Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has become the outspoken GOP voice of the anti-tax wing of the party. According to David Farenthold and Paul Kane at the Washington Post,
The negotiating tactics of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor would probably make him lousy at selling cars. But as Congress and the president try to strike a deal on the national debt, they have made Cantor a hero to ardent anti-spending conservatives. [Washington Post, 7/11/2011]
Cantor, a six term Republican from Virginia, has been involved throughout the entire debt ceiling process, but not until recently has he began to take a leading role, at times even appearing to usurp power from Speaker Boehner.
On June 23, Cantor pulled out of debt negotiating talks, citing irreconcilable differences on taxes, despite both the White House and congressional Democrats offering up trillions of dollars in spending cuts. Cantor explained his decision as such:
As it stands the Democrats continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases. There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don’t believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation. Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue. Given this impasse, I will not be participating in today’s meeting and I believe it is time for the President to speak clearly and resolve the tax issue. Once resolved, we have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here.
Democrats strongly criticized the move, arguing that it was pure political posturing and that Cantor, the owner of between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in a fund that bets against treasury bonds, had a glaring conflict of interest. Matt Koppenheffer from the investing company the Motley Fool is quoted in a recent Salon article discussing Cantor's investments:
"Cantor's involvement in the fund and negotiations is not ideal," Koppenheffer said. "I don’t think someone negotiating the debt ceiling should be invested in this kind of an ultra-short. We can only guess how much he understands what’s in his portfolio, but you’d think a politician would know better. It looks pretty bad."
A number of different high-profile sources are reporting that a rift has begun to form between Boehner and Cantor. The Washington Post reported in a recent article that Cantor discouraged and dissuaded John Boehner from working with Obama on a "grand deal" that would have cut the deficit around $4 trillion over the next ten years, but would include some revenue raisers in the form of closed tax loopholes. Instead, Cantor and Boehner are now pushing for a much smaller dealer, along the lines of $2.4 trillion over the next ten years that would include only spending cuts, largely to entitlement programs like Medicare.
Time Magazine also ran a story that quoted a rather shocking comment from New York Magazine political columnist John Heilemann:
I think what we learned over this past weekend is that John Boehner…is not really speaker of the House...Eric Cantor is the speaker of the House.
And Darell West, a member of the liberal leaning Brookings Institute, agreed, saying,
Eric Cantor is the real power in the House of Representatives.
President Obama is not making the situation between the two any better. In a recent press conference, Obama metaphorically gave Boehner a great big hug, something that I'm sure rattled GOP House representatives. Obama emphatically stated,
"I think Speaker Boehner has been very sincere about trying to do something big," Obama said, one of several compliments in an extended embrace of his negotiating partner. "The politics that swept him into the speakership were good for a midterm election; they're tough for governing." [Time Magazine, 7/12/2011]
The LA Times did a nice job of summarizing the problem for Boehner:
"Boehner is facing a similar problem to that Gingrich faced in 1995-1996 — he can't control the rebels in the caucus who helped him gain power," said Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer, referring to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "The debt ceiling has turned into as much of a test for the GOP and its internal leadership as it is for which party is stronger." [LA Times, 7/11/2011]
Only time will tell what will happen between Boehner and Cantor and their relationship with the rest of the GOP Caucus. But for Republicans, who throughout the Obama years have prided themselves on the strategy of "unity in opposition," the internal rift is troubling.
And while the rift is worrisome politically for Republicans, it is also imperative to consider the economic risks that Cantor's attempted usurpation could cause. In a time when the economy is teetering on the edge of default, and with the potential catastrophic consequences of a failed debt deal hovering in the back of everyone's minds, is now really the time for Cantor to be organizing a strike on his own party's leader?
While Eric Cantor will tell you that he's "fighting the conservative cause" and has criticized Democrats in the past for "playing chicken" with important issues, to me, the way in which Cantor is putting his own ambitions before the economic fate of the nation exemplifies the phrase "playing politics."
