repeal of job-destroying regulations, we can help lift the cloud of uncertainty hanging over small and large employers alike, empowering them to hire more workers."
There are more examples of this nonsense HERE, HERE and HERE.
Most experts have been growing increasingly annoyed listening to this skipping record. You don't have to be an ardent Keynesian to understand that the problem starts with demand. Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute recently observed:
"There is a ... story, widely told by Republican politicians and business trade associations, which claims that business investment and hiring is being held back by uncertainty over future regulations and taxation. As Maine Senator Susan Collins said in introducing her bill to put a moratorium on all new regulations: “Businesses, our nation’s job creators and the engine of any lasting economic growth, have been saying for some time that the lack of jobs is largely due to a climate of uncertainty, most notably the uncertainty and cost created by new federal regulations” (Kasperowicz 2011). Her view has been repeated by others, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (2011) and the Chamber of Commerce (Donohue 2011)."
The table below presents the bureau’s data. As one can see, the number of layoffs nationwide caused by government regulation is minuscule and shows no evidence of getting worse during the Obama administration. Lack of demand for business products and services is vastly more important."
Here is the same data from the BLS crunched by the EPI in the form of a graph.
I have opined in the past that this "uncertainty" meme is not only dishonest, it is actually anti-Capitalist.
What the GOP has been arguing in favor of over the last decade is not unfettered markets. They want to rig the game, not set it free.
Pure Capitalism is built on the concept of accepting risk.
Today's Republicans are stipulating that there should be little or no risk.
They are determined to shield capital investors from the consequences of stupid or even dangerous decisions. Their message and their mission is to eliminate responsibility.
The sick irony, now that they also have declared that "corporations are people," is that they are actually doing what they have been arguing "liberals" have been trying to do for the last two generations.
The GOP is actively conferring victimhood on a group and trying to confer special rights and a special status.
It's not the corporation's fault... it's everybody else's fault.
The little dears...
To hear the Republican party's current ranking members tell it, everything wrong with the American economy stems from "over regulation." This has created too much "uncertainty" and is the reason the engine of job creation has collapsed.
In particular, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-VA) entire economic message is based on this premise. A few weeks ago, he repeated his position, "By pursuing a steady repeal of job-destroying regulations, we can help lift the cloud of uncertainty hanging over small and large employers alike, empowering them to hire more workers."
There are more examples of this nonsense HERE, HERE and HERE.
Most experts have been growing increasingly annoyed listening to this skipping record. You don't have to be an ardent Keynesian to understand that the problem starts with demand. Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute recently observed:
"There is a ... story, widely told by Republican politicians and business trade associations, which claims that business investment and hiring is being held back by uncertainty over future regulations and taxation. As Maine Senator Susan Collins said in introducing her bill to put a moratorium on all new regulations: “Businesses, our nation’s job creators and the engine of any lasting economic growth, have been saying for some time that the lack of jobs is largely due to a climate of uncertainty, most notably the uncertainty and cost created by new federal regulations” (Kasperowicz 2011). Her view has been repeated by others, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (2011) and the Chamber of Commerce (Donohue 2011)."
Is it true? Are America's businesses desperately crying out against "regulation?"
In a word, "NO."
As it turns out, not only is it provable that this is bullshit but, even better, it is former Reagan aide and stalwart conservative economist Bruce Bartlett who has done just that.
"Evidence supporting Mr. Cantor’s contention that deregulation would decrease unemployment is very weak. For some years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has had a program that tracks mass layoffs. In 2007, the program was expanded, and businesses were asked their reasons for laying off workers. Among the reasons offered was “government regulations/intervention.” There is only partial data for 2007, but we have data since then through the second quarter of this year.
The table below presents the bureau’s data. As one can see, the number of layoffs nationwide caused by government regulation is minuscule and shows no evidence of getting worse during the Obama administration. Lack of demand for business products and services is vastly more important."
I have opined in the past that this "uncertainty" meme is not only dishonest, it is actually anti-Capitalist.
What the GOP has been arguing in favor of over the last decade is not unfettered markets. They want to rig the game, not set it free.
Pure Capitalism is built on the concept of accepting risk.
