Eric Cantor: Health Care Bill 'Full Of Budget Gimmickry'

WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says the new health care law is getting in the way of job-creation and vows Republicans are committed to repealing it.

Cantor tells CBS's "The Early Show" the GOP isn't retreating from its commitment to get rid of the law overhauling the health care system, even though Senate Democrats have made clear they would block a repeal there.

Cantor isn't accepting a Congressional Budget Office analysis saying the new health care is likely to reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion this year. The Virginia Republican does say, instead, that the bill cost over a trillion dollars "and we do know it was full of budget gimmickry." He argues that "most Americans don't like the health care bill and know there's a better way."

Comments

[jerzeyjim2]

12:33 PM on 01/14/2011

Eric Cantor is a LIAR in the tradition of Tricky Richard Nixon ! Cantor is very SLICK. Why does Eric Cantor say there are "concerns about the cost of the new health care law?" The
Republicans didn't seem to care about the cost of giving tax cuts to the wealthy without any
proof that those tax cuts ever created jobs for the middle class in the last ten years when
Bush enacted them. Furthermore, the new health care law will increase jobs, not kill them.
Those jobs being "killed" are people who can now retire due to the health care law.
New patients in the system will mean a tremendous amount of new jobs. Cantor is a LIAR, in the tradition of Tricky Richard Nixon. Cantor is very SLICK. He is also a true
Fear-Mongering Republican.

[Cleverwabbit]

10:18 PM on 01/08/2011

REPEAL ERIC CANTOR!!!!
He does not have his constituents in mind, he can afford health care he has never known a day not to be able to, my family is in his district and he has not listened to anyone here except his own ego. I know for a FACT his district does NOT SUPPORT THE HEALTH CARE BILL TO BE REPEALLED. WASN'T HE ELECTED TO BE THE VOICE OF HIS CONSTITUENTS NOT THE PARTY. Of course he isn't going to listen to the CBO because they aren't telling him what he wants to hear. He is closed minded and is only speaking in his best interests not the country's.

[jerzeyjim2]

12:34 PM on 01/14/2011

Eric Cantor is a LIAR in the tradition of Tricky Richard Nixon ! Cantor is very SLICK. Why does Eric Cantor say there are "concerns about the cost of the new health care law?" The
Republican­s didn't seem to care about the cost of giving tax cuts to the wealthy without any
proof that those tax cuts ever created jobs for the middle class in the last ten years when
Bush enacted them. Furthermor­e, the new health care law will increase jobs, not kill them.
Those jobs being "killed" are people who can now retire due to the health care law.
New patients in the system will mean a tremendous amount of new jobs. Cantor is a LIAR, in the tradition of Tricky Richard Nixon. Cantor is very SLICK. He is also a true
Fear-Monge­ring Republican­.

[FOXYROSE]

09:37 AM on 01/07/2011

The whole 2700 pages are full of swindles. Pretty soon only the poor and the rich will have healthcare because the rest of us can't afford it.

[Matt Herren]

10:22 AM on 01/07/2011

That's the Progressive base.

[jbh2009]

12:38 PM on 01/18/2011

ha!

[AnnfromCA]

09:07 AM on 01/07/2011

Even Lawrence Sullivan was laughing at the CBO's numbers this morning.  And Paul Ryan said he'd "eat his tie" if it was correct.
 
 

[carbolaw]

09:27 AM on 01/07/2011

Again, here is the CBO report.  http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12033/12-23-SelectedHealthcarePublications.pdf   Rather than talking in platitudes and relying on Ryan's guarantee to eat his tie (the same one who cannot name where he would cut the budget), please do point out exactly where the CBO is in error.  I am sure that they would also like to have this information.

[jerzeyjim2]

03:59 PM on 01/14/2011

Paul Ryan is very slick. He is the one who said last year that the country can no
longer afford to help the underpriveleged. However, he and his Republican buddies could afford to give tax cuts to the wealthy ! I believe in helping the underpriveledged, as
do billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. Buffet and Gates say that helping
the underpriveledged helps to bring them "up from poverty and add value to society."
I myself was a Social Security orphan at the age of 16 and I became a success and paid a lot of income tax that fully repaid what I received and I added value to society
as an MBA. Justice Sotomeyer I believe was also a Social Security orphan. A student
in my high school was a Social Security orphan and he later joined the Military
and became a PhD in medicine and contributes value and income tax to society.
When Paul Ryan says we can no longer afford to help the underpriviledged, but we
can give big tax cuts to the rich, he makes me sick to my stomach.

