Henrico job fair attracts long lines
By Andy Jenks
NBC 12

At Henrico’s Deep Run High School, there was a competition that attracted a big crowd. But it’s not a sporting event, nor is it anything one might call entertaining.

The competition was for a paycheck, and way of life. More than 3,000 people packed a job fair knowing full well that they outnumber the positions available.

Way in the back of a line that seems impossibly long is Amy Harmon, who worked for Circuit City until it went under.

“There’s a lot of folks that need jobs, and that are willing to come on out and look for jobs,” Harmon said.

Amy and everyone else lined up very early for the chance at just a few seconds of face time with potential employers.

“I was expecting this, ’cause no one has jobs, and it’s starting to hit this economy real bad in Virginia,” said job seeker Michael Jones.

The job fair, hosted by Rep. Eric Cantor (R, Henrico), comes at a critical time.

“When you have over 100 people in line an hour and a half before the doors open, I think indicates a real need to bring job seekers and employers together,” Cantor said.

The Richmond-area unemployment rate is inching upward, slightly, to 7.6 percent, and the region’s public employment center in Henrico is preparing for millions less in federal stimulus aid.

“Government spending money doesn’t create jobs. This jobs fair is trying to match up people looking for employment to be hired,” Cantor said.

Cantor’s involvement, though, was criticized by Democrats, who pointed out that some of the industries on display benefited from stimulus money. But on this day, politics took a back seat to reality.

“I need work. Just like everybody else. There are a lot of people that need work,” said job seeker Gordon Bengtson.

That’s why so many say it’s worth it to wait in line, and imagine the first step toward a new career.

“I just have as much chance as the next person, so I’m good,” said job seeker Janet Johnson.

The job fair, which included a police presence and refreshments, was paid for with taxpayer dollars. A Cantor spokesperson was not immediately able to confirm what was spent.

Rep. Eric Cantor appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss business issues among current legislation.

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor appeared on Fox News “On the Record” with Greta van Susteren to discuss the overwhelming response from the American people to cut spending and the Republican efforts to bring some fiscal restraint to Washington.

As we go about our daily lives, it’s easy to forget there are thousands of men and women fighting to defend our freedom and security every single day.

Published July 4, 2010
By REP. ERIC CANTOR
Virginia Pilot

In December, with Congress in the midst of the heated health care debate, I received an e-mail from 1st Lieutenant Wilson Nance, a Marine stationed at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan.

“I have no other reason to write you other than to give you encouragement in the coming months ahead,” the 2006 VMI graduate wrote.

From the safety and security of the U.S. Capitol, grappling with Democrats over high-risk insurance pools and the public option, I received support and encouragement from a soldier in a war zone 6,000 miles away. It was an inspirational reminder that we must remain vigilant in our support of the courageous men and women who serve in our armed forces.

If anything, I should have been the one thanking and encouraging Lt. Nance, not the other way around.

As we go about our daily lives – going to work and buying groceries – it’s easy to forget there are thousands of men and women fighting to defend our freedom and security every single day. It shouldn’t be only on the Fourth of July, Veterans Day or during the occasional standing ovation at a ball game that we stop to honor their sacrifice.

We should be thinking about them, honoring them and praying for them every day. More than 830,000 veterans live in Virginia, and nearly 200,000 Virginians serve in the military around the world.

Just recently, with the uncertainty surrounding the dismissal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, we were reminded how perilous the situation on the ground in Afghanistan continues to be. Our troops serving there are very much at the center of a protracted and dangerous fight for our national security.

Our nation is at a crossroads, both at home and with its commitments abroad. The America we grew up in is rapidly changing, and unless we change course now, our children and grandchildren will inherit a country worse off than it was left to us, with less freedom and opportunity. That freedom and opportunity is being fought for each and every day by the young men and women thousands of miles away, in foreign lands against enemies that couldn’t possibly imagine what the honor of being an American and experiencing liberty means.

In supporting our troops, a great place to start is to follow the example of the good people in our communities leading the way to honor veterans and help troops and their families who currently serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Retired Marine Sgt. Nathan Huffman from Richmond organized a 100-mile Memorial Day Ultra Marathon in May, in honor of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our country.

Retired Army Col. William Barrett founded Heroes Helping Heroes, a nonprofit organization that provides community-based programs to assist veterans in finding employment. There are dozens of programs like Heroes Helping Heroes looking for volunteers and support.

Started after the attacks of Sept. 11, Homes for Our Troops helps troops with serious disabilities find homes at no cost. Thanks to the program, Staff Sgt. Dwayne Cole, who was paralyzed in 2007 in Iraq when a bullet hit his spine, just received keys to a brand new home in Henrico. After spending six months at Walter Reed, he and his wife had been living in a rented apartment with inaccessible bathrooms.

