The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing you to express our deep concern over the state of your Afghanistan policy. For over two months you have been engaged in a strategy review that has left the country, our military, and allies uncertain about your commitment to the war in Afghanistan and unsure about your will to do what it is necessary to win this conflict. Worse, we fear this process has emboldened our enemies.
We believe that it is long overdue for our military to be in the execution stage of the strategy instead of the evaluation phase. While no one disputes that a Commander-in-Chief should deliberate before making decisions, particularly in matters involving life and death, we believe this review is having a detrimental impact on our efforts in Afghanistan. While 68,000 U.S. forces are fighting on the battlefield, your strategy review in Washington has returned the country to the policy drift that undermined our efforts in Afghanistan for much of the war. Members who have just returned from visiting theater report that our military believes they can succeed, but are unsure whether Washington will give them the opportunity.
Mr. President, only you can put this conflict back on a path toward success in our mission to deny al-Qaeda and the Taliban safe haven in Afghanistan to plan and execute attacks on Americans. Our military forces want to know that their mission has the attention and support of the Commander-in-Chief. While you rightly speak of military sacrifice, we seldom hear you speak of success. We encourage you to make a spirited defense of your strategy. Absent your leadership and a public determination to win in Afghanistan we simply cannot succeed.
Our collective view is that General McChrystal’s assessment and accompanying request for forces offer the best means to successfully implement your March 2009 strategy, which called for “[e]xecuting and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.” We encourage you to adopt General McChrystal’s recommendation, and to provide him with the forces that will give us the highest chance for success with the lowest risk to the safety and security of our forces.
We respect your prerogative as Commander-in-Chief to validate that the assumptions underlying your strategy still apply in the current environment. However, we encourage you to heed General McChrystal’s assessment that time is critical and failure to gain the initiative in the short term “risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.” We remind you that these words were written over two months ago.
Mr. President now is the time where the country needs your leadership. While our men and women in uniform are faithfully executing your mission in Afghanistan, they long for your voice to lead and guide the debate on the war here at home. Our military is the best fighting force in the world. Yet, it is the American will to win – not precision guided munitions – which is their most important weapon. As Commander-in-Chief you are responsible for ensuring this critical weapon is delivered.
It is our desire to standby you and to support a strategy that is resourced to win decisively. We urge you choose this course of action.
Sincerely,
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Rep. John Boehner
Rep. Eric Cantor
Rep. Mike Pence
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Rep. John Carter
Rep. Pete Sessions
Rep. Kevin McCarthy
Rep. Roy Blunt
Rep. Jerry Lewis
Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen
Rep. Peter Hoekstra
Rep. Tom Price
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement as the House prepared to consider the “Doc Fix.” Cantor contrasted the House Democrats’ ‘doc fix,’ which would add more than $200 billion to the deficit, to the more responsible Republican ‘doc fix,’ that will not increase the deficit and provide physicians with a 2% payment rate increase in each of the next 4 years.
“Doctors are responsible for treating patients, and Congress is supposed to be responsible for treating the budget. A doctor would never handle their responsibility to their patients the way this Congress has handled their responsibility to Americans. Our country is hemorrhaging fiscally, and it is our moral obligation to make it healthy again. To put it simply, the Democrats’ health care efforts are akin to Congress committing malpractice.
“Doctors know they can't be paid with a check that will bounce, and we have more respect for doctors than to compensate them with an IOU that will never be repaid. That is why the Republican ‘doc fix’ is the responsible way to compensate doctors, ensure that seniors have access to the care they need, and does not increase the deficit."
The Republican ‘doc fix’ would:
Provide physicians with a 2% Medicare payment rate increase in each of the next 4 years.
Avert the scheduled Medicare physician cuts in a fiscally responsible way by including reforms that would fully offset the cost of the bill. These reforms would:
Unlike the Democrats’ bill, the GOP Motion to Recommit would not increase the deficit.
Rep. Eric Cantor: “Good morning. Well, I guess the switch is on. The Speaker announced today she’s going to begin to focus on jobs. The White House also now has decided that for December we will finally be focusing on deficits and jobs and how it affects our families. We say it’s about time, I say you gotta be kidding me. They have for months now been about more spending, leaving a wake of deficits in their trail, and now they want to focus on what’s important. Sometimes it is difficult for us to take the other side seriously, but if they are serious we welcome this news. Republicans have been working for months now trying to forge solutions as to how to get Americans back to work. We urge Speaker Pelosi to take into consideration some of the Republican solutions for job creation and look forward to working together so that we can get this economy back on track.”
