GOP 'Ideas' Man Eric Cantor Offers Up Two Paths to Destroy the Economy
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on Sunday that Republicans would be open to restoring some of the funding lost in the job-killing sequester if new cuts to social safety net lifelines were put in place. In effect, Cantor is suggesting replacing one policy that hurts the economy and suppresses job growth with another policy that does the exact same thing.
"What we need to have happen is leadership on the part of this president and the White House to come to the table finally and say we're going to fix the underlying problem that's driving our deficit," Cantor told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "We know that is the entitlement programs and the unfunded liability that they are leaving on this generation and the next."
Actually, Cantor is completely wrong about Social Security and Medicare causing the deficit. The current deficit is caused primarily by the Great Recession, but also by the Bush tax cuts and two wars that were never paid for. From the Economic Policy Institute:
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities :
The deficit is already more or less stabilized for the next decade. In future decades, projected deficits are driven almost entirely by health care costs, but this is a problem of both the private and public sectors. Medicare and Medicaid have lower costs than private insurance and have done a better job of controlling costs over the past 40 years.
Cantor offers a false choice that would do little to cut the deficit or boost the economy or job growth and would harm our most vulnerable citizens. Republicans are still focused on the wrong "crisis." While the evidence is quite clear that what the United States needs most is more jobs and investment in infrastructure , Cantor and his fellow Republican "leaders" are focused on deficit reduction that economists have said isn't necessary and, in fact, is a drag on the economy and job creation .