While supporting programs like Heroes Helping Heroes and Homes for Our Troops are great opportunities to get involved, little things can also go a long way. The next time you see someone in uniform in the grocery store or in the airport, thank him or her for what they do for our country. If you have a friend, neighbor or relative serving overseas, send them a letter, email, or care package.

The courage and dedication of America’s military is a constant inspiration for our nation. We must follow the lead of Sgt. Huffman, Col. Barrett and many others in supporting and honoring our troops every day.

Eric Cantor, a Republican from Richmond, serves as House minority whip.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

America’s entrepreneurial spirit is the backbone of our economy.

The enthusiasm with which our entrepreneurs and small businesspeople have pursued their ideas — despite the risk of failure — has generated unprecedented economic growth. The resulting prosperity and job creation have benefited not just our country, but the entire world. It goes to the core of who we are as a people.

Unfortunately today, if you’re thinking about starting a business and putting your capital to work, the playing field has shifted. The Obama administration’s recent encroachments into an assorted list of industries — combined with rapidly rising taxes — make entrepreneurs in Virginia and around the country question whether the energy and risk are worth the future reward and return on investment.

If you’re an entrepreneur or job creator, consider what you’re up against:

•The discussion in Washington isn’t about whether or not to tax investors and entrepreneurs; it’s about how to tax them and by how much.

• A wave of new regulatory agencies and regulations threatens to smother business activity and restrict the flow of credit.
• Labor unions are on the verge of changing the game to give them an advantage, thus creating more uncertainty about the cost of hiring.
• Government is asserting more and more control over what was once the private economy.
• And most chilling, America’s debt is spiraling out of control, escalating the long-term threat of inflation and higher interest rates.

When the president was sworn into office 17 months ago, he had an opportunity to rally the country behind extraordinary measures to create sustainable jobs and spur genuine economic growth.

Instead, his administration jammed through a nearly $1 trillion so-called stimulus plan that was heavy on funding for government programs and aid to states but nearly empty on assistance for small businesses. It has fallen well short of the administration’s own goals.

The stimulus proved to be just the beginning of a flawed agenda that would include cap-and-trade and a budget-busting new health care entitlement — while leaving the prospect of sweeping tax increases in 2011 on the table.

Immediately after the health care bill was signed into law, a wide range of American companies began to announce the impact that higher costs will have on their ability to remain viable.

One Richmond-based insurance company, nHealth, says the uncertainties generated by the overhaul have driven them out of business. It’s a shame, because nHealth was offering Health Savings Accounts, linked to a high-deductible insurance plan. This afforded individuals and small businesses a way to have health insurance when they couldn’t access a group plan. But by the end of the year, nHealth’s thousands of small business customers will have to turn elsewhere.

As the government continues to grow at the expense of the private sector, millions of Americans find themselves asking whether we are watching the Europeanization of America. The less-vibrant economies of Europe have long prioritized economic equality and social welfare through the redistribution of wealth — a far cry from the free enterprise approach that fostered a culture of entrepreneurship in America through the reward of hard work.

But now the American people are waking up. They look across the Atlantic and see Greece and other European countries struggling to remain solvent. They see the welfare state’s powerlessness to cope with the debt crisis it has created. They realize that if we continue to spend and govern as Europeans do, we’ll be permanently saddled with unsustainable debt, onerous regulations, higher taxes, less growth, and the political allocation of capital.

These concerns have unleashed an impassioned philosophical debate nationwide over the proper role of government. The question is, what kind of an America will we choose? A limited government that promotes free enterprise and equality of opportunity — the type of government that does for people only what they cannot do themselves? Or an oversized government which, while striving for economic equality for all, settles for that equality at the lowest common denominator?

Economic freedom and the ability to succeed are born out of the chance of failure. That is what has made this country so great, but it can only survive in an environment in which government is limited.

Ultimately, the strength of our Republic resides not in a vast government safety net, but in the innovative spirit of our people. Not in our people’s desire to rely upon the government, but in their drive toward self-sufficiency and controlling their own destiny.

That’s why we must start right now to pull ourselves back from the brink. The struggle begins with getting our fiscal house back in order by cutting spending.

However politically popular it may be, we cannot keep relying on the government’s monetary and fiscal stimulus. Zero percent interest rates and runaway government spending may make us feel better in the short term, but only prolong the day of reckoning — and make it worse.

Instead, we must grow by encouraging entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and capital investment. Private businesses — now hoarding cash at record levels due to the uncertainty created by Washington — need confidence in the tax and regulatory framework. And individuals need the incentives to once again put capital at risk.

