Free Republic

I've been bracing for a tear in the space time continuum that comes when any liberal accuses anyone of being childish, like Harry Reid has done with Eric Cantor. I guess I'm relying on the same science that proves the globe's thermostat is out of control.Part of me wants to defer to Reid on this since he has so much experience being childish himself.....like when he equated opponents of ObamaCare to antebellum slave owners, or when he said Obama could easily flip the switch on which accent?To make matters worse, he was piling on top of what Chuck Schumer,...

The latest meeting between President Barack Obama and lawmakers regarding the nation's debt ended without any progress on a deal and a new level of animosity between those involved. According to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), "The president told me, ‘Eric, don’t call my bluff. You know I’m going to take this to the American people. He then walked out." Evidently the president believes with a few more 'yes we cans' and 'eat our peas' from him, we will support a deal that serves his own political agenda but does a huge disservice to the country.

[VIDEO AT SITE] The president told Eric Cantor "Don't Call My Bluff". Well, why wouldn't you call someone's bluff; especially, after they just told you they were bluffing. The president has once again made a mockery of the IQ that is supposed to be off the charts, during the negotiations over raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit. His tough guy line that sounds more like a Pee Wee Herman character than Gary Cooper; he was obviously off teleprompter. The perviously unknown term "off teleprompter" has become that legendary period of time, when the real wit and wisdom of Obama shines...

House Speaker John Boehner has told the White House that he doesn't want to go to Camp David to negotiate on the deficit. "The Speaker has told the White House he sees no need to go to Camp David this weekend," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in an email.

President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations. “He shoved back and said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters in the Capitol after the meeting. On a day when the Moody’s rating agency warned that American debt could be downgraded, the White House talks blew up amid a new round of sniping between Obama and Cantor, who are fast becoming bitter enemies. When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal...

<p>Reid says Cantor's conduct during the sensitive White House talks have shown, in Reid's words, "he shouldn't even be at the table." Reid says other congressional leaders are negotiating in good faith as an Aug. 2 deadline approaches for raising the debt limit.</p>

Rep Allen West (R-Fla): "Real leaders don't make threats" In increasingly acrimonious budget talks, President Obama is still attempting to play hardball with the GOP's large congressional majority while proposing smoke-and-mirrors deferred "cuts" that bite far after the 2012 election cycle has run its course. But even this illusion of restraint is only being offered so as to ensure that he gets his money-grubbing paws on as much of your grandkids' dinero as possible, pronto- and everybody and his dog knows it. After hectoring, demagoguery, and threats didn't impress anybody over the last four days, Obama slipped into a childish...

U.S. President Barack Obama clashed with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday in a fierce White House meeting on deficit reduction that left a deal in question as the clock ticked toward a debt default. "Enough's enough," Obama said, according to a Democratic official familiar with the talks. The meeting came as Moody's Investors Service jolted Washington with a stark warning that the United States may lose its top credit rating in the coming weeks if the $14.3 trillion limit on America's borrowing was not raised. The warning sent the U.S. dollar tumbling against most major currencies. Stock futures and debt prices...

Officials familiar with the negotiations say today’s meeting began with President Obama asking House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to lay out what was agreed upon in the deficit reduction talks led by Vice President Biden. Cantor outlined around $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade: $1–1.1 trillion in discretionary spending; $200 billion in mandatory discretionary spending (such as civilian military retirement and farm subsidies); $200 billion in Medicare and Medicaid; and roughly $200-300 billion in saved interest on the debt. After Cantor’s presentation, the President said the two sides might be able to reach consensus on roughly...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican floated a tax compromise on Wednesday that could revive hopes for a budget deal as President Barack Obama warned the United States could spiral back into recession if an agreement is not reached soon. Rep Eric Cantor, the No. 2 official in the Republican-led House of Representatives, said that his party could agree to close some tax breaks in a trillion-dollar budget deal as long as they were offset with tax cuts elsewhere. "Any discussion about loopholes must be accompanied by offsetting tax cuts," Cantor said at a news conference one day before he...