Watch the video HERE
Cantor's Colleagues Believe He Has Sights Set Higher Than Congress
CNN
November 12, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/12/gop.cantor/index.html
As Republicans swept the top three offices in Democratic-leaning Virginia last week, Rep. Eric Cantor was in Richmond, shaking hands with supporters and rallying GOP troops as he proclaimed, "The Republican resurgence begins tonight."
He was also taking notes.
In an election that Republicans claim is an indicator that the American electorate is unnerved with the sweeping changes President Obama and congressional Democrats are making in Washington, the GOP sees an opportunity in the 2010 congressional midterm elections, where one in three Senate seats and every seat in the House of Representatives will be on the ballot.
"We're going to take the model that worked in Virginia, so we can unite our party and begin to appeal to independents with solutions that affect our lives," Cantor told reporters in a Richmond ballroom shortly before Bob McDonnell was projected to be the state's next governor.
Jumping from one interview with a television reporter to the next, Cantor showed why as the No. 2 House Republican he is his party's most visible congressman. Cantor, a lawyer, is nearing his tenth year in Washington, almost 18 years after he left his family's real estate business to enter politics as a Virginia state legislator.
Now the House minority whip, Cantor is tasked with keeping his party together on votes, a job often described -- on both sides of the aisle -- as herding cats.
Cantor is also one of his party's biggest fundraisers, which earns him loyalty from fellow GOP members who help him deliver results such as the unanimous House Republican vote against Obama's stimulus package in February and a near-unanimous vote last weekend against a Democratic health care reform bill. Only one Republican sided with Democrats.
The future of his party, battered after two elections that have grown the Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress and put a Democrat in the White House, depends on returning to Republican roots of fiscal discipline, Cantor says. And, he adds, the GOP message must be positive.
"It really is about that optimism that the people are looking for again. And what the people are hearing out of Washington is not that," he said outside the Virginia state house in Richmond.
Cantor says the key to winning over coveted independents is convincing them Republicans have real-world solutions to kitchen table issues, "because people are afraid. They're afraid that their futures won't be anywhere near where their pasts were. They're afraid that their children will not have as good of a life as they had."
Democrats have few kind words for Eric Cantor as he fashions his message for a Republican comeback, except for one: his wife.
Diana Cantor hails from a staunchly Democratic family in Florida and met Cantor on a blind date while both were living in New York, where he was earning a master's degree from Columbia University. After 20 years of marriage and three children, Cantor still holds out hope that he can politically convert his wife.
"I think I'm working her over," he says. On fiscal issues, perhaps, but not on hot button social issues, the anti-abortion Republican admits.
"She is very much on different sides of some issues than I am," he says. Cantor looks younger than his 46 years and is a tireless politician, frequently texting with his staff late at night. He's the only Jewish Republican in the House, even keeping kosher. He surrounds himself with a driven staff that effectively furthers his profile. But pressed on his future plans, Cantor is modest, shrugging off questions about whether he will run for President in 2012.
What about 2016? "I'm not running for president," Cantor says. Privately, though, even his Republican colleagues suspect he has set his sights very high.
At the moment, Cantor's work is far from finished in the House, a fact made clear as he wraps up a phone call with one of his deputy whips just hours before the House vote on health care reform.
"It's likely we could stop this bill from moving forward," Cantor says as he strategizes about how to convince a few Democrats in right-leaning districts to vote no alongside Republicans.
But as he hangs up the phone, he sighs, perhaps exhausted by the futility of being at an 81-vote disadvantage. Hours later, the bill passes, even though 39 Democrats join Republicans in voting against it.
It is a tough spot to be in, even for the disciplined and ambitious Cantor.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement in response to the White House announcing a job summit.
"Since January, House Republicans have been focused on jobs. Hopefully the White House Summit is a sign that the Administration is finally ready to join us in providing real solutions that will get Americans back to work. During discussion of the stimulus bill, House Republicans put forward a proposal to reduce the tax burden on our nation’s job creators: small businesses. Our proposal would have created twice the jobs at half the cost. The Democratic majority rejected this approach.
During the spring, summer, and fall we met with small business owners who made clear that the new mandates and taxes being proposed by the Democratic majority make it impossible for them to grow and expand. Yet the Democratic majority pursued these policies anyway, ignoring Republican ideas and solutions to get Americans working again.