America is at a crossroads. Parents and grandparents know that the decisions we make today will determine the world that our kids and grandkids live in tomorrow. We have to do everything we can to leave them a better Virginia, and a better America than the one left to us.

Our way of life is being threatened by an economy with too much debt because of a government that spends too much and taxes too much. But I believe that if we change course today, we will turn things around. If we get back to a system that inspires innovation and encourages “earned success” among its people, America will remain the land of prosperity and opportunity for our children.

Detroit, Michigan
June 11, 2010
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Thank you for having me.

My wife Diana and I have had the pleasure of spending time here in Michigan over the last year, and we’re looking forward to being here even more as our daughter Jenna will be an incoming Freshman this year at U of M.

It is a real privilege to be here with such an esteemed crowd.

Today I don’t hesitate to say that we have arrived at a unique moment in American history.

A host of obstacles have been thrust upon our nation. How we respond is the challenge for our generation. It will determine what kind of country we will be.

Let me begin by saying that America is the land of unparalleled achievement – and our entrepreneurs and small businesspeople are the locomotive of our economy.

Our people’s eagerness to pursue their ideas – despite the risk that they might fail – has spawned unprecedented economic growth.

The resulting prosperity and job creation has benefited not just our country but the entire world.

It defines who we are.

I recently received a note from a U of M graduate from Kalamazoo who is spending some time in England before entering business school at Stanford. He is amazed how differently entrepreneurs are regarded abroad.

He summed it up this way: ‘Starting a business, even if you fail in the process, is a badge of honor in the U.S. But in Europe, entrepreneurship is frowned upon, and consequently, the best and the brightest are afraid to take a risk.’

“Many of my European friends are very smart and educated,” he wrote. “But when I ask them about their career path, no one ever mentions starting a business, or seems to have a desire to step outside the straight forward world of professional services.”

He recalled one conversation with a friend who told him he doesn’t think any big new products or businesses will come from the UK in the next 50 years.

And when they discussed the entrepreneurial hotbed of the San Francisco Bay area, the friend said he could never imagine any such place existing in the UK.

The letter was non-political, but it ended with a pointed request. It urged that our government be careful not to do anything to discourage entrepreneurship and innovation in America.

But, there are troubling signs on the horizon.

The environment surrounding tax and regulatory policy in America is beginning to threaten the very innovation that sets us apart.

When I talk to entrepreneurs around the country…when I meet with people making decisions whether to allocate capital, they’re actually questioning whether taking the risk is worth the reward any longer.

This is not how it should be in America!

Let me take you back to inauguration day in Washington, January 20, 2009.

As the newly elected Minority Whip, I was seated on the front steps of the Capitol, in the second row, with a bird’s eye view of the new president being sworn in.

Despite the beating our party had taken in the recent election, the day was filled with optimism. But what was to ensue during the course of the next 17 months dashed my best hopes, and confirmed my worst fears.

It began with the stimulus. Not since the Great Depression had the economy been so battered.

Unemployment was growing rapidly. Something had to be done. There just didn’t seem to be agreement on what that something would be.

To many of us, it was clear that promoting genuine economic growth was the only way we could end the crisis.

But the majority in Washington saw it differently.

Instead of seizing the moment to help small business – the job creators of this country – they seemed bent on pursuing a course to spend our way out of the morass.

But, President Obama encouraged us all to respond; as he had said himself, “no one party has a monopoly on good ideas.”

So a group of colleagues and I began meeting in my conference room in the Capitol. Our aim: to develop an alternative plan for genuine sustainable job growth.

We reached out to the private sector and heard from dozens of small businessmen and women.

On January 23, 2009, we met with the president and his economic advisers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House and presented our alternative proposal.

So there I was, explaining to President Obama and his economic brain trust what deli owners, shop keepers and service providers in my home town of Richmond were telling me they needed to stay alive and grow.

And as the meeting continued, I could tell the President’s team just wasn’t on the same page.

Even though these were some of the smartest people in the country, their hearts just weren’t in the private sector.

Our plan to get the economy going again was very straightforward – it focused on small businesses as the economic engine.

First and foremost, we called for allowing small businesses to reduce their overall tax liability which would enable them to invest and make new hires.

In addition, we would reduce the lowest individual tax rates from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent. ?

Our plan also included a home-buyers credit of $7,500 for those buyers who could make a minimum down payment of 5 percent.

It was fair. It was understandable. And using the Obama administration’s own economic model, it delivered twice the jobs for half the cost of the bill that would eventually pass.

It was an honest, good-faith effort to work with the administration.

