This column by Eric Cantor appeared on Politico today

Surveying the wreckage from the past two elections, Republicans have much we could feel sorry about.

But as House Republicans gather this weekend for our annual retreat, don’t expect to find our conference sulking or looking in the rear view mirror. Bloodied but resolute, our focus is on the present and the future. We will discuss a range of entrepreneurial and market-based solutions to the challenges threatening small businesses, working families and American competitiveness. We will also chart a course to regain the public trust and make ourselves viable in districts across the country. And, not least of all, we will reaffirm our commitment to using new technologies to present our alternatives directly to the American people on the issues they care about most.

We stand at an enormously critical juncture for our country. With the economy in tatters, Congress and the new administration have a public mandate to take bold action to stop the bleeding. Hanging in the balance are essential questions that will define the shape of our economy for years to come. How big of a hand in private markets will the government have? Will private companies be saddled with layers of government bureaucracy? Will the government bail out every failed industry or just those deemed essential to averting economic ruin? Will we spend so heavily that we have no choice but to raise taxes in the future and permanently undermine the hopes and dreams of our children and grandchildren?

With so much at stake, there is a tremendous necessity for an honest check on one-party Democratic rule. American taxpayers, on the hook for the huge deficit sums Congress plans to spend, instinctively know that.

The GOP may not control the agenda, but there are reasons for hope. We share a set of values that make us unapologetic about rewarding hard work and preserving the incentive for small businesses and the self-employed to grow. History is on our side. Countries, towns and communities stagnate when government micromanages industry and people are left to depend on handouts. They thrive when small, medium and large private businesses – driven to innovate and grow – create sustainable jobs.

At a moment when the country needs our help, it would be a great mistake for the House GOP to turn inward and simply become the party of “no.” We want our new president to succeed, and America needs our new President to succeed, which is why we will contribute the full force of our ideas to help him navigate the choppy waters. That’s why our leadership met with the president three times to offer him our ideas on the stimulus, including among other proposals a reduction in small business tax liability by 20 percent.

We must speak out when we think the president’s party has erred, as when House Democrats added hundreds of billions in unnecessary discretionary spending to the stimulus that will do nothing to create jobs. In fact, it is our duty to reject the 60 percent of the House bill’s discretionary spending that the Congressional Budget Office says won’t enter the economy by Oct. 1, 2010.

It is astonishing that for every $1 in tax relief spent for small businesses, the current House Democrat stimulus plan spends over $12 buying new cars for the federal government. That’s the kind of egregious waste that results when one party is able to draft legislation without putting the taxpayers’ needs first. It’s a blatant example of why we need a Republican check on a Democrat-dominated Congress.

As for us Republicans, the outlines of the GOP of the future are already coming into focus. We pledge to become a party of inclusion, not exclusion. What binds us is our faith – a belief in the ability of individuals to succeed in a free environment and to shape their own destiny through hard work.

Opportunity and the incentive to work and produce inspired America to flourish. The Republican Party will never forget that.

This column by Eric Cantor appeared on Townhall today

“A national debt if it is not excessive,” Alexander Hamilton advised, “will be to us a national blessing.”

Today, Hamilton must be turning over in his grave. Congress is moving forward with an economic stimulus plan that will swell this fiscal year’s deficit to roughly $2 trillion, or an astounding 13 percent of GDP. Adjust those dollars for inflation, and even our nation’s earliest and most iconic proponent of a national debt would cringe at the danger we are creating for our economy and for future generations.

As it hammers out the final details of the stimulus bill, Congress should pay more than lip service to Hamilton’s words. We must reconcile the nation’s need for quick action with the need for prudent policies designed to spur sustainable job creation here in America. That means not only tax relief for working families but in particular for the small businesses, entrepreneurs and self-employed that create well over half of the jobs in our country. Given the choice, Americans would prefer a permanent job in the private sector to temporary work courtesy of the taxpayer dime.

Unfortunately, the stimulus bill that has emerged falls hopelessly short of the mark, crippled by non-stimulative spending and insufficient tax cuts. How can we expect Republicans to vote on a bill that spends $12 on new cars for the federal government for every $1 in tax relief to small businesses?