This morning, the White House said they were "shaking every tree" for solutions. If the White House is sincere in that goal, I welcome their consideration of Republican ideas and solutions to get people working again."
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement commemorating Veterans Day.
"All Americans and residents of the Commonwealth take today to reflect, salute, and remember the men and women who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for our great nation.
"We salute the courage, resolve, and love of country exemplified by those who wore our nation's uniform - those whom returned to their families, and those who did not. We celebrate and embrace them all, from those of the greatest generation who served in World War II, to those who defend our freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan today, to those we've only read about in the pages of our nation's rise.
"We remember those who were called upon by country to give all that a person can give, and their families who shared in that sacrifice. We know that what they gave to us is impossible to repay and are forever grateful.
"Through the resolve and gallantry of our nation's veterans, our great country carries on the noble cause for which they championed - liberty. And may we do everything in our power to make every day a day for veterans."
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with area businesses and seek further information about possible job opportunities.
“As we approach the holiday season, many families in our community continue to need help getting back to work. This summer, we held a very successful job fair in Richmond that brought together over 3,500 job seekers with over 80 employers. I hope that our Culpeper job fair will build on this effort to give even more Virginians the chance to get their lives back on track.”
Those interested in more information or being a part of the Job Fair can visit http://cantor.house.gov/jobfair/
As of November 10th, the following businesses are participating in the job Fair:
*Adams & Garth Staffing and Executive Search
*Banker's Life & Casualty Co.
*Clear Point Credit Counseling
*Comcast
*County of Culpeper
*Culpeper Baptist Retirement Community
*Culpeper County Sheriff's Office
*Culpeper Regional Hospital
*Farmers Insurance
*FBI
*Financial Academy
*Grand Canyon University
*Hopper's Internet Store
*Modern Woodmen of America/MWA Financial Services
*Orange County Public Schools
*Plow & Hearth
*RSHT
*Spotsylvania County Schools
*Terremark Worldwide
*The Boar's Head
*Transportation Security Administration - Dulles
*U.S. Air Force
*U.S. Army/Culpeper Recruiting Station
*United States Secret Service
*University of Virginia
*Virginia Department of Labor and Industry/Division of Registered Apprenticeship
*Virginia Employment Commission
*Virginia Troops to Teachers
*Wachovia, a Wells Fargo Company
###
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) this evening made the following remarks on the House floor in opposition to the Democrat's health care bill, and in support of the Republican alternative.
Mr. Speaker, today brings the culmination of an extensive and spirited debate over health care reform. Both parties agree that the status quo is unacceptable. Obviously, we disagree on how to fix what's broken. And as the gentleman from New York just said, there are times in this body when we really can tell the difference between us Republicans and you Democrats, and this is certainly one of them. Mr. Speaker, the Democrat solution is a 1,990-page, trillion dollar overhaul of the health care system we know. A sweeping new entitlement that raises taxes, cuts benefits to seniors, and Mr. Speaker, it spends over a trillion dollars that we don't have.
Republicans believe there is a better way. We have proposed an alternative approach that offers a stark contrast to the majority's plan. It is a fiscally responsible and reasoned approach. The majority's proposal overturns the whole system. We keep what works and then try to fix what's wrong. Their bill puts the government between families and their doctors, ours doesn't. Their plan cuts Medicare benefits to seniors, ours retains them. Their proposal blows a hole in the deficit, ours actually saves money. Their bill imposes penalties and mandates on our small businesses that costs jobs, ours does not. Specifically Mr. Speaker, our bill will help you access health care if you lose or change your job. And it will ensure that you have access to medical care if you have a pre-existing condition. And we also, Mr. Speaker, deliver on something that the majority refuses to even talk about, and that's real meaningful medical liability reform. And most importantly Mr. Speaker, we produce cost savings for workers, families, and small businesses.
The Congressional Budget Office says that the Democrat's new government-run system won't reduce costs. C.B.O. says our legislation lowers health care costs. In fact, C.B.O. says that the Republican plan cuts premiums by up to 10% for employees covered by small businesses, up to 8% for those not covered by employers, and up to 3% for employees covered by large businesses. Mr. Speaker in the face of 10.2% unemployment, Americans want jobs. They want less government spending and more economic security. The majority's bill shows they have not listened, ours shows we have. Interestingly Mr. Speaker, the only bipartisanship on Capitol Hill today will be in opposition to Speaker Pelosi's trillion dollar plus government overhaul of America's health care system. And with that Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the substitute, and I yield back.