But at the end of the day, all our efforts were ignored.

The majority in Congress instead moved ahead on a nearly $1 trillion stimulus bill heavy on funding for government programs.

Here was our dilemma: How could Republicans and other conservatives lend our support to a bill that spent more on buying golf carts, subsidizing the conversion to digital television, and building fish and wildlife trails than on targeted tax relief for small businesses?

The result? Despite being hounded to death as the “Party of No,” not one of 178 Republican members in the House could bring themselves to vote for the bill.

As it turned out, the stimulus didn’t work as advertised.

Instead of being held below 8%, unemployment surged to over 10% as the year went on.

Americans were hurting, and most of what was accomplished was the incurrence of nearly an additional $1 trillion in debt.

As the economic picture in our country worsened, there was hope that Washington would pivot and begin to focus like a laser on creating an environment for small business investment and hiring.

But instead, we saw Washington launch into debates on cap-and-trade and card check, all the while leaving on the table the prospect of tax hikes.

The attendant economic uncertainty scared businesses and families by threatening to drive up costs. It was an unnecessary diversion and another missed opportunity.

Next, instead of regaining focus on fixing the economy, Washington turned its sights on a new health care entitlement.

Not just Republicans, but Americans across the country, even in Democratic Massachusetts, were sending the message that they disagreed with the direction of the administration’s plan

But their voices were ignored.

During the health care debate, the majority in Washington concentrated primarily on guaranteeing universal coverage. But there really was a different and better way.

Our vision was to focus, above all else, on driving the cost of care down – and to keep what works in our present health care system.

Republicans fought to provide for competition in the individual and small group markets. To ensure lower premium costs, we would allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

We wanted to keep small business in the game and give them the ability to ban together to gain purchasing power – just like the unions and large businesses have today.

We too would end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing health conditions, but without raising costs for everyone. Our plan reduced costs by taking on the trial lawyers who force physicians into defensive medicine practices.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office validated the House Republican Plan estimating that premium costs in the small group market would come down by ten percent.

The bill that finally passed and was signed into law may have come close to delivering on the vision of universal coverage, but it did so at tremendous costs.

My fear is that it may do great damage to the system it purports to save.

Immediately after the health care bill was signed into law, a wide range of American companies began to announce the higher costs they will face.

Meanwhile, one insurance company in my district, nHealth, says the uncertainties generated by the overhaul have driven them out of business.

It’s a shame, because nHealth was offering Health Savings Accounts, linked to a high deductible insurance plan. This afforded individuals and small businesses a way to have health insurance when they couldn’t access a group plan.

By the end of the year, nHealth’s thousands of small business customers will have to turn elsewhere.

If you’re a small business person or entrepreneur, here’s what you’re facing in America today:

• Entitlements and spending are shooting skyward, all but guaranteeing permanently higher taxes in the near and long term.
• An army of new regulatory bodies threatens to strangle business activity and restrict the flow of credit.
• Labor unions are gaining power and creating more uncertainty about the cost of hiring.
• Government is asserting more and more control over what was once the private economy.
• And most chilling, the national debt is spiraling out of control, raising the long-term threat of inflation and higher interest rates.

No wonder some in this country are beginning to think that America is becoming part of a discredited idea imploding before our eyes in Europe. It’s the notion of a welfare state.

We see the chilling front-page newspaper images of riots in Greece and other European countries. We see the violent currency and stock market swings associated with Europe’s struggles for solvency.

And we see the welfare state’s helplessness to cope with the tsunami of debt it has created.

The prospect of the Europeanization of America has unleashed an impassioned philosophical debate nationwide over the proper role of government.

We now find ourselves at a critical point of decision making. America is at a Crossroads.

The question – What kind of an America will we choose?

A limited government that promotes economic freedom and equal opportunity – a government that does for people only what they cannot do themselves?

Or do we want an outsized government striving for equal outcomes for all, and settling for that equality at the lowest common denominator?

That’s where we are heading with the redistribution of wealth and manipulation of private markets.

The likes of Portugal, Italy, and Greece have chosen the social welfare model, racking up huge budget deficits while failing to nurture economic growth.

This is not just a cyclical issue. It is structural.

The social welfare state has trouble cutting benefits for two reasons.

First, people have long been told they can retire early, work fewer hours and take more vacation time. Meanwhile, powerful union representatives are determined to keep it that way.

Second, when so many voters are employed by the government, or when so many voters get from the government more than they give in return, they will put in power those who will sustain their lifestyles.

So: if you can’t cut government largesse, your other option is to grow your way out of a crisis.

But in order to grow you need entrepreneurs and risk takers.

