From The Situation Room April 23, 2009. Eric Cantor tries to blame the media for the perception that the GOP doesn't want to work with the President. When asked if there was going to be some cooperation in the future from the GOP, Cantor says there will be as long as the Democrats are willing to adopt Republican ideas. I think they already did by caving on some of those tax cuts the Republicans wanted, but Cantor and Blitzer seem to have forgotten about that.
Blitzer affords Cantor every opportunity to give some specifics about just what their "new" ideas are and I sure as hell didn't hear any. Without specifics it sounded like more of the same from him. Tax cuts, status quo on health insurance and "belt tightening" which is GOP double speak for cutting social spending.
Yeah that evil media never gives you guys a chance to let anyone know how you're cooperating with the President. Like you just had in this interview and failed to do. You even managed to get a shot in and call the other side which is at most generous centrist and hardly far left, extremist. That's a great way to get some cooperation. Name calling.
BLITZER: In this most recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, by an almost 2-1 margin, 62 percent to 36 percent, they believe that the president is doing more than the GOP to try to reach some sort of cooperation with the other party.
Why does the American public think that the White House and the Democrats are more assertive in wanting to cooperate with you than the Republicans are?
CANTOR: Well, Wolf, I may lay some of the blame back on that -- on your colleagues in mainstream media. It's just not as appetizing, I guess, to cover the plans that we have and the attempts that we've made and we'll continue to make to reach out not only to the president and the White House, but to Speaker Pelosi, who, frankly, has been unwilling to bring a consensus-building group together to try and see a way to bring the agenda back from the extreme to the mainstream. But we're going to continue trying.
Full transcript below:
BLITZER: Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.
CANTOR: Wolf, good to be with you.
BLITZER: How did that meeting go?
CANTOR: Well, you know, look, I think it was a positive step to say that, look, we're at the end of the first 100 days of this administration. The bipartisan, bicameral leadership went to the White House, and we had a very frank discussion. We really did, Wolf. And we talked about sort of what to expect in the next five weeks in here Washington, and perhaps some of the progress that we can make together.
BLITZER: Is there going to be any cooperation on some of these fundamental economic-related issues? Because, as you know, not one member of the House on the Republican side voted with the president on the economic stimulus package.
CANTOR: Well, in fact, we had that very discussion, and the president and I talked about what happened and what broke down on the stimulus. And he knows as well as many that we do have a plan for getting jobs created again in this country. We did present a plan that we felt would create twice as many jobs at half the cost, but I think we agreed that perhaps because things broke down there, that maybe we should look for new ways of doing things.
BLITZER: Are there any new ways, do you think? Is there any opening where we can see Republicans in the House and Senate work together with the Democrats and the White House?
CANTOR: Well, you know, I really do see that, Wolf. There are two things.
BLITZER: Where? Give me an example.
CANTOR: Well, for example, the president started the week with a meeting of his cabinet, and he suggested to the cabinet secretaries that they find $100 million in savings so that we could perhaps see Washington begin to behave like most families and businesses are doing in tough times, which is to tighten the belt. So I asked the president to work with us.
We have plenty of ideas of how to cut waste in Washington and accomplish some meaningful spending, meaningful spending curtailment. And that's really what we've got to do. We've got to save some taxpayer dollars.
Beyond that, we had a lot of discussion at this meeting on health care. Obviously, this is the marquee on what the president has set out as his primary domestic agenda item. And, you know, it is such a big issue. It is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. This is an issue that affects all people.
BLITZER: Well, is there a middle ground on health care reform where you, Eric Cantor, you believe you could find that middle ground with the White House?
CANTOR: Well, I do, Wolf, because I think that if we all step back a minute and think about the single working mom who is in a suburb in one of the American cities across this country, and if we think about what she has to worry about when she puts her kids to bed, and what she's thinking about at night, I bet we'd all come to the realization she's worried about losing her job because it's happening all around her. She's also worried if she loses her job she's going to lose her health care.
And we've got to address that issue. We've got to look at the issue of health care through the eyes of the working families in this country, and provide some solutions that will ensure that people in this country will be able to maintain their health care that they do have, and also maintain the ability to choose for themselves, to make sure that their kids can see their pediatricians that they want to see.
These are the kinds of things I think that all of us can agree on. And if we approach it from that level, I do think that we can produce some results.
BLITZER: In this most recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, by an almost 2-1 margin, 62 percent to 36 percent, they believe that the president is doing more than the GOP to try to reach some sort of cooperation with the other party.
Why does the American public think that the White House and the Democrats are more assertive in wanting to cooperate with you than the Republicans are?
CANTOR: Well, Wolf, I may lay some of the blame back on that -- on your colleagues in mainstream media. It's just not as appetizing, I guess, to cover the plans that we have and the attempts that we've made and we'll continue to make to reach out not only to the president and the White House, but to Speaker Pelosi, who, frankly, has been unwilling to bring a consensus-building group together to try and see a way to bring the agenda back from the extreme to the mainstream. But we're going to continue trying.