Two weeks ago, after the House GOP hosted a hearing on the stimulus with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, we sent the president-elect a letter detailing our findings. Today House GOP leadership met with President Obama to outline more of our ideas and concerns.

House Republican leaders conveyed our desire to work with him and the Democrat majority to improve the stimulus package. But with a watchful eye toward the ballooning deficit, we made clear that we strongly oppose any wasteful spending that disregards the genuine path to economic growth and only establishes the need for future tax increases.

Nor will we quietly swallow the $219 billion House Democrats have proposed in infrastructure and so-called discretionary spending that the Congressional Budget Office says won’t be spent by Oct. 1, 2010. That’s because House Republicans have different ideas over how we stem unemployment and promote lasting job growth. We are inherently skeptical of promises that three million sustainable jobs will fall from the sky like manna simply by spending hundreds of billions.

In the end, it is businesses – driven to innovate, invest and grow – that will regenerate the millions of sustainable jobs we so desperately need. The stimulus must take bold steps to encourage work, investment and business expansion, something that government spending too often fails to provide.

These are some of the remedies the House GOP proposed to President Obama on Friday:

• Small businesses, entrepreneurs and the self-employed employ about half of all Americans, yet they can be subject to tax rates that siphon away one-third of their income. We support allowing small businesses to reduce their tax liability by a minimum of 10 percent. This will immediately free up funds for small businesses to retain and hire new employees.
• Rather than a one-time tax break, we also want tax cuts for families that pack lasting punch. We propose to cut the lower marginal income tax rates, providing all taxpaying families with a minimum increase in income of approximately $500 per year.
• For the unemployed, we want to dispense with the taxes the federal government levies on unemployment benefits. Individuals between jobs should be able to focus on providing for their families.
• Also critical will be addressing the housing crisis. The real-estate market is paralyzed as potential buyers wait on the sidelines for prices to find their bottom. In order to encourage responsible buyers to enter the market and stabilize prices, we propose a home-buyer’s credit for those buyers who can make a minimum down-payment. As home prices stabilize, complex securities tied to mortgages can also finally find a level that clears the market.

Finally, we must ensure that vast government spending doesn’t lead to rampant inflation in the future. At $825 billion, this Democrat stimulus proposal causes us great concern. While the Fed remains rightfully concentrated on fighting deflation, uncontrolled spending and borrowing will most ultimately lead to inflation if the spigot is not turned off in time. That could trigger a flight of foreign capital and a steep drop in the purchasing power of the dollar for the American consumer. As interests rates rise to keep foreigners financing our debt, the pain dealt to businesses and families alike promises to be sharp.

Alexander Hamilton expressed his views at a critical juncture for our young nation. Over two centuries later, at another critical time for America, his words still resonate.
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Congressman Eric Cantor will be appearing live on the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show TODAY at 1:30.

To listen, tune into your local radio station.

The Democrat Leadership is pushing through a change in the House Rules that will make it even easier for them to hide tax increases inside other larger bills.

Under existing House Rules, when a bill is brought to the floor that includes a tax increase, the minority has the right to offer a motion to strike that tax increase. And the Republican minority did just that on numerous occasions over the past two years. This rule has always provided accountability by allowing up or down votes on tax increases.

Unfortunately, House Democrat Leaders are afraid to allow open debate and recorded votes on tax increases. Under their new rule if we Republicans wanted to strike a tax increase, we would have to replace it with another tax increase.

You see, in their world the only legitimate debate is about WHICH tax to increase, not whether or not to increase taxes.

The Democrat Leadership doesn’t want anyone to be able to say the American people are taxed enough, let’s drop this tax increase. So they are passing this new rule denying us the ability to get a straight up or down and vote on striking any tax increase they happen to slip into another bill.

Maybe they don’t want their Members to have to take that vote. Maybe they are afraid that too many of their new Members will agree with us, that Americans are already overtaxed.

Either way, what is clear is that this type of partisan rules change flies in face of the new era of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama has promised. I take the President-elect at his word, I believe he wants transparency, openness, and debate, but apparently that word hasn’t made its way down to the Democrat Leadership in this House.