[devilirius]

09:05 AM on 01/07/2011

I'd trust the CBO more than Cantor anyday.

[Matt Herren]

06:58 PM on 01/07/2011

http://spe­ctator.org­/blog/2011­/01/07/bre­aking-cbo-­says-repea­ling-ob

The Congressio­nal Budget Office, in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021. That number represents the cost of the new provisions­, minus Medicare cuts. Repealing the bill would also eliminate $770 billion in taxes. It's the tax hikes in the health care law (along with the Medicare cuts) which accounts for the $230 billion in deficit reduction.

... tough break. The CBO has turned on you.

[jbh2009]

12:39 PM on 01/18/2011

perfect!

[Democrat in the South]

08:18 AM on 01/07/2011

What an insult to America to have these GOP clowns in our face.

[Macready]

09:02 AM on 01/07/2011

ditto . . especially this one . . who wanted to ring fence money for israel

[Mahi Joe]

08:04 AM on 01/07/2011

Eric Cantor: Health Care Bill "Full of Budget Gimmickry"
 
Probably not as much as the military budget which is 100 times greater in cost to the American public. Why don't you start there first Cantor?

[Democrat in the South]

08:19 AM on 01/07/2011

Cantor knows about "budget gimmickry" because his party are the masters of it.

[dragonmaster]

06:40 AM on 01/07/2011

Cantor seems to have become intoxicated by his own words (as all the rest of the GOP house members)

Does Cantor really think the Health Insurance companies are altruistic? But a federal health care bill that tries to help over 30 million to seek affordable health care as gimmickry?

I know here in Connecticut with Blue Cross my premiums jumped from $165 a month in 2001- to now over $900. Fortunately here in CT - a progressive state- we will have nearly universal health care in 2012 with the 'Sustinet' Program http://www.ct.gov/sustinet/site/default.asp

[grf67]

05:45 AM on 01/07/2011

Not a lot of brain power in southern Virginia. There is a lot of fundamentalist zealotry and racism though.

[shangrolah]

02:40 AM on 01/07/2011

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/05/106268/health-care-spending-declines.html:

WASHINGTON — U.S. health care spending in 2009 grew at the slowest rate in 50 years, as the recession and high unemployment caused outlays for nearly all medical goods and services to slow or decline, according to a new government report released Wednesday.

Unlike previous recessions, when spending for health services began to slow some two years after an economic downturn, the effect of the Great Recession was swift and profound on insurers, health care providers and patients in both 2008 and 2009.

In addition,the gimmickry is with the companies which have used the passage of health care legislation to support rate increases:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/06/health-care-spending-still-rises-despite-great-recession/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G2DO20100317
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php

[taddles]

01:45 AM on 01/07/2011

"and we do know it was full of budget gimmickry."

Which is a nice way of saying "it's completely paid for and we have no way of stopping that so when I said we would just defund it....I lied...sorry baggers, my bad."

[ThankGodhesgone]

01:35 AM on 01/07/2011

Where was your criticism of budget gimmikry when GW started 2 wars (not budgeted for), Med D (not budgeted for) and when he claimed that unemployment was only 4%? (not counting those that had given up looking or those that took temp jobs to stay afloat).

[ThankGodhesgone]

01:31 AM on 01/07/2011

Cantor - the only better way is to extend the same health care benefits that you enjoy to the rest of us.

[SolarArray]

01:16 AM on 01/07/2011

This guy's the oiliest one around, no doubt. Try to get a straight answer on, say, job creation and you'll be waiting a very, very, long time. I should amend that last sentence....you'll not get an answer at all.

[Macready]

09:03 AM on 01/07/2011

fanned

[PoorRichardsHeartache]

01:16 AM on 01/07/2011

Note to media: Play like you are real journalists. When these guys make statements like Cantor, demand specific examples, don't be led off track. When these guys call it the job killing bill, demand specifics. Not some garbage that his friend told he was goig to reduce staff, demand a specific answer as to why.