To view the remarks click here.
- House Republican Whip Eric Cantor
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
NBC's "Today Show"
November 7, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeQyUQOVEQY
On Bipartisanship:
“I think what’s instructive is to look and see where the bipartisanship is surrounding this health care bill, and the bipartisanship is around objecting and opposing the bill that Steny Hoyer is speaking about…. “Why is it that maybe 40 some of his members are going to join Republicans in opposing this bill? I think the answer is, there has been a message sent by the voters in this country as recently as this Tuesday. People across this country are extremely concerned about what Washington is doing to them, not for them.”
Contrasting The Health Care Bills:
“What we should do is take into account that people watching this morning. These are moms and dads taking care of their family, having breakfast together on a Saturday morning. What is it that the Democrats’ bill will do? What is it that the Republican bill will do?
“One bill on the Democrat side will put the government between families and their doctor. The Republican bill won’t. One bill will make it so there is a trillion dollars worth of spending and increase the deficit more than we’ve ever seen before. The other will actually save money and lower health care costs. The CBO says that the Republican plan will actually reduce insurance premiums. And finally, one bill will ensure that we take a smart, reasoned approach to improving the system we have, and the Democratic approach is to overhaul the entire system and create an entirely new government program that folks will have to adapt to. I think that’s the perspective and the important point, which is, ‘why are we seeing such a large bipartisan vote against this bill?’ There will not be a bipartisan vote for this bill.”
Click HERE to view the entire interview
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, raising the unemployment rate to 10.2%:
“As unemployment tops 10 percent this holiday season, Republicans have put jobs and the economy first, and are focused on developing real solutions that will put Americans back to work. Increasing taxes on small business, as Democrats will do to pay for government run health care, is the wrong approach. Instead, we should work to empower small businesses to hire more workers, not penalize them further, costing even Americans their jobs."
Americans, particularly those with friends, neighbors, and family out of work, are pleading with leaders in Washington to focus on jobs and the economy. From coast to coast, people are concerned with the direction that Washington is heading, and are tired of the spending, tired of the waste, and are pleading for their leaders to focus on jobs and the economy.
“With millions of Americans desperately seeking work, I ask the President put the economy first, and sit down with Republicans to develop bipartisan solutions that will change the direction of this economy and get people working again.”
– House Republican Whip Eric Cantor
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports"
November 5, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED4QM-5LAhM
Rep. Eric Cantor: Andrea, great to be on with you. Let me first try and address the issue of pre-existing conditions first. The speaker is flat out wrong. Our bill does address the situation. We don't want to see people with pre-existing conditions denied coverage. We go about it in a different way. In fact we go about it the same way the Democrats goes about it in the first couple years of their bill. We go about creating high-risk pools called universal access programs at the state level. And what that means is people with pre-existing conditions will not see interruption of their coverage, period. So, that's flat-out wrong by the Speaker.
Andrea Mitchell: If I'm correct, your bill would not specifically say that insurance companies could not discriminate? It puts people in pools, yes, but that's putting them into the marketplace.
Rep. Cantor: Andrea, that's not true. Our bill specifically creates universal access programs mandates them at the state level, requiring insurance companies to participate in them and by doing so these insurance companies will go and purchase reinsurance to ensure that the pre-existing situation condition does not avoid coverage. I want to be very clear about that because that's been a misstatement several days this week and the Speaker is flat out wrong about that.
Click HERE to view the entire interview
Click Here To View
Transcript For “Responsible Reform”
Rep. Eric Cantor: For the last 9 months, we've heard endless debate about health care reform.
We've seen this debate played out in Congress, and in town halls across this great country.
The Democrats' solution? A 1,990 page bill calling for a trillion dollar overhaul. This bill will replace the system we know with one we don't.
We can all agree that the status quo is unacceptable, but we differ on the solutions. Republicans have long felt there is a smarter, more reasoned approach.
And here it is: Our bill. We believe in a fiscally responsible, incremental approach to health care reform. One that increases access to affordable health care without raising taxes, cutting benefits to seniors, or spending money we don’t have. That's what a majority of Americans want, and that's what our bill does.