And as our student from Kalamazoo reminds us, that’s unlikely to happen in Europe. Not when the private sector is so constrained by high taxes, rigid labor rules, burdensome regulations and competition from subsidized public sectors.

There’s a reason why social-welfare systems fail, while limited government, and systems which guard economic freedom succeed: Because the latter approach aligns itself with human nature.

Over twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristotle observed that “man is a goal-seeking animal; his life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.”

As parents, we all want our children to be safe and happy. When our children are given a tough assignment, there is the temptation to help to ensure their success.

But it’s a mistake to teach our children to be dependent. We deprive them of the happiness that comes from striving and succeeding.

Instead we want to encourage them and give them every opportunity to succeed on their own.

It’s no different with government.

European social welfare states offer handouts and promise to solve the citizenry’s problems. But they do so by redistributing wealth and limiting opportunity for all.

And when you undermine free enterprise, you root out what AEI’s Arthur Brooks calls “earned success” – or the honest creation of value in our lives or in the lives of others.

As a result, the government, while well intentioned, discouraged all from seeking to maximize their potential.

We are not Western Europe, at least not yet.

In America, hard work has paid off.

When I think about what makes America so remarkable, I think of the story of my grandmother.

Fleeing the anti-Semitism of her native Russia nearly a century ago, her family passed through Ellis Island. Peering out from the boat at the mouth of the Hudson River, she saw the Statue of Liberty – the most powerful symbol of the freedom and opportunity that America represents.

In America, her family sought not just religious freedom, but opportunity and a better life.

She eventually made her home in a working class section of Richmond, Virginia. Widowed very young, she raised my father and my uncle in tight quarters above a tiny grocery store that she owned and operated.

She worked day and night and sacrificed tremendously to secure a better future for her children.

And sure enough, this young woman – who had the courage to journey to a distant land with hope as her only possession – lifted herself into the ranks of the middle class.

Through hard work, thrift and faith, she was even able to send her two children to college.

All she wanted was a chance.

But never did she dare to dream that her grandson would someday be a Member of the U.S. Congress.

When I think of my grandmother in that Richmond storefront, I am reminded why people come to this country in the first place: because here, you have the freedom and opportunity to be whatever you want.

The strength of our republic resides not in a vast government safety net, but in the innovative spirit of our people.

Not in our people’s desire to take from the government, but in their drive toward self-sufficiency and controlling their own destiny.

Just look at the American people. Just look at the fruits of economic freedom. For the past thirty years, in good times and in bad, 600,000 businesses are started every year. That’s about 1 per minute.

Where else in the world can someone like Apple’s Steve Jobs start a business in his garage and years later become the CEO of a Fortune 100 company?

Where else could people from humble and modest roots like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama rise to become president?

Only in America.

Because in America, it doesn’t matter where you come from; it’s about where you’re going.
In America, there are no limits.

For all of us who wish to preserve the America we have come to know and love, this is not the time to be silent.

We must reject the road of unsustainable debt and marginal private sector growth.

For if we don’t change course soon, historians may one day look back and ask: When was the moment it became too late for America? When did the slide towards Europe become irreversible?

When successive majorities in Congress went on a shopping spree on our children’s credit card, it was becoming too late.

Was it already too late when we passed a trillion dollar stimulus bill? Or when we missed the critical opportunity to help our small businesses or to make our economy more competitive?

When credit ratings agencies this year warn that our triple-A treasury-bond rating is in danger, yet we go ahead and pass a trillion-dollar health care entitlement, it may be too late.

When we ignore dire warnings and set out to double the debt in five years, and triple it in 10, it may be too late.

That’s why we must start right now to pull ourselves back from the brink.

We must get our fiscal house in order. Just as many of your businesses would do, we need to cut spending and straighten out the federal government’s balance sheets.

However politically popular it may be, we cannot keep relying on the government’s monetary and fiscal stimulus. Zero percent interest rates and runaway government spending only prolongs the day of reckoning.

Instead, we must grow by doing everything in our power to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and capital investment.

We need to give private businesses the confidence in the tax and regulatory framework that they need to grow. We must offer incentives to people so that they put capital at risk and earn greater return on investment.

We have to bring a renewed focus on technology and manufacturing. And we must follow through on an agenda to promote free but fair trade.

That means ensuring access to critical emerging markets and at the same time guarding against unfair advantage of our foreign competitors.

Ronald Reagan once said that the meaning of life is to plant a tree you will never sit under. The goal of our lives should be…to be a part of something that will long outlive us – to establish a legacy which will benefit people we will never meet.

The stakes have never been higher. Let’s fight to preserve and protect the country that we love.

Thank you.