Eric Cantor Political Opportunist?

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Forums > All Posts > Eric Cantor Political Opportunist?

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2011-07-14 02:40 PM

Kosko
Portland, TX
Posts: 1018

It seems like the debt ceiling debate along with many things in his past show that Cantor is more interested in himself than the country. It is all me first. Such as from his high school yearbook:

“I want what I want when I want it."

You can go on and on. He's very divisive and an opportunist. I think he is a perfect example of politics at its worst.

2011-07-17 10:40 AM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 1058

Analyzing Eric Cantor from his 2001 - 2011 voting record in Congress paints a picture of an extreme right wing Tea Party type. But the question that is always on my mind, is Cantor voting his personal beliefs or is he just one of the many loyalists to the Tea Party Republican ideology? In other words...party first. On The Issues has a 10 year record of his Congressional votes and how he is rated by various associations and special interest groups. I'll highlight a few and add my thoughts.

Eric Cantor is rated 92 percent by Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. I initially find this high rating somewhat puzzling because Cantor is Jewish and members of the Jewish faith do not typically align themselves with the Christian Coalition on social issues. Cantor is the only Republican member of Congress that claims to be Jewish, and his voting record supports the Christian far right on the hot button social issues of the day rather than the views of the Jewish community.

However, Eric Cantor's faith is described as Conservative Judaism or Masorti Judaism. This denomination of Judaism, while allowing for the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and permitted commitment ceremonies for lesbian and gay Jews, does not permit same-sex marriage. Hence, like Michele Bachmann, his anti-gay agenda, particularly on marriage, seemingly has partial religious roots.

Eric Cantor voted against the repeal of the military's DADT policy; he voted for Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. And he voted for a constitutional amendment that would make the "one-man, one-women" criteria the constitutional law for all states.

Eric Cantor is anti-choice and led the efforts in the House to defund Planned Parenthood stating, “The time has come to respect the wishes of the majority of Americans who adamantly oppose using taxpayer dollars for abortions.” Of course, Cantor ignored the fact that no Title X funds can be used for abortion.

Not surprisingly, Eric Cantor is rated 100 % by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and 0 % by NARAL Pro-Chice America.

Eric Cantor voted against the Lilley Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. and opposed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was attached to the Defense Spending bill.

Eric Cantor is rated 0 % by the Human Rights Campaign for his anti-gay voting record. He is rated only 7 % by the ACLU for his anti-civil rights voting record and only 19 % by the NAACP, largely for his anti-affirmative action votes.

Eric Cantor is rated 0 % by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State for his support for public school prayer and other issues important to the Christian community.

Eric Cantor has earned an "A" rating by the National Rifle Association (NRA) for opposing all gun control legislation including legislation proposed by Republican Peter King after the Gabriel Giffords shooting.

Eric Cantor is rated 0 % by the Alliance for Retired Americans for his anti-senior voting record and his support for privatizing social security.

Eric Cantor has a 0 % rating from the American Public Health Association for his anti-public health voting record including voting against expanding SCHIP and his strong opposition and vote against the American Affordable Health Care Act. He is now leading efforts to repeal that act in the House.

Eric Cantor has a 0 % rating from the Center for Tax Justice for his opposition to all progressive tax legislation. He has signed the Grover Norquist no-new tax pledge.

Eric Cantor is rated 0 % by the Campaign for America's Future for his opposition to tax incentives for renewable energy solutions while supporting the retention of tax subsidies for oil and gas companies, and his opposition to any restrictions on drilling including moratoriums.

Eric Cantor is rated 0 % by the AFL-CIO for his anti-union voting record.

Eric Cantor voted for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without demanding that the wars be funded by higher taxes or spending offsets, thus adding to the deficit spending of the Bush years.

Eric Cantor voted for Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug benefit program without demanding that the costs be offset by spending cuts elsewhere or higher taxes.

However, after tornadoes devestated the city of Joplin , Missouri, he insisted that any federal funds appropriated to help the tornado victims in that city be offset by spending cuts elsewhere.

He voted for the the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, but never raised any concerns highlighted by the CBO that the tax cuts would significantly add to the deficits and debt.

In October 2008, before Obama was elected, Eric Cantor advocated and voted for the TARP program which aided distressed banks...the so called bank bail-out.

However, in Febraury 2009, shortly after Obama was elected, Eric Cantor led House Republicans in voting against the American recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Eric Cantor voted against the GM and Chrysler federal loan program and called the proposed "car czar" an " unneeded imposition on private business."

I could add more to the list, but what I perceive in Eric Cantor is a combination of social ideology combined with opportunism. His extreme right voting record defined him before the Tea Party took root.

His hypocrisy is evident in the contrast of his lack of a stance on deficit spending and the debt ceiling during the Bush years and a complete turn about during the Obama years. That is opportunism and relies on Americans to have a short memory.

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