Specifically, our bill will:
- Lower costs for workers, families, and small businesses
- Help you access health care if you lose or change your job
- And ensure that you have access to medical care if you've got a pre-existing condition
Our bill will also deliver on something the Democrats refuse to even talk about: Real, meaningful medical liability reform. Americans want jobs, less government spending and more economic security. Their bill shows Democrats haven’t listened. Our bill shows we have. Thanks for watching.
(Learn more: at http://republicanwhip.house.gov)
– House Republican Whip Eric Cantor
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Fox News' "Fox & Friends"
November 4, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQaS-BGO0SQ
On Health Care Reform:
"First of all, I would say to my Democratic friends across the aisle, they ought to take note of these elections. The American people are not going to take to the negative kind of politics they’re trying to practice here. The Republican alternative is very straight forward. We are aiming to lower health care costs, and we will see that the Congressional Budget Office will validate our claims that our plan does just that. And what we are trying to do is trying to fix what’s wrong with the system and trying preserve what’s right, versus what you see in the Pelosi Obama Plan, which is a trillion dollar overhaul of the system. Which will lead us to a single payer health care, nationalize our system and is paid for by taxing businesses and people who have health insurance. It’s paid for on the backs of seniors, which cuts Medicare by over 500 billion dollars and frankly it aggravates the deficit beyond that we can even imagine."
On the Road Ahead:
"No question Brian, we’re very excited here in Virgina, and I think that the victories last night here and in New Jersey indicate that when Republicans stand united we can win, whether it is in a northern state or a southern state, and we can appeal to the independent voters. What’s important to take out of these elections is that voters in both states were very concerned about the direction of the economy and rejected out of hand the economic policies being pursued by the White House and Speaker Pelosi."
On Conservative Solutions:
"…My local paper here, The Richmond Times-Dispatch, said that it was sunny conservatism that won the day, that united people. I think that is a great way of putting it. Bob McDonnell ran a positive, solutions-oriented campaign. That was in stark contrast to the democrat campaign here by Creigh Deeds that was nothing but the politics of personal attack and destruction. The voters of this state rejected that kind of politics and the same thing goes for New Jersey. Chris Christie was about solutions to the high taxes in that state, the fiscal situation, and the job situation there, where as the Corzine Campaign, backed by the Obama White House, was nothing but an attack machine going after Chris Christie personally and trying to malign his reputation and the Republicans."
On Spending and the Deficit:
"…When you see the level of spending that has occurred over the last nine months or ten months in Washington, people are aghast. They cannot imagine the deficit we are incurring and the resulting debt that will be placed on our children and their grandchildren. As people around their kitchen tables are wondering how they get through the month, it is a disconnect to see Washington go through the kind of spending that it is incurring."
Watch The Video HERE.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement as the Administration claimed that its stimulus “created or saved” at least 1 million jobs:
“Americans, particularly those with friends and family out of work, know that the Administration's claims of stimulus success and jobs 'saved' or created are not serious.
“With unemployment approaching 10 percent this holiday season, and millions of jobs lost since the stimulus became law, we must focus on what is most important and prioritize the way that Washington spends.
“Our Republican Economic Solutions Group is hard at work developing serious solutions that will put Americans back to work. Our focus is on key areas of the economy, including: the ongoing credit crunch facing small businesses and real estate; the cost of unemployment tax increases; growing and massive budget deficits driven by unbridled Washington spending; and the uncertain environment created by the Administration’s overreach on policies that simply should be not our top priority while millions of Americans out of work.”
“With unemployment approaching 10 percent this holiday season, and millions of jobs lost since the stimulus became law, we must focus on what is most important and prioritize the way that Washington spends.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement as the Administration claimed that its stimulus “created or saved” at least 1 million jobs:
“Americans, particularly those with friends and family out of work, know that the Administration's claims of stimulus success and jobs 'saved' or created are not serious.
“With unemployment approaching 10 percent this holiday season, and millions of jobs lost since the stimulus became law, we must focus on what is most important and prioritize the way that Washington spends.
“Our Republican Economic Solutions Group is hard at work developing serious solutions that will put Americans back to work. Our focus is on key areas of the economy, including: the ongoing credit crunch facing small businesses and real estate; the cost of unemployment tax increases; growing and massive budget deficits driven by unbridled Washington spending; and the uncertain environment created by the Administration’s overreach on policies that simply should be not our top priority while millions of Americans out of work.”