Today's Republicans are stipulating that there should be little or no risk.
They are determined to shield capital investors from the consequences of stupid or even dangerous decisions. Their message and their mission is to eliminate responsibility.
The sick irony, now that they also have declared that "corporations are people," is that they are actually doing what they have been arguing "liberals" have been trying to do for the last two generations.
The GOP is actively conferring victimhood on a group and trying to confer special rights and a special status.
It's not the corporation's fault... it's everybody else's fault.
The little dears...
Friday, October 7, 2011
Whoa...Michael Takiff's Cultural Broadside Against Cantor
Oct 7th, 2011
On the economics, Takiff is dead on and firing the big guns. On the cultural criticism, I think he may be over the line:
"These days Eric Cantor is steering the United States Treasury to default — and the world economy to catastrophe — as he defends to the death the sacred right of corporate jet owners to amortize their aircraft over five years instead of seven. Not long ago he was giving George W. Bush all the credit for killing bin Laden. Before that he was threatening to shut down the government over the budget bill. Earlier he claimed that the House of Representatives could make law without the approval of the Senate or the president.
Am I the only Jew in America who finds the House majority leader deeply embarrassing to our people? Am I the only tribe member who considers this smarmy yutz today’s numero-uno shonda fur die goyim?
Shonda what?"
Read more...
On the economics, Takiff is dead on and firing the big guns. On the cultural criticism, I think he may be over the line:
"These days Eric Cantor is steering the United States Treasury to default — and the world economy to catastrophe — as he defends to the death the sacred right of corporate jet owners to amortize their aircraft over five years instead of seven. Not long ago he was giving George W. Bush all the credit for killing bin Laden. Before that he was threatening to shut down the government over the budget bill. Earlier he claimed that the House of Representatives could make law without the approval of the Senate or the president.
Am I the only Jew in America who finds the House majority leader deeply embarrassing to our people? Am I the only tribe member who considers this smarmy yutz today’s numero-uno shonda fur die goyim?
Shonda what?"
Read more...
Monday, October 3, 2011
Obama's "Nemesis"
Oct 3rd, 2011
Jason Zengerle profiles House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for New York Magazine. It's an ugly portrait of a very unprincipled man.
"Cantor’s role as Obama’s nemesis, as the National Review recently dubbed him, is remarkable for several reasons—none more so than the fact that, although he’s now the darling of the tea party, he initially rose to power in Washington by standing for almost everything the tea party is against..."
"Cantor’s primary job as a member of the whip operation was to cajole his fellow Republican congressmen into voting for many of the bills the tea-partiers now decry as the height of fiscal irresponsibility —including, most infamously, the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug legislation, for which he worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists and Karl Rove."
The article traces Cantor's self-transformation from establishment stooge to, well, stealth establishment stooge. It is amazing that someone so committed to preserving corporatist exploitation and defending outright waste in non-social spending has managed to dupe the GOP rank and file into believing that he is fighting for fiscal sensibility.
An interesting aside in the article actually shines a very bright light on just how Cantor has accomplished this. What's more, it also illustrates how he has marginalized Speaker Boehner while, at the same time, securing his general control over the radical, Tea Party driven newcomers who stormed into Congress last year.
"I can text Cantor and get a response back in minutes," says one freshman, explaining his allegiance. "I don’t know if Speaker Boehner even has a cell phone."
These freshman are his to control. They go home and tell their constituents his version of events. Their own narratives have been subsumed.
This is Eric Cantor's grand strategy... for Eric Cantor.
He has created and now wields a barely visible intra-party political machine. His continuing consolidation of power is impressive. His ability to call upon it to obstruct and sabotage both sides of the aisle raises the very real possibility that, as the title of Zengerle's implies, we are actually living in "Cantor's America."
Jason Zengerle profiles House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for New York Magazine. It's an ugly portrait of a very unprincipled man.
"Cantor’s primary job as a member of the whip operation was to cajole his fellow Republican congressmen into voting for many of the bills the tea-partiers now decry as the height of fiscal irresponsibility —including, most infamously, the 2003 Medicare prescription-drug legislation, for which he worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical-industry lobbyists and Karl Rove."
