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Eric Cantor & Standoff

July 15, 2011 by · Comments Off on Eric Cantor & Standoff 

Eric Cantor & StandoffEric Cantor & Standoff, As talks debt ceiling, fell on another day of blockade, the Democrats tried to pin the blame on a new goal: Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Cantor is in the center of the bitter debt ceiling, the discussions should surprise anyone who has followed his efforts to mobilize small-government conservatives.

“Young Guns”, the No. 2 House Republican calls them – and himself – in a book he co-wrote last year with two colleagues from the House-minded.

Accounts of rising Cantor of Richmond, Va.-school preparation for the House Republican leader are laced with tales of ambition, money-raising prowess and the anti-tax fervor.

But with Wall Street and many in Congress increasingly alarmed by the political stalemate over raising the debt capacity of the nation, without involvement of Cantor tactics have been criticized even within his own party.

Has come from both parties-the debt-ceiling meetings with Vice President Biden. Entangled in an increasingly aggravated Obama. Treaties sensitive closed-door negotiations as fodder for public statements.

And his role in neutralizing the top, the House of Representatives John Boehner, after the veteran Republican from Ohio seemed ready to make a deal with the White House.

That agreement, which reportedly included significant spending and cuts right, attracted many moderate Republicans. However, Cantor and his loyal fuel Tea Party committee members, whose votes are needed to approve any agreement, the proposal was DOA because it included a reversal of tax breaks for the rich.

Cantor, 48, was born into a family steeped in Republican politics in Virginia, is now, and his political ambitions, in a precarious moment.

On Thursday morning, Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) called Cantor to withdraw from the talks, criticizing him as “childish” in the Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has warned that failure to reach an agreement on debt limit will help re-elect Obama.

And Democrats, in their efforts to make Cantor the villain of the debt-limit, which happily clung to the directory listing of the six-term congressman: “I want what I want when I want.”

But the married father of three, so far, seemed unfazed.

When asked this week if he would take “significant heat of his party” to reach an agreement, Cantor said, “I have said before, a vote to increase the debt limit in this country is an existential issue for a fiscal conservative because it does is provide a greater expense. And that’s been my point throughout these discussions. ”

“Republicans, the speaker and I are united in saying they do not want to raise taxes on the American people,” he said. “Our conference is attached.”

In a show of solidarity after Reid’s comments Thursday morning, Boehner and Cantor appeared together at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Boehner defended his colleague, saying, “Any suggestion that the role Eric played in this meeting has been nothing short of help is wrong. I’m glad Eric is there, and those other opinion must support them it. ”

Cantor said that Reid “is frustrated, like all of us.”

“He talks and I have been constantly on the same page,” said Cantor. “We will not raise the debt ceiling unless you have cuts in excess of that amount, they do not want to raise taxes; and we want to structurally change the system”

Political preordained

Cantor is not a new face in the fervently anti-tax wing of the party, now embodied by the movement of the Tea Party.

In a 2007 column in the conservative magazine Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes Cantor referred to as a “small government conservative” and a “fierce enemy of tax increases.”

Barnes predicted a “bright future” Cantor and called it the “most valuable player” of the young men called the game.

Cantor always appeared headed for political leadership.

His father was the treasurer of the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign in Virginia in 1980 and was about to state leaders of the Republican Party.

After graduating from college elite school where he was one of the few Jewish students, Cantor was studying political science at George Washington University. Once there, he worked as an intern for Rep. Tom Bliley of Virginia.

Any suggestion that the role Eric played in this meeting has been nothing short of help is wrong. I’m glad Eric is there, and those with other opinions they hold for themselves.

– House of Representatives, John Boehner
Cantor received a law degree from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in real estate finance from Columbia University.

In 1991, Cantor, who worked in the family business of real estate, had won his first term in the Virginia House of Delegates at age 28. A decade later, was a member of the U.S. House, is already tapped to be deputy chief whip, a critic count of votes in the party leadership position.

An article published in your local newspaper, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, a few years later detailed their ability to fundraising, including events in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Aspen.

Is that the fundraising delicacy, and ability as the only Jewish Republican in the house to attract traditionally Democratic Jewish donors, which has helped to consolidate its influence within his committee?

The local newspaper also reported Cantor function in obtaining one and 10.1 billion federal takeovers of the producers of snuff in the nation – an attached agreement, the Times-Dispatch reported, a draft corporate tax law revision.

In 2004, the roll call data provided political publication of a fundraiser for Cantor at the Plaza Hotel in New York City during which most Jews donors contributed about $ 500,000 and the steering committee of Congress, ERICPAC.

Committee funds may be used to help other candidates, and to promote the agenda of Cantor.

He has been generous with their money and their time PAC, which, as he has said, take your party politics “desert.”

In 2005, the Times-Dispatch reported that the PAC two years old was raised to 1.06 million in 2004, and Cantor “made political events, and gave money to more than 150 candidates in 2003 and 2004. ”

Since then, his team said he has made hundreds of trips to campaign for such candidates, earning a reputation as one of the rainmakers of Capitol Hill class.

According to The Washington Post, staff Cantor, said he helped raise $ 10 million and presidential candidate John McCain in 2008. Last year, the Center for Responsive Politics says, PAC and Cantor took in 4.4 million and contributed more than 1.6 million for Republican candidates for the midterm elections.

Cantor Auto-written story has been correcting the Republican Party after the scandals of the last ten years, and the creation of a “party of ideas” again.

But he had a brush with the Jack Abramoff scandal that sent the lobbyist to prison and led to the fall of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

After the Jewish newspaper The Forward reported that Cantor had not paid for or listed as a debt and 500-to-plate “sandwich name” fundraising event held by him at Abramoff’s restaurant in Washington who “got a bill and pay quickly and 1, 732 for the event.”

Cantor also signed a letter urging the Interior Department to rule on a question of Indian casino in a way that would have benefited Abramoff’s lobbying clients.

Cantor told the Times-Dispatch: “I did not even know he was involved in any way with that letter at all.”

Abramoff was not always a friend: During the first race of Cantor for Congress, was challenged in the GOP primaries in solidly Republican district. Was expected to win easily, but ended up earning the victory in the open after a last minute phone and e-Semitic campaign against him dropped the race.

Behind the calls? The Abramoff supported by the Faith and Family Alliance.

After the victory of Cantor, Abramoff became a defender, forward and told the congressman from Virginia became “the party most visible link to Jewish groups and in my opinion, be an important link for Christian conservatives and religious. ”

In his column in 2007, Barnes quoted a former aide to House Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri, which first hit Cantor’s leadership, praising the temperament of the young congressman.

“He’s very humble,” Webber said Mildred Barnes. “He is a very good listener.”

In a 2003 interview with Insight conservative online news journal, Cantor, which has a perfect score from the American Conservative Union, described as: “Someone who likes to work toward consensus, someone who wants to work with all different kinds of people. ”

Times have changed, and the Democrats can argue, as has Eric Cantor.

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