A top House Republican leader suggested a way to end a stalemate over taxes in the debt-ceiling negotiations, saying Wednesday that Republicans could endorse ending some business tax breaks targeted by Democrats if they also agreed to renew other business-backed tax benefits. The proposal by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.), which was described in a briefing with reporters, represents a new wrinkle in the ongoing budget discussions. In recent weeks, Democrats have pushed for raising revenue by closing a raft of corporate tax breaks and benefits as part of a potential deficit-reduction deal that would ease the passage...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Republican said on Wednesday his party could compromise on taxes as part of a broad budget deal as President Barack Obama warned the United States could spiral back into recession if Congress does not act soon. Ahead of a Thursday meeting with Obama, House of Representatives Republican Leader Eric Cantor indicated that Republicans could break an impasse over taxes that has held up a deal to avert an early August default. "If the president wants to talk loopholes, we'll be glad to talk loopholes," Cantor said at a news conference. "Any type of discussion should...

Cantor Pulls Out of Biden-Led Budget By JANET HOOK And COREY BOLES WASHINGTON—House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Thursday said he was pulling out of the bipartisan budget talks headed by Vice President Joe Biden for now because the group has reached an impasse over taxes that only President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) could resolve. Mr. Cantor, in an interview after a negotiating session he described as bitterly contentious, said he would not be attending today's scheduled meeting of the bipartisan deficit-reduction leadership group because he believed it was time for the negotiations to move to a...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called Thursday morning for colleague Anthony Weiner to “come clean” and give a clear explanation of how a photo of a man’s crotch ended up being sent to a young woman in Seattle through his Twitter account. “There’s a lot of explaining going on without a lot of clarity,” said Cantor, a Virginia Republican, in response to a question on “Fox and Friends.” While other House colleagues of Weiner have resisted saying whether they think Weiner took or sent the photo, Cantor’s comments suggested that Weiner was, somehow, involved. “The American people are right in...

One of the most interesting facets of modern economic policy is the sheer number of numbers. There is the unemployment rate. There is the workforce participation rate. There is the debt level. There is the deficit number. There is the foreclosure rate. There is the economic confidence number. There is the interest rate, and the inflation rate, and the money-supply rate. The point is that we Americans are far too busy (and perhaps economically confused) to look at multiple numbers in order to figure out if we can afford a vacation to Disney World. In 2012 we should strongly encourage...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor turned the policy temperature down on austerity this week by rolling out a strong economic-growth agenda. Headlined by a 25 percent top tax rate for individuals and business, the Cantor package includes regulatory relief, free trade, and patent protection for entrepreneurs. It’s job creation and the economy, stupid. Sounds Reaganesque? Well, Eric Cantor has a lot of Reagan blood in him. Back in 1980, while Cantor was still in high school, his father was the Virginia state treasurer of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign. So the apple never falls far from the tree. In fact,...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor turned the policy temperature down on austerity this week by rolling out a strong economic-growth agenda. Headlined by a 25 percent top tax rate for individuals and business, the Cantor package includes regulatory relief, free trade, and patent protection for entrepreneurs. It’s job creation and the economy, stupid. Sounds Reaganesque? Well, Eric Cantor has a lot of Reagan blood in him. Back in 1980, while Cantor was still in high school, his father was the Virginia state treasurer of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign. So the apple never falls far from the tree. In fact,...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that he would like to see House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan run for president in 2012 and suggested that any candidate considering a 2012 bid should embrace the Wisconsin Republican’s budget plan to cut trillions over the next ten years. “Sure,” Cantor replied enthusiastically when asked if he would like to see Ryan jump into the race against President Obama. “Paul’s about real leadership. I think that that’s what this public so desperately wants to do right now. They want to see Washington that will lead. They don’t want to see individuals that...

RICHMOND, Va. — Liberal activists confronted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) at a jobs forum Wednesday at Virginia Commonwealth University, accusing him of focusing on social issues rather than the economy in Congress. The verbal attack also went past policy differences into a personal denigration of Cantor. “If jobs are the most important thing, why have you spent the last five months attacking women’s health,” and National Public Radio, Sandee Delano, a MoveOn organizer shouted at Cantor as the forum concluded. After approaching Cantor, she asked “When are you going to grow up?” and called him “the most smug...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the Congress on Tuesday signaled a willingness to raise the country's credit limit "sooner rather than later" and avoid a series of short-term measures that could damage the economy. In the face of intense pressure from business groups for a prompt and tidy handling of a statutory increase in how much the government can borrow, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told reporters, "Why wait" until the last minute for Congress to pass legislation. He added that he would rather address the matter "sooner rather than later. The United States is on the verge of...