The article traces Cantor's self-transformation from establishment stooge to, well, stealth establishment stooge. It is amazing that someone so committed to preserving corporatist exploitation and defending outright waste in non-social spending has managed to dupe the GOP rank and file into believing that he is fighting for fiscal sensibility.
An interesting aside in the article actually shines a very bright light on just how Cantor has accomplished this. What's more, it also illustrates how he has marginalized Speaker Boehner while, at the same time, securing his general control over the radical, Tea Party driven newcomers who stormed into Congress last year.
"I can text Cantor and get a response back in minutes," says one freshman, explaining his allegiance. "I don’t know if Speaker Boehner even has a cell phone."
These freshman are his to control. They go home and tell their constituents his version of events. Their own narratives have been subsumed.
This is Eric Cantor's grand strategy... for Eric Cantor.
He has created and now wields a barely visible intra-party political machine. His continuing consolidation of power is impressive. His ability to call upon it to obstruct and sabotage both sides of the aisle raises the very real possibility that, as the title of Zengerle's implies, we are actually living in "Cantor's America."
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sabotaging America, Ctd
June 23rd, 2011
From WaPo:
"...if you had to write a plausible scenario for how America defaults on its debt, or at least seriously spooks the market, this is how it would start. After insisting on using the debt limit as leverage for a budget deal, the Republican leadership finds they can’t actually strike a deficit-reduction deal, but nor can they go back on their promise to vote against any increase in the debt limit that isn’t accompanied by a deficit-reduction deal. What follows is a lot of jockeying and fingerpointing, a short-term increase or two, and eventually, a market panic.
Cantor is putting personal power before country here, and in a very dangerous way. If Boehner actually does manage to cut a decent deal despite Cantor’s effort to throw him under the bus, he may not hold on as leader of his party, but unlike Cantor, he’ll deserve to. For better or worse, this is when we learn whether anyone on the Republican Party’s leadership team is actually prepared to lead."
When we look back years from now, this may be one the most important moments in our history. And one of its most devastating. No foreign enemy has ever put the United States in a position of defaulting on its obligations. The GOP now has.
A couple of weeks ago, I commented on an article by Robert Parry and made the supposition that the GOP may well be attempting to directly sabotage our country's economy.
Yesterday, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) had the nerve to suggest this publicly. The process continues. Ezra Klein notes that Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) departure from the debt-limit talks today is not just irresponsible, it is also dangerous. Frankly, I think Klein is easy on the man, but his conclusion is clear and correct.
From WaPo:
"...if you had to write a plausible scenario for how America defaults on its debt, or at least seriously spooks the market, this is how it would start. After insisting on using the debt limit as leverage for a budget deal, the Republican leadership finds they can’t actually strike a deficit-reduction deal, but nor can they go back on their promise to vote against any increase in the debt limit that isn’t accompanied by a deficit-reduction deal. What follows is a lot of jockeying and fingerpointing, a short-term increase or two, and eventually, a market panic.
Cantor is putting personal power before country here, and in a very dangerous way. If Boehner actually does manage to cut a decent deal despite Cantor’s effort to throw him under the bus, he may not hold on as leader of his party, but unlike Cantor, he’ll deserve to. For better or worse, this is when we learn whether anyone on the Republican Party’s leadership team is actually prepared to lead."
When we look back years from now, this may be one the most important moments in our history. And one of its most devastating. No foreign enemy has ever put the United States in a position of defaulting on its obligations. The GOP now has.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
It's Different This Time
June 9th, 2011
Rachel Maddow on the current wave of Republican Hypocrisy surrounding "Weinergate."
Monday, April 4, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Eric Cantor & Orly Taitz
Dec 29th, 2010
Far Right ideologue and greed monkey Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) deserves a good talking to from his party about his lack of judgement.
From Salon:
"Orly Taitz, the dentist-cum-lawyer-cum-Birther leader, yesterday posted on Facebook the above picture of herself with incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Taitz put the image in an album titled "12/27/10," suggesting it was taken Monday, though that could not immediately be confirmed."
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