Cantor again rejects taking up Obama’s jobs bill

Cantor was speaking in a colloquy with House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who had asked once again whether Republicans planned to take up Obama’s bill. Cantor argued that the environmental deregulation bills that the House has considered over the last few weeks would help create an environment for job creation, a point Hoyer contested.

“The president has offered the American Jobs Act, and economist after economist after economist says that it will create jobs,” Hoyer said. Hoyer quotes estimates from Moody’s and others who believe the bill would create jobs, but Cantor shot back that Moody’s has been wrong before.

“Moody’s chief economist was also the one that made the prediction of an unemployment rate that would not exceed 8 percent as a result of passing the stimulus bill,” he said. “And it makes my point … that the people in this country are tired of Washington making promises it doesn’t keep.”

“We need the private sector to take hold of a signal from Washington that we do believe in free enterprise, that we’re not about this government dictating where activity must occur, where and who is deserving of government support,” Cantor added. “This is the essence of our difference.”

Rather than bring up Obama’s bill in total, Cantor said the House would take up various pieces, and said plans by the House next week to take up three pending free trade agreements is an example of a move that the House GOP and the White House agree will help U.S. job creation.

He also took time to again blast the 2009 stimulus bill, which Republicans say did little to maintain jobs and has led to billions in new debt.

“There have been a lot of promises made in this town … about how we’re going to control the level of unemployment and make sure it doesn’t go beyond certain points, connected with the stimulus bill, and I think the American people have had just about enough of broken promises,” Cantor said.

“Clearly, we don’t agree with the president’s approach thus far,” he added. “We didn’t agree with the stimulus approach, and I think the facts have borne out that we were right … that stimulus spending out of this government did not produce the results that the administration promised.”

Hoyer tried to find some area of agreement with Cantor on the issue of how the deficit-reduction supercommittee should approach its task of finding $1.5 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years.

“One of the things that we can do that will most raise confidence would be to have the select committee of 12 come to an agreement on cutting $4 trillion over the next 10 years … and do so by a balanced approach, with everything — all of our expenses and revenues — on the table,” Hoyer suggested. But Cantor rejected this as well.

“If he says balanced approach, that’s a nice way of saying, ‘We want to raise taxes,’ ” Cantor said. “We don’t want to raise taxes.”

Hoyer insisted that is not the case. “No, what it means is, I want to make sure that we put everything on the table that is giving us the challenge … of balancing our budget, getting our expenditures in line with our revenues, and that we do so in a way that does not undermine America’s national security, its economic well-being and the welfare of our people,” he said.