Reps. Eric Cantor & John Boehner: Two Peas in a Pod?

If one thing was established this morning, it’s how much Rep. Eric Cantor, the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, loves his Speaker of the House John Boehner. Or something like that.
 
First, Cantor tried to get Imus to focus on a more pressing issue. “We’ve got a debt crisis in this country,” the Republican from Virginia said. “And people, I think, are waking up to the fact that this federal government of ours has spent entirely too much money—money we don’t have.”
 
The U.S. needs to pay attention to the numbers, particularly on Medicare, he noted, because arithmetic, unlike politicians, does not lie. “Ten-thousand additional baby boomers a day are becoming eligible for entitlement programs,” Cantor said. “Remember when Social Security began? The life expectancy on average was 60 years old. Now it’s 79.”
 
After considering for a few seconds Imus’s suggestion that we “start bumping some people off,” Cantor continued explaining that health care costs have inflated at three times the rate of inflation. “You can’t afford this safety net the way it stands because, frankly, it’s become a safety net for people who don’t need it,” he added.
 
The Republicans’ plan, which would preserve Medicare for those who need it and for people who are seniors today or are nearing 55, proposes giving eligible citizens a certain amount of money to choose the plan that best suits their needs.
 
“It sounds like a trick,” Imus said, and wondered why so many Republican groups oppose their Party’s idea. Cantor understands that people are frustrated by the notion that, after paying into Medicare for so many years, they might not get their money’s worth. But he noted it’s just one of many disappointments people feel at the hands of the Obama administration.
 
Maybe, as Imus posited, repealing the Bush tax cuts would have allowed some money to flow into the government’s coffers? After a hearty laugh, Cantor pointed out that those tax cuts apply to anybody—including small businesses, known to job-creators—whose annual income is above $250,000. “If we want more jobs to be created, why are you turning around and then imposing a tax on small business people?” he said.
 
Since Imus obviously had no answer to this presumably rhetorical question, he theorized that maybe gigantic corporations like General Electric should pay some taxes, an activity in which they do not presently participate.
 
“I’m all for that,” Cantor said. And as much as he wanted to blame GE’s lack of tax-paying on Bill Clinton, he faulted the tax code, which gives preferential treatment to certain industries. “It is the nature of that town, and that’s what we’re trying to change,” he said about Washington, DC.
 
Though Cantor and President Obama agree on the need for tax reform, the Majority Leader is at odds with the administration’s actions in Libya. “I don’t get what the purpose is here,” he told Imus. “If we’re on a humanitarian mission, what mission is that now that we are stepping up activity?”
 
A skilled reader of body language, Imus accused Cantor of not being “enamored” of House Speaker John Boehner, another observation that caused Cantor to giggle. “I am a good friend of John Boehner’s,” he insisted, then confessed the two have never eaten dinner alone together, though they have enjoyed a romantic lunch date. “He and I are obviously different people, but really share the same goal. “
 
If you say so, Congressman.
 
-Julie Kanfer